We launched our book project at the King’s Theatre in Southsea, Portsmouth at 18:00 on Mon 9 Oct 2023.
Thanks to everyone who made our launch night so successful. It was lovely to see you all, and a great start for the project.
As well as introducing our book, crowdfunder and competition, we shared information about the Solent Seagrass Restoration Project (all proceeds from our book sales will go to this vital organisation) and were much struck by your free-write responses: beautiful, imaginative and moving. Thank you, writers!
For anyone who wasn’t there, and wants to have a go, just read the Solent Seagrass Restoration talk we gave, making a mental note of anything you might want to use, and then write for 5-10 minutes allowing your imagination free range. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
If anyone wants to share what they wrote (either at the launch night or afterwards) do please share it on our Facebook or Twitter pages! We’d love to hear from you.
Thanks to everyone who brought books (what a great selection we ended up with!) and who browsed our second-hand book-stall, we raised £69.20 and got to go home with some wonderful new reads.
We introduced our new ‘Community’ themed writing competition with a talk on ‘What does community mean to you?’. This includes quotes and guidance from both our judges, so do check it out!
The competition will be judged by Toby Litt (short story) and Richard Williams (poetry). It runs until 14th January 2024. To enter, check out our rules.
A variety of extracts from previous Pens of the Earth stories and poems were read, often these were chosen because they had something to say about collaborative community action. Thanks to all our performers and authors:
- Nigra Bamboo, Maggie Sawkins
- The Street Party, Christine Lawrence – Streets for People
- Compost Heap, Sue Harper
- A Year of Lily’s Sunflowers, Annie Kirby – Streets for People
- Two Gardens, Richard Williams – Seeking the 2020 Rainbow
- Southsea Green Community Garden, Irene Strange – Seeking the 2020 Rainbow
- Guard them Gardenz – Sue Spiers, read by Richard Williams.
- Better Shape, Richard Salsbury
- The Musings of a Grey Cloud, Souyma Jasthi, read by Maggie Sawkins
- Guest Reader: Tom Sykes, talking about discoveries made while researching Coast of Teeth.
Thanks to everyone who volunteered your time to make this possible. Particular thanks to Vin (Compere), Andrew Larder (Crowdfunder host and Competition Secretary), Richard Williams (book stall), Christine Lawrence (host) and to all our performers and helpers on the night.
If you want to help support our Book Project, please check out our Crowdfunder, or support our sponsored litter pick.