We are delighted to announce that Charley Barnes has taken on the role of Secretary for LitFest. Charley brings her many and various talents to bear on programming, and the website, as well as the more traditional aspects of secretarial duties.
Polly Stretton, who has been our secretary for the past four years, will focus on the LitFest competition co-ordinator role in addition to being one of the directors of LitFest.
We wish both Charley and Polly good luck in these essential areas.
This prestigious literary prize was forged by the dwarves of Poundsaver and presented to the funniest performer at Rubber Swordplay: Kieran Davis, better known as baldypoems.
The event was hosted to much hilarity by local charlatan Tony Judge.
Congratulations Kieran.
Excellent news!
Following a close fought battle, our congratulations go to Suz Winspear, the new Worcestershire Poet Laureate. Further, it was announced on Saturday that Suz is also the Poet In Residence for the Museum of Royal Worcester, and, as if that were not enough, Suz took the runner up slot in the LitFest Flash Fiction competition!
…and our fab LitFest Flash Fiction winners are:
Flash Fiction Results 2016
FIRST: Susan Howe – A Sleeping Partner
SECOND: Suz Winspear – A Day In The New Paradise
THIRD: Santino Prinzi – Corrections
Congratulations to all three of you and commiserations to all the other entrants, we had some amazing work sent in, a shame there can be only three prizes.
We’ll be announcing the launch date for the anthology soon.
You are invited to attend an intimate ‘Poetry Salon’ at The Old Rectifying House, North Parade, Worcester WR1 3NN Thursday 19 May 2016 – doors open @ 19:00
The Poetry Salon will run from 19:30-20:30 with an open mic event running alongside this in the upper room. Tickets £3.00
Poetry Salons are a relatively new style of performance poetry event that have been making their way across Europe in recent years. They involve a small selection of poets – in this case there will be six available to choose from – making themselves available for one-to-one performances with audience members who wish to visit them.
For The Worcestershire LitFest & Fringe’s first Poetry Salon – led by Charley Barnes – the situation will be similar to the above format. The doors will open at 7pm and the audience given a ‘menu’ of poet biographies to browse through before the salon opens at 7.30pm.
To entertain those not attending the Poetry Salon, the open mic event takes place upstairs; to book a four minute spot please email secretary@worcslitfest.co.uk
The salon will work by allowing only a certain number of people into the salon at one time. You will be able to select three poets from their biographies and spend 15 minutes in the salon.
Get your ticket here: 
Don’t forget to print out your PayPal receipt and bring it along, this is your ticket!
A chance to enjoy an informal creative writing workshop with Claire Walker, based on the theme of ‘Appearances.’ Appropriate for all levels of experience.
Tickets £7.50 each
10:30-12:30 Sunday 3 April 2016 at St John’s Library, Glebe Close, St John’s, Worcester WR2 5AX
Refreshments will be provided.
To book a place click on the PayPal button, make your payment, print and bring the receipt along with you, this is your ticket.
Queries? Contact: secretary@worcslitfest.co.uk
Two pieces of news from LitFest.
First, our newest Director is Ruth Inglis. Ruth has been a committee member and has maintained contact with LitFest since its inception. We are delighted to welcome her as a Director. We wish Maggie Doyle, who has moved on to focus on her own writing, all the very best for the future and thank her for her contributions over the past three years.
Our newest recruit is Charlotte ‘Charley’ Barnes.
Charley is a Worcestershire based writer and poet who enjoys crime fiction, gender studies, and tea (but struggles to get all of these things into her poetry). She is currently studying towards her PhD in Creative Writing and English Literature and, alongside her own studies, she also teaches a number of Creative Writing workshops around the West Midlands, where she is an active member of the performance poetry scene.
Charley will be helping Ruth with Social Media, PR and press releases. Look out for her Tweets starting at the March SpeakEasy.
Welcome Charley 🙂
