women’s poetry events

Want to get published? Submit to the Loose Muse anthology…

February 18, 2014 by loosemuse Leave a Comment

Hi all,

Just a quick reminder about our deadline for the next anthology. We’ve already published a number of these gorgeous collections, and if you want to get your work published you’re in with a great chance. As you know, you have to have attended at least one LM event to be eligible, but with our *new* Manchester and Cornwall based events opening up the pool of writers, we’re expecting some fab new work to start pouring in. So why not get in there early?

Deadline for Submissions for the next Anthology – 7^th March.

If you have attended any Loose Muse event at any time during the past couple of months, you can submit poetry, short stories, flash fiction, a short play, or even an excerpt of your unpublished novel. Email me (agnespoet@googlemail.com) your submission or give a hard copy to me, Steph in Manchester or Angela or Fiona in Penzance. Launches for this new Anthology will be held in all three places late April. It’s going to be the best yet!

Fancy using your writing skills to raise money for charity?

Jean-Marc Pierson (orfray@hotmail.com) is organising a public speaking/spoken word contest to raise funds for UNICEF – with special thoughts for the children of Syria.

Find five friends who would be prepared to give £5.00 each – then register to take part in the:

ONE MINUTE SPEECH CHALLENGE @ 2.00 p.m.

Saturday 22nd February @ Resource for London,

365 Holloway Road, Islington N7 6PA

For more information and how to register:

http://www.jeanmarcpierson.com/events/2014/2/22/the-one-minute-challenge

A great cause, and an energetic social afternoon to help the children of Syria.

So that’s the latest update. Here’s hoping this awful weather will let up and spring to start boinging about like Tigger.

Love,

Agnes

Filed Under: Loose Muse Event Tagged With: Agnes Meadows, anthology, charity, free submission, literature, Loose Muse, Loose Muse anthology launch, Manchester, poetry, raise money, submissions, Syria, UNICEF, women's poetry events, women's writing anthology

Finding inspiration in the bleak mid winter

January 16, 2014 by loosemuse 2 Comments

The view from my window… I wish.

Hi gang,

Now that Christmas is well and truly over and 2014 has got off to a wet and windy start, I’ve been thinking about some of the things I’d like to accomplish in the New Year. M OK, OK yes, top of the list is regaining my girlish figure…again!! But much more important, and more likely to be achieved, is the following 5-point plan:

Given The Famous Novel (working title ‘The Book of Betrayals’) is in the last stages of first draft completion, I want to start planning the sequel, provisionally called ‘The Book of Journeys’. This will tell how my heroine goes back to Constantinople, journeying across a Christendom tearing itself to pieces on the eve of the 3^rd Crusade, to reconcile her past with her future. More research I guess, but hopefully it’ll be worth it when it’s done.
Start writing my next book, NOT historical, but a fantasy novel, working title ‘The Conference of Dragons’. This will be about…yes, you got it…dragons.
Spend a lot more time lazing on a Greek beach and remembering how much I love Greece and the Greek people. It really is one of my favourite places, and always makes me feel as if the Greeks really have got the meaning of life absolutely nailed.
Spending a lot more time with friends, especially those I’ve known for most of my life and whom I’ve neglected shamefully over the past few years. We always think that those we love will almost be there at the end of the phone whenever we want. But having lost a few old friends in the last 12 months, I know this isn’t true. I’ve reached the age where people I’ve known for a long time are dying, which is a sobering thought on so many levels. This novel-writing lark has turned me into a proper recluse, but that’s no excuse to forget about the people who love me and not to be in touch more. We are all mortal, and life’s too short for ‘”If only I’d taken the time and trouble…..”.
And lasting, organize a few more Loose Muse events + get more funding for it, so I can spread the net even wider, both in terms of sister-events in other parts of the country, and also getting a wider spread of writers to feature. I’d also really like to strengthen the publishing element of Loose Muse so that I can publish pamphlets and collections by women writers who haven’t yet had a collection published. I can think of lots of incredibly talented women writers who fall into this category, and want to get those off the ground once I’ve been able secure funding to make it happen. So definitely watch this space for this idea.

And talking of Loose Muse, the event on February 12^th is already looming on the horizon. February features will be novelist Sally Spedding coming from Wales, and the multi-talented Hilaire. So join us on February 12^th at the Poetry Café.

Come along and share the magic.

Love,

Agnes

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Agnes Meadows, literature, Loose Muse, poetry, women's poetry events, women's writing

Feeling competitive? Get your work out there…

November 18, 2013 by loosemuse 3 Comments

Hi gang,

This month instead of blogging about life and the meaning of the universe, I thought I’d highlight a few writing competitions, and give people a chance to enter if they wanted to. I get information on all sorts of different comps and don’t always have the chance to pass the information on, or even to enter myself, so the least I can do is make a list of some of them here.

Words and Women – A new prize for writing women in the East of England

1^st Prize – £600 – winner and runners up feature in Words & Women’s flagship anthology.

Deadline: 30^th November

Judges are looking for distinctive work, crafted, strong, creative and adventurous. Open to all women living in the east of England, over the age of 16 – short fiction, memoir, life writing and creative non-fiction, up to 3,000 words. For more information go to www.wordsandwomennorwich.blogspot.co.uk

South Bank Poetry – 2^nd SBP Poetry competition

1^st Prize – £200, 2^nd £125, 3^rd £50. 4^th Prize a 2-year subscription to SBP mag, 5^th 1-year subscription + all published in the SBP Edition 18 in 2014. Judge – Clare Pollard

Deadline: 30^th November

Entry fee £3 per poem. No entry form required, send 2 copies of each poem, one anonymous, one with name & e/contact details to: Peter Ebsworth, South Bank Poetry, 74 Sylvan Rd, London SE19 2RZ. Cheques/postal orders payable to Peter Ebsworth.

Ink Tears Short Story Competition 2013

1^st Prize – £1,000, runner up £100, 4 Highly Commended £25 + the chance to have your collection of short stories published by InkTears.

Deadline: 30^th November

Submissions must be 1,000-3,000 words in English, on any theme. Entrants must be 18 years or over. Each submission must be accompanied by £6.00 entry fee, payable via Paypal.

Full entry Rules on – www.inktears.com/Inktears/WritersNewWritersContest.html

The Plough Open Poetry Competition 2013

1^st Prize – £1,000, 2^nd £500, 3^rd £250. Judge – Sir Andrew Motion

Deadline: 31^st November

Submissions no more than 40 lines, typed single-space in standard 10-12pt font, one-sided on A4 with no identifying marks. Entry fee of £5 per poem, cheques in stirling payable to The Plough Arts Centre.

An entry form must accompany each entry downloadable from www.theploughprize.co.uk

Words for the Wounded Writing Prize

1^st Prize – £250, 2^nd £100, 3^rd £50 + all winners published in Writers’ Forum.

Deadline: 11 March 2014

Words for the Wounded is a charity for the rehabilitation of wounded servicemen & women.

Write no more than 400 words of fiction, or a real-life tale, or poem, on the theme of The Journey, a physical or emotional journey. For more info look at: www.wordsforthewounded.co.uk

I know there are lots of writing competitions happening all the time – maybe it’s about time Loose Muse started its own in 2014 – but these are some to get you all writing, and maybe it’ll be a Loose Muse supporter who actually wins. Hooray.

Next Loose Muse is on December 11^th, with Manchester poet Rebecca Smith and romantic crime novelist Claire Dunn, so it promises to be another good one you’ll be sorry to miss.

So come along and share the passion, share the joy,

Love – Agnes

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 1st Prize, Agnes Meadows, competitions, literature, Loose Muse, Peter Ebsworth, Poetry competition, South Bank Poetry, women's poetry events, women's writing, writing, writing competitions

THINGS GOING BUMP AND OTHER PUMPKIN HEADS

November 7, 2013 by loosemuse Leave a Comment

The pumpkin decapitator strikes again!

The lights were low, the atmosphere was spooky, and the stories and poems were straight out of the Hammer Studios. No, not a scene from ‘Britain’s Most Haunted…’, but the Loose Muse Pre-Hallowe’en Special Gothic Open Mic Night. Well, being a closet Goth, what else was I going to do for an extra Loose Muse event at the end of October but add a dash of Dracula and the chance to hear some truly horrible writing in the run-up to Hallowe’en.

And we had a good night with lots of variations on the dreadful, the doom-laden and the down-right scary. For my money Niki Aguirre’s nightmare short story about a woman who dreams of being followed by a faceless Man In Black was one of the high spots, although it did mean I slept with the light on when I went to bed. That’s the trouble with having such a vivid imagination (and having trained as a psychic…yes, really!), it means every creaking floorboard, cold draft and odd noise in the night freaks me right out.

Having said all that, October is still my favourite month, and Hallowe’en one of the celebrations I enjoy most. Just to set the record straight for those who’ve been led to believe it’s a night of unparalleled evil and devil worship, Hallowe’en has its origins in the ancient Celtic festival known as Samhain, which was a celebration of the end of the harvest season, and a preparation for the darkness of winter. It is an ancient festival when the boundaries between the worlds of the living and the dead are at their thinnest, and the passage between the two worlds is easiest. It was also a way for people to celebrate their ancestors and to get in touch with those who had passed over. So yes, it was sometimes on the scary side (imagine sitting on a hillside in the October darkness centuries ago, with midnight approaching, waiting for that doorway to open and reveal….well, you get the picture!!).

But it had nothing to do with vampires, evil hauntings or devils waiting to snatch your soul away. That came much later with the church’s hunger for control and power, plus the commercialization that have turned it into what it is today.

When I lived in Canada (about a million years ago), my pals and I had a great variation on the ‘trick or treat’ game where children would knock on your door and ask for sweeties. Instead, we went ‘trick or drinking’, so every door we knocked on in down-town Vancouver was offered the chance to give us a drink or be ‘tricked’ in some way. Of course, we didn’t really trick anyone, and by the end of the night we were absolutely plastered. But we had a great time, and everyone we had a drink with thought it was as much fun as we did. It’s a different world now of course; if a bunch of strangers turned up at my door one night demanding alcohol, I’d probably call the police! Aaaah…the innocence of youth.

Anyway, only a few more days to the November Loose Muse, which will be held on the 13^th, and feature poet Jacqueline Gabbitas and writer Leah Thorn. It’s going to be another good one – when are they not – so I hope you can come along and share some of your work with us, be it ghostly, ghoulish or just plain great.

So come along and share the passion, share the joy.

Love,

Agnes

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Agnes Meadows, Hallowe’en, Hammer Studios, literature, Loose Muse, Niki Aguirre, open mic, poetry, poetry reading, women's poetry events, writing

THE NATIONAL HEALTH WAS NEVER LIKE THIS IN 1177

October 23, 2013 by loosemuse Leave a Comment

You’ll never look at this the same way again…

As any of you who have ever tried writing a historical novel will know, you have to do a truck load of research to make sure you get all the dates, facts and figures right so your story is as accurate and colourful as possible. This is both a pleasure and a problem. A pleasure because you learn an awful lot more about the era your story’s set in and the characters living at the time. A problem because:

a) it’s never ending, and

b) you also unearth some truly weird, wacky and wonderful stuff – thus the subject of this blog, specifically stuff relating to health and medicine.

My novel’s set in the 12^th Century (it opens in 1177) – a time of supreme brutality, violence and weirdness. If I had a £5 note for each time something I had read in the course of my research had made me exclaim out loud ‘Get out of here. No way!’ (or mother colourful words to that effect), I could go on a long holiday somewhere warm and sun-kissed.

I’ve already blogged about weasel testicles being used as a method of contraception, but check these facts out:

To ward off plague, tie a shaved live chicken to the groin. It doesn’t say whether you could eventually eat it with roast turnips, or how long you were supposed to keep said chicken tied to said groin.
The church decreed sex was not to be indulged in for pleasure even within marriage, and people were not allowed to make love on Sundays, Holy Days, Feast Days, or during Lent, pregnancy or menstruation. If these rules were disobeyed, deformed children or lepers would result. Which explains a great deal about the state of the nation!!
To cure toothache, the ancient Egyptians suggested you should cut a mouse in half and place the half rodent on the afflicted tooth. It doesn’t actually say which half, but I suspect this tip probably worked because you’d be vomiting so much you’d forget all about the toothache.

I could go on, but that’s probably enough to put you offer your dinner so I’ll stop.

My aim was to get this novel finished by Christmas and so far I’ve finished just over 100,000 words, and it looks as if I might actually achieve my goal. Hooray!!! I’ve become such a recluse while writing this novel, I’m surprised people still recognise me on the rare occasion I turn up at gigs. And I’ve hardly written any poetry in the past year…too busy living in the 12^th Century with my head in a totally different place. There are other things I want to write, including my fantasy novel ‘The Conference of Dragons’ which has been smoking away on the bookshelf of my imagination for a long time now…so, as usual, watch this space.

In the meantime, don’t forget we’re having a Special Pre Hallowe’en Gothic Loose Muse Open Mic at the L’Osteria Restaurant in Greys Inn Road, London on Tuesday 29^th October – 7.30 p.m. £5 donations would be very much appreciated to keep things moving until I can get some more funding. And the next Loose Muse is on November 13^th and features Leah Thorn and Jaqueline Gabbitas.

So come along and share the passion, share the joy.

Love

Agnes

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Agnes Meadows, Loose Muse, poetry, poetry reading, women's poetry events, women's writing, writing

Some pics from the big event…

September 19, 2013 by loosemuse 1 Comment

Art by Lorraine Clarke

We all had a wonderful time at last night’s event. The Caribbean buffet and wine were flowing, the poets were reading from our outstanding anthology, and generally a fantastic time was had…

Thank you to everyone, and remember, if you’re a lady writer and would like to get published, come along to one of our Loose Muse events. That way, you’ll be eligible to submit and you too could be gracing the stage like some of the lovely ladies below.

Below:

Baraba-Aseka and the marvellous Lorraine Clarke (whose artwork is on the cover of the anthology)

Amy Neilson Smith

Sue Johns

Camilla Reeve

Hilaire

Leila Segal

Cath Drake

Vivienne Vermes

Kirsty Brook, who wowed us all as she performed her work ‘Life test,’ her first published poem.

Hilaire

Me reading Balaba-Aseka’s fantastic poems, as she was too shy this time. We’re working on her though…

A panoramic shot which came out er…smaller than anticipated.

This is the last of this year’s funding from the Arts Council, we’ve really tried to help women writers develop and hope we’ve succeeded in promoting the work of all you marvellous ladies out there!

Lots of love from the Loose Muse team,

Agnes, Chikodi and Sara-Mae

Filed Under: Loose Muse Event Tagged With: Agnes Meadows, Anthology launch women's writing, literature, Loose Muse anthology launch, poetry, women's poetry events, women's writing

Where are all you short fiction writers?

August 28, 2013 by loosemuse 13 Comments

It’s wonderful that we always have so many great poets coming to the Loose Muse events. Every month, lots of women step up to the mic to blow our minds with their lyrical verse. Having said that, we really don’t want anyone to think that we exist for poetry alone. At Loose Muse we encourage ALL women writers (including playwrights, script writers, flash fictioners as well as short fiction and novel writers) to come and perform. We would love to have even more great short stories submitted, for example, to the anthology.

Here is a great short fiction competition which you still have time to enter if you hurry. You can win up to £1000. Anthony Howcroft, the director of InkTears, is looking for writers who have, ‘enough quality short stories’ to publish a collection. Alternatively, they are looking for writers whose work may go into an anthology. So you could enter a competition and find yourself publishing a collection at the end of it!

It sounds like a great opportunity, so don’t miss out. http://www.inktears.com/Inktears/WritersNewWritersContest.html

Elsewhere, Cinnamon Press has some great poetry collection, novella or short story competitions that are still open. Go to http://www.cinnamonpress.com/competitions/ to take a look.

Book trust is a great website for listing competitions, so do take a look at that as well, although I’ve often found it slightly annoying that they don’t organise the competitions by date relevancy. No one likes clicking for ages to find out that a competition happened back in January!

So all you short story writers, before you send our your brilliant prose to these great competitions, why not come along to Loose Muse and try them out on an audience?

Love,

Sara-Mae