Stanza News: Lancashire

Pennine Lancashire
Contact: Theresa Robson (theresarobson AT fsmail.net or 07730 615 181)

Pennine Stanza: Jo Harding and Theresa RobsonPennine Stanza: Jo Harding and Theresa Robson

* The Pennine Lancashire Poetry Society Stanza meets at 7.30pm on the second Wednesday of the second month at the New Inn, Parson Lane, Clitheroe, with no meeting in August and an open meeting at Clitheroe Books in December. The Stanza is open to Poetry Society members and their guests. Further details are available from Theresa Robson. 

* Pennine Lancashire Poetry Stanza takes to the stage at Starbucks, Fishergate Shopping Centre, Preston, on Wednesday, March 17. The event, from 5.30 to 6.30pm, called “Place,” features work with a place, community and nature theme. The reading is the second in a series taking place at Starbucks coffee shops in the Preston area in 2010. The readers will include writer and editor Jo Harding, proprietor of Clitheroe Books, and Phil Burton, also known as Pip the Poet, who visits schools and libraries throughout the UK providing performances and workshops, and has been extensively published.

Tickets priced £2 (£1 concessions) for the reading, which includes a free poetry anthology, are available on the door.

* WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14

Talk by Jo Harding: The ‘I’ in poetry. “I am, yet what I am none cares or knows,” wrote 19th century pastoral poet John Clare in I Am. Who is the ‘I’ in poetry and how should the reader respond to the use of ‘I’? Workshop: Please circulate one of your poems-in-progress prior to the meeting.

* WEDNESDAY, JUNE 9

Talk by David Borrott: Short poems. Although seemingly the most simple, short poems are often the hardest to write, because each must create its own little world in a small space. This talk will consider why short poems are the most essential of all poetry. Workshop: Please circulate one of your poems-in-progress prior to the meeting.

* WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8

Talk by Theresa Robson: Flash Fiction. Flash fiction has been described as a “strange little form, demanding fictional strategies that are both ancient and yet to be discovered.” This talk will explore the assertion that the history of the short, short story is the history of writing itself. Workshop: Please circulate one of your poems-in-progress prior to the meeting.

* WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 10

Talk: To be confirmed. Workshop: Please circulate one of your poems-in-progress prior to the meeting.

* THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9

Festive reading at Clitheroe Books: Open to non-Poetry Society members. Are you looking forward to a cool Yule or is Christmas just a load of old humbug? Share your favourite festive poetry and refreshments at Clitheroe's cosiest bookshop (please note the earlier start time of 5.30pm).