e a m harris

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Archive for the category “Celebrations and events”

30 Jul 2017

Medieval Murder and 17th Century Romance – Two free workshops in Devon

Two workshops that sound really interesting. And free, too, what could be better?
Thanks to Short Stops, a blog for the short story, for posting.

ShortStops

‘Cullopmton’s Wool Trade, Coldharbour Mill and the Walronds –

 A Historical Fiction Romance and Adventure Creative Short Story Workshop’.

Thursday the 14th of September – Free Morning Workshop

(9.45am registration and a 10am start. Finish at 12 o’clock.)

To book contact:  cullompton.library@librariesunlimited.org.uk

Your Workshop Facilitator will be Myfanwy (Vanni) Cook, who is currently the ‘New Voices’ Feature Editor for ‘The Historical Novel Society Review Magazine’ and an Associate Fellow at two Universities. She is the author of ‘Historical Fiction Writing – A practical guide and tool-kit’ and is passionate about bringing local history alive.

www.historicalnovelsociety.org  

https://twitter.com/MyfanwyCook

Thursday the 14th of September – Free Afternoon Workshop

The “Golgotha” and St. Andrew’s Church –A Historical Crime Fiction Creative Short Story Workshop

for those who enjoy the writing of Ellis Peters and Umberto Eco

(1.45pm Registration and a 2pm start. Finish at 4pm.)

To book contact:  cullompton.library@librariesunlimited.org.uk

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16 May 2017

Events approaching

In April last year I reblogged Crimepieces post about the Petrona Award for Scandinavian crime novels. I failed to follow it up and find out who won. Never mind: the award has come around again (as they do) and the shortlist was published in March. As usual I want to read most of the books on the list, but I know I won’t have time. Would a life spent reading be good? or would I get tired of even the best books

This year the winner will be announced at Crimefest, which starts this coming Thursday. The announcement will apparently be made at the Gala dinner, so any attendees will have to do some serious eating as well as listening.

Another event I’ve stumbled across is run by the British Library and is dedicated to Golden Age crime fiction. It is Bodies From The Library which is a very suitable name. This event is only one day (17 June), but it has a very full programme.

I’m sure there are many other events that I’ve missed reading about. Literary festivals and conventions seem to be multiplying apace; soon we’ll be able to go to one every day of the summer and most of the winter too. But would the bank balance and stamina hold out?

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07 May 2017
3 Comments

Tales for the month of May

This sounds like an interesting event. I regret that it’s too far for me but others may be closer. Thank you to ShortStops for publishing the details.

ShortStops

Come and listen to some tales of May madness, Mayans and a certain hairy rock star at Hand of Doom’s May-themed story nights in Kent.

They take place in Folkestone on Friday, May 19 at the Grand Hotel, The Leas, and the following evening, Saturday, May 20, in Faversham at The Guidhall, both from 7.45pm for an 8pm start.

For more information, please go to Facebook Hand of Doom Productions

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15 Nov 2016
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Apsley Cherry-Garrard and the world’s worst journey

I wish I was in Buxton to hear this talk. Thank you James Burt for reminding me that the ‘official’ history isn’t all there is.

Buxton International Festival

The Odditorium: the tricksters, eccentrics, deviants and inventors whose obsessions changed the world (Hodder & Stoughton, 2016) includes some amazing characters. Some you’ll have heard of, some you probably won’t. All of them have changed the world, although in some cases the wider world hasn’t noticed yet. They include Joshua Norton, first Emperor of America, and Reginald Bray, who carried out strange experiments with the Royal Mail. I was delighted to be asked to write about Apsley Cherry-Garrard, who is by far my favourite explorer. 

When I was at school, we were often told stories about adventurers and explorers as something to aspire to. Captain Robert Falcon Scott was held up as a great example, bravely sacrificing himself in an attempt to reach the South Pole. As Sara Wheeler once described Antarctica, our southernmost continent often seems to be “a testing-ground for men with frozen beards to see how dead…

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05 Sep 2016
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The Poetry Periscope

The periscope

If you’re in Birmingham or Durham over the next couple of months, you should look out for this strange beast.

It’s a sound installation called Poetry Periscope and it’s on a UK tour. It started it’s journey in April as part of the European Literature Festival, and it’s still going – unwearied and cheery in its yellowness.

It plays 30 poems from 30 European cultures. Each is played in its own language and in English translation. To stand in a shopping mall or railway station and listen to all that may be a bit much, but perhaps the commute to work or shopping trip can be enhanced by a couple of the recordings.

In addition to the Festival, a number of organisations are involved with the project including European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC), The Poetry Society and Pianos on the Street.

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25 Apr 2016

The Wellcome Book Prize 2016

A good summary of the books shortlisted for this prize. Thank you Little Blog of Books for the info.

The winner should be announced today, but I think all these books are worth knowing about.

A Little Blog of Books

2016 Wellcome Book Prize shortlist

Yesterday, I went to an event at the Wellcome Collection in London to hear the six authors nominated for this year’s Wellcome Book Prize discuss their shortlisted books. The annual award is open to works of fiction and non-fiction which engage with some aspect of health, illness or medicine, or “the ultimate human subject” as chair Anne Karpf said in her introduction.

The books on this year’s shortlist are:

  • Signs for Lost Children by Sarah Moss
  • The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink
  • NeuroTribes by Steve Silberman
  • Playthings by Alex Pheby
  • It’s All in Your Head by Suzanne O’Sullivan
  • The Outrun by Amy Liptrot

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08 Mar 2016

Baileys Women’s Prize for Fiction LongList 2016

The Bailey’s Prize Long List from that fascinating blog Word by Word.

It’s great to see a list of successes; so many great titles grouped together. If I had time I’d read them all – but, of course, I don’t and won’t.

Word by Word

Baileys logo 2016Today is International Women’s Day, this year the theme is #PledgeForParity and the Baileys Women’s Prize certainly does a lot to advance that challenge, with their ambition to bring the best women’s writing and female storytellers to ever-wider audiences.

In selecting the following 20 titles for the longlist the Chair of Judges Margaret Mountford shared that:

“We had a hugely enjoyable and stimulating meeting, as there were a great many strong novels in contention. We are delighted with the quality, the imaginative scope and the ambition of our chosen books, a longlist which reflects the judges’ interests and tastes. We hope readers will enjoy the variety of outstanding work on offer.”

Half the longlist are debuts, they represent seven nationalities, four previous shortlisted authors and the first Zimbabwean author to be longlisted for the prize.

The longlisted books are as follows:

Kate Atkinson: A God in Ruins – Teddy, would-be poet, heroic…

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06 Feb 2016
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National Libraries Day

Today is National Libraries Day and all over the country libraries are holding special events.

nld-logoIn my opinion a nation’s libraries are a major national treasure. Among other actions, they spread culture, provide a quiet place for the hassled to sit and recover their calm, and store the thinking and creativity of the past.

The also provide pleasant and worthwhile employment – or used to before austerity started harassing everyone.

While it’s the public libraries that are most active today, I like to imagine all the others joining in, in spirit at least. Universities spring to mind of course, but companies, hospitals, government departments, charities, all have their libraries and people to look after them – often volunteers or employees librarianing (I’m a writer – I’m allowed to invent new words!) in addition to their main job.

I’ll be off to my local library this afternoon, and this evening I’ll raise a glass of gin and tonic to all those people who care for our books, journals, CDs, and old papers.

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23 Nov 2015

Support Solstice Shorts come to a booklaunch

If you can look past the Christmas/New Year festivities, you may be interested in this event. I love book launches (or at least I loved the two I’ve been to), but can’t make this one.

Arachne Press

If you’ve never been to a book launch but always wondered what really happens you are invited to Arachne’s next one, which will be for The Dowry Blade, Arachne founder Cherry Potts‘ Fantasy epic. there are a handful of invitations up for grabs as part of our crowd fund for Solstice shorts Longest Night,

The Dowry Blade is around 170,000 words long, so is coming out in support of its smaller siblings the short story, generally weighing in (for Solshorts anyway) at around 2000 words.

The booklaunch will be in late February, in London – either central or South East, so if you’d like to come along, support our festival! You only have until 1st December to grab an invitation! It may look a bit like this. There will be drink, there may be cake…

meeting authors and eating cake at an Arachne event meeting authors and eating cake at an Arachne event

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23 May 2015

A Conference focussed on The Golden Age of Detective Fiction Writers

Bodies logoI came across this event via CrimeFest. It sounds like a great day out for any fan of any golden age detective writer.

A Conference focussed on The Golden Age of Detective Fiction Writers.

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