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

Amanda: Hello i can’t make the session tonight.... 8th Aug ..... I’ve been struck down with a sickness bug?? I have feedback for Adam and Ian and will pass on next time. Sorry to let you down!

Thu 8th Aug 2019 at 14:55
Amanda: Hello i can’t make the session tonight.... 8th Aug ..... I’ve been struck down with a sickness bug?? I have feedback for Adam and Ian and will pass on next time. Sorry to let you down!

Thu 8th Aug 2019 at 14:55
Mark James Barrett: The LWAP Summer Party has now been postponed until Saturday 21st September. Thank you.

Thu 25th Jul 2019 at 12:14
Kat: Good morning,

I hope this finds you well. I’m writing to invite you to contribute a piece of writing to Leeds/Dortmund 50, a literature project I’m running in collaboration with Leeds 2023 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the twinning up of Leeds and Dortmund (Germany).

Leeds/Dortmund 50 brings together a number of writers and writers’ groups from both our cities, resulting in a festival at Chapel FM at the beginning of October this year. The project originated in Writers in Transit, a poetry dialogue between myself and the Dortmund poet Ralf Thenior. For more information: https://www.leedsdortmund50.com/

Sadly I don’t have the capacity at this stage of the project to involve as many writers as I would wish in direct exchanges, but I do warmly extend this invitation:

If you’d like to be involved in Leeds/Dortmund 50, you are invited to contribute a new piece of writing (in any form) on the theme of Neighbourhood. Your own neighbourhood, an imagined neighbourhood, neighbourhood as a concept, what separates or unites neighbours, walls and bridges - anything that works for you.

The deadline is Friday August 16th.

On the way there, I can offer two free writing sessions on the theme: Thurs 4th and Thurs 25th July, 7.30-9.30pm, Chapel FM. Obviously these are entirely optional.

Once I have all the writing in my sweaty grasp, I will schedule an event for the festival in which all the pieces can be read in an atmospheric and intimate context upstairs in Studio 3. (I’m thinking along the lines of Radioh Europa, recently seen in the Transform Festival). I will also try and get as many of the pieces as possible translated into German, but that depends on how many pieces we have and how many translators I can arm-twist. We hope to have a sizeable listening audience in Germany.

All you have to do at this stage is, first, let me know you’d like to contribute, then write the poem/fiction or whatever it turns to be. No word limit, but not a novel!

I really hope you can be part of this international cross-border project,

All best, Peter.

https://www.leedsdortmund50.com/
www.peterspafford.co.uk
www.poemportraits.co.uk
www.schwa.space

Mon 22th Jul 2019 at 12:39
Mark James Barrett: Some of you aren't on the WhatsApp group so I thought I'd better post here as well just in case: LWAP Summer Party at my place on Saturday 27th July from 4pm. All are welcome.

Fri 12th Jul 2019 at 12:30
Andrey Pissantchev: I just had "Making Faces at a Baby on the Bus" published in a magazine called "The Weird and Whatnot"! Link: https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Whatnot-July-2019-ebook/dp/B07TZSD426/ref=sr_1_1?qid=1562929448&refinements=p_27%3AThe+Weird+and+Whatnot&s=books&sr=1-1&text=The+Weird+and+Whatnot

Some of you may remember this as the second story I ever submitted, back in 2017. Only took me around 10 submissions to get it out.

Fri 12th Jul 2019 at 12:07
- Mark James Barrett: Congratulations Andrey :)
  
  Fri 12th Jul 2019 at 12:31
- Richard: Cool. Top work Dre.
  
  Sun 14th Jul 2019 at 22:44
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