Bulletin - "In the Offing"

In the Offing

 

“... in the offing ...”
A feature new to the Poetry-next-the-Sea website, “... in the offing ...”: a regular bulletin designed to keep you in touch with what’s happening at the festival as we begin the approach to another weekend of literary excellence.
“in the offing” – not very distant; close enough to be seen; ready or likely to happen
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Jan 2012
You’ll notice many changes to the website.

 

We’ve always known that we would want to increase our coverage of what we do throughout the year, and not just report on the May weekend itself, so the site needed to evolve; hence, pages will appear and disappear from time to time, but we’re confident that the end result will be something more user-friendly and efficient.

 

Here we are in a New Year, considering new beginnings, but must also record some endings. Many of you who have been regular attenders at PNTS over the years may have heard of the death of our founder John Coleridge, in early December. We will, of course, be honouring his achievements at our fifteenth event in May. In the meantime, for an appreciation of John and his life, click here to go to our obituary page.

 

We’re delighted to be hosting many of our familiar events, which include:

 

  • two world-class talks: Dame Gillian Beer gives an illustrated lecture on Lewis Carroll, marking the publication of a new volume of Carroll’s verse in June; Matthew Hollis reads from and discusses his Costa Biography Award-winning book “Now All Roads Lead to France” on Edward Thomas.
  • readings by Vicki Feaver, Matthew Hollis, Jehane Markham, Brian Patten, John Siddique and Jean Sprackland.
  • A showcase event for four up-and-coming writers from Salt Publishing (relocated from Cambridge to Cromer last year): Penny Boxall, Tim Cockburn, Charlotte Geater, and Meryl Pugh.
  • Making a welcome return to PNTS is Cecilia Evans, who takes up residence as our Festival Artist. You may remember Cecilia in her other role as a professional vocal tutor/actor, giving voice workshops a few years ago

 

We also hope to push the boundaries of what PNTS has achieved in the past: amongst the latter will be the opportunity to extend your poetry-listening experience in a dedicated audio/visual “sampler room” (with the assistance of The Poetry Archive). More details as the planning unfolds ...

 

In the coming weeks, keep your eyes open for the following:

 

  • our open competition will be launched
  • the Education Programme takes place (February), with John Siddique as our schools’ poet.
  • publicity begins in earnest.

 

Becky Jefcoate of The Wells Maltings Project has been in contact with us over the last few months regarding developments at our venue. Fingers crossed we may have some improved facilities to make use of come May-time.

The business of fundraising and sponsorship is inevitably never-ending, with our festival chair Fiona Fraser at the forefront of the effort. You will notice a sponsorship page (click here) which itemises elements of our expenditure. Without labouring the obvious point about arts funding, we’d welcome anyone willing and able to contribute to please contact us.

 

For the moment – a Happy New Year.