Rising Tides | Shore Women

What's current and coming up

Readings and exhibitions	We read regularly at Open Mic evenings at Quay Arts, Newport. In 2009 we have been leading workshops at the West Wight and other Women's Institutes. In June we hosted a poetry picnic at Newtown which was very well attended by local writers, high school students and others who came to share a poem and a picnic. For our week-end away this year we stayed away from the sea, choosing a farmhouse at The Garlic Farm in the centre of the island.
The Irex Project	The Wreck of the Irex: Riddles of the Sea - The Irex shipwreck in Scratchell's Bay in 1890 is a fascinating story which we have presented through poetry and performance. Funded with a grant from the Isle of Wight Economic Partnership, we ran workshops and poetry readings for a wide variety of community groups including WIs, schools, librarians and a circle dance group. There have been public Open Mic shipwreck sessions at the Apollo Theatre in Newport and at Quay Arts Newport. We performed to full houses at Niton Parish Church, West Wight Middle School and Dimbola Lodge Freshwater. In 2009 we performed for the Ryde Social Heritage Group as part of the Ryde Festival. More poems and pictures... The Irex DVD is available through this site. It shows the live performance of the poems at Dimbola Lodge, Freshwater, and includes all characters in costume and some very clever screen editing.	photo courtesy of County Press
Other News	Congratulations to Lydia Fulleylove who has won third prize in the 2009 Bridport Competition for her poem Night Drive. Lydia's poem was chosen from more than 14,000 entries. Lydia also won second prize in the Kenneth Grahame short story competition for her story Rose Petal Message. She is currently completing her Wild Places project at Albany Prison where she has been writer-in-residence since 2004. Pat Murgatroyd's poem The Coastguard's Wife won second prize in the Island Voices competition which was part of the Poetry Society's Tennyson celebrations. Pat's poem The Gift of Josephine's Silence has recently appeared in Poetry Review. Felicity Fair-Thompson worked alongside Andrew Motion at Tennyson's home in Freshwater during recent celebrations to commemorate the poet. Felicity ran workshops for writers who were inspired by Andrew Motion's readings and talks about Tennyson. Shelley McAlister's poem Sacred Heart won second prize in the 2009 Virginia Warbey Poetry competition. Congratulations to Shore Woman Camilla Lambert, who has recently completed her Open University Diploma in Creative Writing. Shore Women Joan Waddleton and Lydia Fulleylove are also part of the island's High Tide Poets group in Newport. Their work can be seen at www.hightidepoets.org.uk


	Some of the Shore Women at our Beach Hut day in Sandown, August 2007. From left, Pat , Kate, Shelley, Felicity, Joan.

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