Leeds Writers and Poets Achievements

Group Achievements

The Leeds Writers and Poets Anthology was been shortlisted for the National Association of Writers' groups Anthology prize 2017.

We were also shortlisted in 2015, the only other time we have submitted. You can buy that anthology here: http://www.lulu.com/shop/leeds-writers-and-poets/leeds-letters-2015/paperback/product-22134805.html

Member Achievements

Mark James Barrett

Mark's novel Dreams of the Black Butterfly is now available for purchase on Amazon and boasts an average review score of 4.3 out of 5 stars. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dreams-Black-Butterfly-James-Barrett/dp/1785890549
Mark was shortlisted for the International Aeon Short Story Award, and placed in the top 6 shortlist of Albedo One with The Jenny Museum. Read it here: http://www.albedo1.com/albedo-2-0-fiction-showcase-8-summer-2014-the-jenny-museum-by-mark-j-barrett/

Adam Wolstenholme

Adam's novel: Talking Wounded is available via Dandylion Publishing: http://dandylionpublishing.co.uk/books/item/talking-wounded.html
His short stories have been published in the anthology Eating My Words and on the websites 1000 Words, Brilliant Flash Fiction and Flash Frontier.
You can keep up with him here: http://adamjwolstenholme.blogspot.co.uk/

Katja Kaine

Katja has been shortlisted for the HE Bates Short Story award and published in the Wyrd Stories Anthology and on the Ether Books App.

She has had work published on the following online and print publications:

http://www.dimeshowreview.com/my-first-queen-by-katja-kaine/ This story was also selected for the print anthology, which is available here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1981594329/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1513487793&sr=8-4&keywords=dime+show+review
https://www.fabulaargentea.com/index.php/article/pray-on-the-weak-by-katja-l-kaine/
You can read her short stories, ramblings and rantings on her blog: https://katjalkaine.com/

Andrey Pissantchev

Writes fantasy and horror short stories. They include:

"Power Juice!", published in Factor Four Magazine, Issue 5: http://factorfourmag.com/issue-5-april-2019/
"She Went out for Milk One Morning and Only Came back the Previous Day", published in May You: The Walter Swan Prize Anthology: http://www.valleypressuk.com/book/107/may_you__the_walter_swan_prize_anthology
"The Unnatural Call", toilet-based comedy horror published in Grotesque Magazine, Vol 2 Issue 3: http://www.grotesque-magazine.com/grotesque-volume-2-issue-3/
You can read more of his work on his blog: https://write.as/andrey-p/

Kevin Phillips

Kevin is a prolific writer with a growing reputation across a range of avenues in Yorkshire and beyond. Achievements include:

Featured on Made in Leeds TV show The Lowdown. (A reading and interview)
Shortlisted to six out of over two hundred northern writers by New Writing North for BBC radio 3 show The Verb (Verb New Voices, 2017 – 2018)
Selected for the Playwright One course at West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2017
Hand-picked for FUSE (The year long mentoring program at West Yorkshire Playhouse, 2017 – 2018)
Acted on stage performing a short story as a monologue as part of Leeds Stories at West Yorkshire Playhouse.
Several small acting roles in independent and big budget movies such as "Suicide Kelly" and "Official Secrets" (The latter starring Keira Knightly)
Nightfall published in online magazine Fictive Dream.
Read on the Podcast "The Short Story Cast"
Published in the Anthology "Mad Like Me: Tormented tales from tormented minds"
He has also run a range of workshops at West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds Libraries, Roundhay Primary School and more.

Newsfeed

Kat: A message from Clare Roberts.
Email Address clare@gingkolibrary.com
Good morning, I am writing to let you know about an event taking place at Bradford Cathedral on Saturday 29 June (3pm) as part of the Bradford Literature Festival, as I believe it will be of interest to your network. We would be grateful if you could share this widely. https://www.bradfordlitfest.co.uk/event/a-new-divan/ With best wishes and thanks, Clare Roberts * Gingko is a UK-registered charity seeking to promote and facilitate dialogue between the Middle East and the Western world through public events, interfaith retreats and a publications programme. In 1814 the German poet Goethe read the poems of the great fourteenth-century Persian poet Hafiz in a new German translation and was immediately inspired to create a Divan of his own, which would become known as the West-Eastern Divan (published in 1819). To mark the 200th anniversary of this major work of world literature, two new books are being published by Gingko this year: a complete, annotated translation of the West-Eastern Divan by scholar Professor Eric Ormsby and A New Divan: A Lyrical Dialogue between East & West by 24 leading contemporary poets – 12 from the ‘East’ and 12 from the ‘West’ – who have written poems especially for the collection on the themes of the 12 books of Goethe’s Divan but speaking to today’s world. We will be holding an event at Bradford Cathedral on Saturday 29 June (3pm) as part of the Bradford Literature Festival. Eric Ormsby will introduce the Divans of Hafiz and Goethe, and Persian scholar Narguess Farzad will read from the poems of Hafiz. A number of the contemporary poets, including the Iranian Fatemeh Shams and the Palestinian Mourid Barghouti, will then read their original compositions, while the English-language versions will be read by Narguess Farzad and the British poet George Szirtes. The conversation in poetry will be matched by a musical dialogue drawing on Hafiz poems set to music by the German composers Gottfried von Einem and Viktor Ullmann, performed by baritone Simon Wallfisch.

Fri 7th Jun 2019 at 14:20
Ian Sietniekas: Apologies all, I've had a hectic week and have only just been able to sign up and submit a piece now.

We're looking pretty thin on the ground for the meeting, is there anyone else being organisationally challenged?

Mon 20th May 2019 at 18:09
Richard: https://www.popshotpopshot.com/submit/

This issue is themed around 'fantasy', accepts poetry or short stories, and there's a month until the deadline, so no excuses to not submit something.

Tue 7th May 2019 at 09:33
Kat: Anthology was submitted to the competition by the skin of our teeth! Thanks so much to Eloise and Adam and everyone who contributed. I will be bringing copies into the next meeting (two free for everybody who contributed).

Tue 30th Apr 2019 at 19:04
Kat: A message from sam gillibrand.
Email Address yr13sgillibrand@gmail.com
Hi, I'm with the Leeds branch of youth strike for climate and I was wondering if any of you would be interested in writing a poem about climate change ,or just the world in general, and presenting at the next march on the 12th of April? We're trying to reflect the communal nature of our movement by reaching out to artist across Leeds and the incredible variety of both writing styles and backgrounds of your members would really help to prove that we must tackle climate change as a community and not as individuals.

Fri 26th Apr 2019 at 09:10
- Andrey Pissantchev: Seems a bit late for this?
  
  Fri 26th Apr 2019 at 10:21
- Kat: Oops - my bad
  
  Fri 26th Apr 2019 at 11:09
Richard: http://durhambookfestival.com/programme/event/durham-book-festival-2019-commissions/

This sounds interesting, although I don't properly understand what they're asking for.

Fri 12th Apr 2019 at 10:48
Andrey Pissantchev: As I mentioned to some of you, I managed to sell "Power Juice!" for pro rates. It's just come out, Factor Four Magazine, Issue 5. Check it out! http://factorfourmag.com/

Tue 2nd Apr 2019 at 11:08
- Kat: Congrats!
  
  Thu 4th Apr 2019 at 14:59
Ian Sietniekas: We've been moved upstairs for tonight's session. It's through the keypad door (it's unlocked) then the door straight in front of that. Ask at the bar if you're confused

Thu 28th Mar 2019 at 19:36
Richard: 5 days left to enter this, if anyone is interested. The article is from an Irish paper but as far as I can see it's a UK thing.

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/how-to-write-a-children-s-poem-that-might-win-1-000-1.3838916

Tue 26th Mar 2019 at 18:58
Adam Burton: Here’s a final push for anthology submissions. We’re at 7 pieces but would be great if we could get a few more?

If you’ve got any pieces that you might want to consider putting in but you’re unsure about the theme send me a message as the theme is flexibly vague when thought about hard enough so I’m sure we could find an angle.

a.david.burton@gmail.com for any submissions.

Sat 23th Mar 2019 at 16:21