New Open Mic Night 'Fen Speak' starts in October with Venues in Ely and Wisbech

In association with the Fenland Poet Laureate Programme and Atelier East, and with support from ADeC, Elaine Ewart and Leanne Moden are starting up a brand new open mic poetry evening in North and East Cambridgeshire.

Fen Speak is a free spoken word open mic night designed to support and nurture local poets and writers, and help them develop their performance skills. It's a friendly and supportive space for people to read their poetry out loud, and Elaine and Leanne will be encouraging writers of all ages and abilities to have a go at performing their poetry!

Fen Speak events will be held every third Wednesday of the month, alternating between venues in Ely and Wisbech, and the first open mic night will be on Wednesday 16th October at the Babylon Gallery, Waterside, Ely CB7 4AU -meeting at 7:30pm for an 8pm start. There will be refreshments available, and there's absolutely not obligation to performance, so if anyone wants to come along to listen, that's absolutely fine. Elaine and Leanne hope to see you there!

A Poet Turned Publisher: Guest Blog by Elaine Ewart

They’d arrived. I felt a thrill of excitement as the man at the printers’ slit open the box so I could see the books. And wow. Dafila Scott’s beautiful pastel drawing and Karen Harvey’s eye-catching cover design drew the eye. I pulled a copy out, opened it, had a sniff (doesn’t everyone?) of the freshly printed pages and pored over the text. I was too excited to take it in but the page numbers looked ok, they’d printed the right version, the text was aligned well on the page. It looked like a proper book. Short, yes. Only thirty pages: but thirty smart, professional pages, worthy of the poetic talents of our fifteen contributing poets. Words for Wide Skies: A Poetry Anthology. And I’d published it myself.

I’d deliberately chosen not to go down the route of print on demand companies on the internet. These websites will enable you to publish your book at a low financial risk, which can be helpful for a niche market. However, on closer inspection, the unit cost is typically high. Plus, you don’t have the benefit of physical copies to put in a shop, and you have limited control over the design. Hmm, not for me, I thought.

Instead, I’d gone to a local printers, who had given me a very reasonable quote, and said, ‘This is what I want; here is the text layout, and this is the cover,’ and they’d done it.  

It really was as simple as that.

That’s not to say it was not a lot of hard work. Since initially discussing the idea of a nature poetry anthology with the staff at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust at Welney and my fellow editor Karen Harvey, a vast amount of work has been done: preparing a timetable, applying for funding, making a call for submissions and publicizing it, arranging the launch, selecting the poems, replying to everyone – and now the copies were here (phew!) sending out press releases, arranging reviews, logistics… All sorts of things.

But the point is, although it is hard work, it is not magic. If you’re willing to put that work in, are fanatically stubborn and eye-wateringly pedantic over proofs and will hover over your pet project like anxious mother hen because you love poetry and poets and, (good though blogs are) really, really, love a nice poetry book as a beautiful physical object, then you can make it happen.

And, importantly, it will happen with a very small initial investment which will enable copies to be sold at an attractive price. Five pounds was my target sale price – high enough for a decent profit for WWT Welney, to raise funds for their conservation work, but low enough for people visiting the reserve to say, well, why not?  Why not buy a nice book of poems?

Why not indeed.

© Elaine Ewart, 2013

Elaine Ewart is a poet and former Fenland Poet Laureate.  She blogs at flightfeather.wordpress.com  

Words for Wide Skies, a nature poetry anthology with a Fenland theme, edited and published by Elaine Ewart, is being launched at the WWT Welney reserve on Friday 21st June and will be available from WWT Welney from that date, price £5.  All profits go to the conservation work at WWT Welney.  For further details, contact WWT Welney by telephone 01353 860711 or by e-mail: info.welney@wwt.org.uk

Collective Noun: An Evening with 4 Poet Laureates

This is an evening performance to celebrate the contribution of 4 of our local Poet Laureates and to also say a big thank you to St John's Poet-in-Residence, Pete Cox. This will be a event full of beautiful and exciting verse that will display the imaginative of these East Anglian bards and the things and places that have inspired them in their laureateship.

The night includes the wonderful following:

Pete Cox, Poet-in-Resident at St John the Baptist Church
At Easter 2012 Pete Cox was appointed Poet-in-Residence for St John the Baptist Church. Hear some of the work he has produced in that time and about some of the events he has attended.
“Cox is a poetic wildcard, spinning off all kinds of funny, bizarre and fanciful versa…” Neal Wilgus, Small Press Review (USA)
 “Is there no end to this man’s versatility?” Keith Walker, Fanzine Fanatique (UK).

Elaine Ewart, Fenland Poet Laureate
National award-winning poet and Fenland Poet Laureate Emeritus, Elaine Ewart is currently studying for an MA in ‘Wild Writing: Literature and the Environment’, at the University of Essex. She writes poetry and short fiction, as well as creative non-fiction about the natural world. Elaine, a former lawyer, lives in Ely and volunteers at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust at Welney.
Enjoy her work and follow her poetic adventures online at: www.flightfeather.wordpress.com


Simon Stabler, Peterborough Poet Laureate
The last time Simon performed in a church was as a boy soprano more than 20 years ago. While he still has his medal from the Royal School of Church Music, his ability to sing left him many years ago, thanks in part to underage smoking and barking along to punk records. He may have given up smoking some years ago but still enjoys a spiky rant, with his poem 'This Is Peterborough ...' and 'We Deserve More' earning him the title of Peterborough Poet Laureate at last September’s finals. Having known Pete for many years, Simon is honoured to be at tonight’s celebration and for once, will be turning down his irreverence settings.

Darren Rawnsley, Stamord Poet Laureate
Take a brief journey with Darren Rawnsley, from the 1960s to the present day. A weave of reflection, truth and empathy. From buttercups to riots, intimate cafes to traditions passed down through generations. A 'Box of Allsorts' for the listener to digest.

Please take a poetic pew at our very own St John the Baptist, Peterborough, just behind the Guildhall in Peterborough City centre.

When: 23rd of April 2013
Time: 7:30pm-10:00pm
Price: £3 and please pay on the door, no advance tickets.

For further enquiries please visit the Facebook Event page.