Report on Previous Year’s Activities
- Pens supported the Kings Youth Theatre Save Our Seas showcase, providing a workshop for the performers to write their own work, and also a number of written pieces (both new and from our website) to be performed. Our involvement was lead by Alison Habens, with support from Christine Lawrence, Vin Adams and a number of our other volunteers. The showcases took place at the Kings Theatre in June.
- School Streets workshops were devised by Vin Adams and Christine Lawrence in collaboration with Jenni Jones of Sustrans.
- Workshops were taught by Christine Lawrence, Margaret Jennings and Jenni Jones at St. Johns Cathedral Catholic Primary School (Summer term, 2022), Meon Junior School (Autumn 2022). They were well received and the feedback from the schools was most encouraging.
- Our publication themes last year were Life Under the Surface and Making Places for People. The submission window ran from June to September, selection and editing and publication ran from October to December.
- We welcomed three new volunteers to our Comms Team: Rachel Birchley (Facebook), Barbara Claridge (Twitter) and Jane Andreoli (press releases and articles). Our Comms Team ran weekly promotions during the submission window, and publication window, and sent out press releases to announce these events.
- Website and promotional content included inspiration articles, photos and videos from local environmentalists and some short creative guidance ‘how to’ videos from local writers. All videos are on our YouTube channel.
- We published 10 poems, 7 stories and 2 non-fiction. Reception was excellent. It’s noticeable that our regional reach is expanding. With authors from London and Suffolk. There was a lovely article about it published in Star and Crescent, written by Jane Andreoli.
- Pens of the Earth opened for Bench Theatre’s play Bob and Doris are Not Afraid at the Spring, showcasing work from our 2022 themes. We were grateful to a number of our writers who stepped up to perform, to Vin Adams for running a performance workshop, and to our invited environmental speakers. We raised £67.21 for ‘Seagrass Restoration’ and ‘Wilder Hampshire and Isle of Wight’.
- Pens of the Earth were invited to perform at the Plastics Future Conference on 20th and 22nd June. Alison Habens reports.
- Helen Salsbury was interviewed for a UKRI-funded project led by the University of Portsmouth called Diverse Marine Values. She was filmed in Eastney, with the sea in the background, talking about Pens of the Earth and the value of the coast and environment for writers and for creative practice. She also slipped in quite a lot of info about the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project and marine environmental protection issues. Clips from the interview may be featured in a documentary film to be released later this year. She was also interviewed for an LSE research project about our relationship with the sea, similar topics were covered.
- Helen Salsbury gave a Zoom presentation about Pens of the Earth to a Sheffield Sustainability Group in April.
- An initial investigation into what it would take (and cost) to publish a Pens of the Earth anthology has been conducted and local book designer Christine Hammacott has been consulted. The Solent Seagrass Restoration Project have also been consulted. An anthology poll was sent out to all our writers, to determine what support there would be for this.
Results of anthology poll
We asked all of our 40 contributors whether they would be in favour of fundraising to create an anthology of existing work. We have had 24 replies:
- 24 agreed to have their work published in an anthology, with all profits going to an environmental charity.
- 22 agreed to support/share fundraising efforts.
- 3 pledged money.
- 12 offered to assist in some way (including offering rewards, writing articles, promoting the book, suggesting a sponsored litter pick).
Thanks to everyone who offered support. We are going ahead with the anthology.
Plans for the Coming Year
Anthology
Our priority will be fundraising for the anthology, following this AGM we intend to set up a bank account and establish a fundraising team (using the responses from our anthology poll to identify potential team members). We will also be responding to individuals to take them up on their offers and suggestions, once the inaugural fundraising meeting has been held.
We are aiming for publication in 2024. All proceeds from the sales of the anthology will go to the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project.
Pens as Conference Case Study
Thanks to Vin Adams, Pens of the Earth has been accepted for use as a case study at the ‘Storytelling for Health and Wellbeing’ conference in Cardiff, later this year. The date for this conference has not yet been set.