You are currently browsing the archive for the News category.
The VOLE Summer Competition
’AUTUMN MAKES ME SING’
Open to international entries
Entries invited up to 31st July 2024
NO THEME (despite the title):
Dorothy Parker famously said:
‘Summer makes me drowsy.
Autumn makes me sing.
Winter’s pretty lousy,
but I hate Spring.’
Poems on any subject are invited
1st Prize: £50; 2nd Prize: £30; 3rd Prize: £20.
50 poems will be selected and published in an anthology
and all poets included will receive a free copy
www.dempseyandwindle.com/competition.html
Orbis 210, Winter 2024
Front Cover Artwork: ‘Bauble‘ by Tiffany Budd;
***
Orbis 200: What a beautiful looking edition ! Must get this.
Congratulations on the magazine’s longevity and high standards
(Anna Saunders, Director at Cheltenham Poetry Festival)
Orbis 200: ‘All the best to you, and to Orbis!’
(Glyn Maxwell; shortlisted for Best Collection in the Forward Prize)
‘Best wishes for the journal – and congratulations
on such a successful magazine over the years’
(Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate)
****
Jingle Bells…or jingle tills, a those of you with a more cynical mindset
may immediately think; Speaking of which, who doesn’t agree with
Faye Boland: Nobody Wants to Die, and end up In ‘The Ferryman’s Arms’
(Doreen Hinchliffe); Tim Love reminding us that
After great pain, a formal fee.
Moving swiftly on, it is also the time of year for The Family Reunion,
tho Pat Farrington’s version is a bit unusual. But why not treat yourself:
Mrs Hitchcock Gets Her Hair Done,Juliet Humphreys tells us.
And Xmas can be mystical…
let Khadija Rouf tell you a tale about a Mermaid, or harken to
Frances Sackett’s Song of a Rug and The Music In The Attic,
which David Mark Williams describes.
And if you’re curious about what Nigel Kent means by Libre,
or with Brian Daldorph, what happens Afterwards,
you can always enjoy plenty of excellent poems,
look no further than this issue of Orbis
Featured Writer
Single issue: £6.00 (Overseas: £12/€14/$16); Subs: £20/4 pa (Overseas: £45/€50/$60)
Associate Editor (Book Reviews): Maria Isakova-Bennett
Reviews by: Philip Dunkerley, Jenny Hockey, D.A.Prince,
Theresa Sowerby, Pam Thompson
Please note with new collections, press release in first instance
to the Book Reviews Editor – not review copies.
Featured Writer: Richard Williams
First Born; Dualling;
This ambition has been moved;
Strategy Meeting;
Dick Waving in the Czech Republic
Poets include Owen Bullock; Anna Akhmatova Caught In A Bob Dylan Song;
Rosie Hadden,The Fairmer’s Horse;
Juliet Humphreys, Mrs Hitchcock Gets Her Hair Done;
Garth Luetkemeier, Earthquake; Martine Padwell, If you were a hat,
Neil Rathmell, I had been dead for some time;
Kathryn Takara, My Ghanaian Name
Prose from Jenny King, Parshrink;
Charles Osborne, Red Balloon Girl; Lorna Sherry, Dada
Translation: Belinda Cooke, Ночь by Marina Tsvetaeva
Past Master: Jocelyne Thebault on Guillaume Apollinaire
Orbis 209 Contributors also include
Dan Boland ; Maggie Butt ; Susi Clare; Gareth Culshaw; Bill Dodd;
Lori Drummond-Mundal; Mary Earnshaw; Cosmo Goldsmith;
Isabel Greenslade; Alan Hardy; Tim Houghton; Lani O’Hanlon;
Neil Rathmell; Julia Stothard; Katherine Swett; Peter Viggers;
Robin Lindsay Wilson; Nicky Winder; Mantz Yorke; Alessio Zanelli
*****
April 26, Liverpool Playhouse
Reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/
8/10
A magical and meaningful production which draws out so many parallels with life today, 80 years on, there are nearly as many lines as those spoken by the excellent cast. In other words, so many lessons to be learned in this iconic tale of animals taking over. Near as damnit, the lunatics running the asylum, with their delusional ideas and grandiose so-called victories.
Fascinating Aîda
Floral Pavilion, New Brighton
February 1, reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/
4*
Who says women of a certain age are invisible? Three cheers for the ever glamorous, and indeed, downright sexy (not sure I’m permitted to say that, but damn sure they wouldn’t object) Fascinating Aîda, who not only make their presence felt but are so in your face you can see the whites of their eyes as the sweetest of harmonies deliver vitriol in the sharpest of points; a fabled, and fabulous, iron fist in a velvet glove. And you needn’t think the audience is full of, shall we say, women in their prime either because
French House Party
Creative Writing Course, Carcassonne, Southern France
June 20-26
Pen &Think: Tutored Retreat
www.frenchhouseparty.eu/creative-arts/writing/
October 19-23
War of the Worlds
https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on/the-war-of-the-worlds
Reviewed for North West End: www.northwestend.co.uk
4*
What a tangled web we weave, especially these days when the Internet ensures all kinds of information reach the parts that other sources can’t get to. Fake news can make people belligerent or else scare them out of their wits, just as it did with the broadcast of ‘War of the Worlds’ years ago. Read the rest of this entry »
October 12-16
Dracula: The Untold Story
imitating the dog and Leeds Playhouse
Adapted and directed by Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks
https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on/dracula-the-untold-story
Reviewed for North West End: www.northwestend.co.uk
3*
The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and here we are on Route 66 (or should that be 666?), since that’s their year (read on…), and a young lady has just walked into a police station to confess to murder. But she says her name is Mina Harker…
July 17- August 30
Pride And Prejudice
Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
https://www.grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk/
Reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/
4*
It is a truth universally acknowledged – that you absolutely do not need to open with such a well known quote, or variations thereof, even if it establishes that most people know what you are talking about, and a plot summary is not required. Nor that such a familiar tale couldn’t prove damn’d tricky to be given enough of a spin to sprinkle it with stardust and make it fresh and original. It succeeds wonderfully.
August 19-30
Jungle Book
Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre
https://www.grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk/
Reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/
3*
They say the sun shines on the righteous, so here, only right that the forecast of rain was incorrect – though it became a biblical outpouring almost as soon as this swinging performance finished. Read the rest of this entry »