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Second Light Network, News and Events, Competition…
Note, Members only: To submit News / Events items for e-notices or inclusion in ARTEMISpoetry Noticeboard, see Submit News Item
Poetry Competition 2010: Scintilla is no longer running a poetry competition so, as we think it is important for women poets to have an outlet for long poems, this year, the Second Light competition has two categories – Cat 1: short poems (up to 50 lines) and Cat 2: long poems (50 lines plus).
This year’s judge is Myra Schneider.
There is a first prize of £250 for each category plus other cash and book prizes. Winning, shortlisted and commended poems will be published (long poems may be in full or extract) in ARTEMISpoetry in May 2011 and the poets invited to read at an adjudication event in London, also in 2011. Winning poems will be published on the SecondLightLive website.
Second Light Members: please do take up your free entry of 1 poem…
Download prize and entry fee details
The first of two full-day Autumn festivals – workshops with Fiona Sampson and Penelope Shuttle, Anne Stewart reading from her new collection, launch of Inside the Brightness of Red, a posthumous second collection of poetry by Mary MacRae.
A private donation to cover all costs has enabled Second Light Publications to follow-up Mary MacRae’s As Birds Do with this second collection. Special prices apply if order form is used. All members are invited to the reception and reading and we will hear Mary’s poems from as many readers as we can fit in.
Download order form
All events are very close to Russell Square tube station (Lumen Centre and Art Workers Guild).
EARLY BOOKING ADVISED – as always, Second Light members have priority when booking for all – in this case ‘both’ – workshops. The two readings are free entry.
Download booking form
Second festival day – workshops with Wendy French and Myra Schneider, readings from recent collections by Angela France and June Hall, followed by Second Light at the Lumen Poetry Series, presenter Ruth O’Callaghan, readings by Second Light members.
The Lumen event is pay on entry, £5/(£4 conc) with all proceeds to the Cold Weather Shelter. If you would like to read at this event, please contact Ruth to make arrangements (details on booking form).
Download booking form
The Spring Festival for 2011 will be 1st & 2nd April at the Art Workers Guild, London, including Myra Schneider’s adjudication of the Second Light Poetry Competition 2010, readings by winners and others, and a workshop and reading by Penelope Shuttle.
We have booked Holland House again for 2011, now to take place over four days from 15 – 19 August. Workshop tutors will include Penelope Shuttle. The cost will be in the region of £300 for single rooms and substantially less for sharing. Beautiful grounds, comfortable rooms, a warm welcome and excellent food… more t/f
Torriano Poetry Competition – Closing date 3 February 2011 Poems up to 40 lines. Contact details and titles on separate sheet. Adjudicators: Wendy French & Maggie Butt. Prizes First £250 Second £150 Third £75. Feature readings for winners. Entry fees: £3 one poem, £5 for two, £10 for five. No translations. Cheques to Torriano Support Fund. Entries to: Pat Griffin, 4 Cundishall Close, Whitstable, Kent CT5 4DA.
Lumen/Camden Poetry Competition. Poems up to 40 lines £2.50 per poem, 6 poems £10. Deadline: 14th February 2011. Judge: Carol Ann Duffy, Poet Laureate. Proceeds to the Cold Weather Shelter. Submissions and cheques to Ruth O’Callaghan, 49 Ripley Gardens, Mortlake London SW14 8HF. Prize: Pamphlet publication of winner’s poems – 50 free copies plus reading.
Two full days of workshops and readings, and the 2009 Second Light Poetry Competition adjudication event. The three workshops (with Katherine Gallagher, Pascale Petit & Myra Schneider) were inspirational!
Pauline Stainer, the judge of the 2009 competition presented an interesting and informative talk on the poems she chose and the winners, commended and shortlisted poets gave us a very fine reading, as did Pauline herself and our main readers on Saturday evening, which included launch readings from new books by Katherine Gallagher, Maria Jastrzębska, Lyn Moir and Caroline Natzler.
The fast-becoming-traditional All Comers! reading by any Second Light members who wished to read was amazingly varied – and even more amazingly came in under time(!), which enabled us to force Dilys Wood onto the stage to give us a reading of her wonderful sonnet sequence written for Mimi Khalvati.
A wonderfully successful 3 day residential event… Tutors Myra Schneider and Penelope Shuttle ran stimulating and productive workshops on Myth (Myra) and War (Penelope). It is noticeably liberating to spend some quality time with fellow poets, particularly when all are feisty older women! Members of Second Light will receive a booklet of poems, the Holland Haul, arising from this event, courtesy of our willing volunteer editor, Penny Hewlett.
Holland House is a lovely venue for groups of around 30 people. We were well looked after, with very good food and comfortable rooms. The house itself is in beautiful grounds with a path down to the river and various gardens. More on their web-site.
When we ran an event to celebrate the work of Mary MacRae on 11th December 09, we had a full house and a very memorable evening. Mimi Khalvati, Myra Schneider, Lucy Hamilton, Nadine Brummer & Dilys Wood, plus many of Mary’s friends and colleagues, gave very moving readings from Mary’s work, and shared their own poems about her and their remembrances. It’s good to know that her work will continue to be read.
A festival of readings and workshops celebrating the fifteenth anniversary of the founding of Second Light Network, took place at The Art Workers in London. Thanks to an Arts Council grant, a small number of Bursaries was made available and it was a real pleasure to be able to accommodate some participants who otherwise may not have been able to attend.
The ‘Fifty’ element in the title is ‘fifty years of the rise and rise of women’s poetry’. So what was beginning to take off in 1959? It’s difficult to pin-point a base year when women began to find the inspiration, not simply to pursue the lone woman artist road, but to feel themselves part of a highly charged large-scale movement.
In 1959, Sylvia Plath wrote some remarkable, now well-known poems, including "The Bee-Keeper’s Daughter", "The Colossus" and "Mushrooms". The imaginative power and raw assertion in these poems energised many women writers. It was the beginning of a certain kind of female-artist self-awareness which had to be renewed many times but in the end there was exponential progress.
One of our ways of celebrating was to include in the rich festival line-up a reading by the very distinguished poet, Anne Stevenson, one of the poets whose development has spanned over fifty years, and what an inspirational reading it was! We are delighted she agreed to participate in the festival, along with R V Bailey, Alison Brackenbury, Katherine Gallagher, Caroline Price, Mimi Khalvati, Myra Schneider, Lynne Wycherley and many others…
A great time was had by all, sell out readings and workshops. Romanian participant, Elena Nistor, had her camera to hand…
 Maggie shows Joan how the coat fits … |
 "and in this one here, look…" |
 Something funny this way comes? |
 Discussing the finer points… |
 Cornwall meets Normandie; Penelope and Kay talk shop |
 Katherine takes the throne… Elena (on her right) directs the shot |
The Judge is Pauline Stainer, whose latest collection, Crossing the Snowline (Bloodaxe 2008), has been received with acclaim by reviewers. We included a review in ARTEMISpoetry Issue 1 and Pauline kindly read for Second Light at the Autumn Festival 2008, following up with a workshop at the May 2009 event.
The winning poems, along with poems which were commended or shortlisted, are published in ARTEMISpoetry, Issue 5, which came out in May 2010 and many of the poets, including the winners, read their poems at the adjudication event at the Spring 2010 May Madness Festival.
Results:
1st prize: Lynne Wycherley, The Lightning-Horse
2nd prize: Margaret Wilmot, Hermetic
3rd prize: Kay Syrad, "Registering their flora,/their fauna"
Read the Poems
Commended:
Suzanne Burrows, The Horses and Crossing the Bridge
Anne Cluysenaar, The Pear-tree
Kate Foley, Heart Surgery
Clare Holtham, The Jerwood Library
Pippa Little, Acrobat
M R Peacocke, The greeting
Marion Tracy, Nest and Bipolar
Jenny Vuglar, This Morning
Shortlisted:
Ann Alexander, Cabbage Cutters Wanted. Basic English. Night or Day
Dorothy Baird, 29 April
Ann Boileau, Within its Time and Frame
H Coffey, On Ivory
Margaret Eddershaw, Queen of the Tightrope
Jacqueline Gabbitas, Grass discovers metempsychosis
Mavis Howard, Nature
Gill Learner, Resurrection
Helen Loselock-Burke, Clouds on the Blackthorn
Sue MacIntyre, Interior, 1893 and A Wine Glass Half Full of Milk
Jane McLaughlin, Crossings
Rosemary McLeish, Handless Bride
Nancy Mattson, Learning the Letter Щ and Compasses: a Triptych
Caroline Natzler, Paper place
Elizabeth Rowe, Blue
K V Skene, Why I Wasn’t Listening
Dorothy Yamomoto, The button box Tiger hunt
Judge, Gillian Clarke, announced her selections just in time for a sneak preview of the winners’ list at the Autumn Festival. The winning and other poems were published in ARTEMISpoetry, Issue 2, in May 09.
Results:
1st prize: Eleanor Livingstone, Snow Hare;
2nd prize: Anne Wigley, Learning to Swim
3rd prize: Sheila Wild, Shiant Wife
Runners up:
Alison Brackenbury, Great-Great
Wendy Klein, Kid Gloves
Gill Learner, Counted Out
Pat Marum, The Insect Parlour
Lyn Moir, Ice Dream
Gillian Moyes, Norah
Isobel Thrilling, Last Day
Nicola Warwick, The Iceman’s Wife
Shortlisted:
Hilaire, The Colonel’s Daughter’s House
Claudia Jessop, Hope
Carlotta Johnston, Wild Grass Mull
Thelma Laycock, The Sash
Gill Learner, Through and Through
Gill Learner, A Descent from Mount Olympus
Eleanor Livingstone, The Soul
Lyn Moir, Juanjo, The Guggenheim, Me
Jennie Osborne, Quantum
Diana Pritchard, Barefoot in the Snow
Kate Rhodes, Details
Gillian Clarke is President of Ty Newydd, the writers’ centre in North Wales which she co-founded in 1990, tutor on the M.Phil in Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan, and the current National Poet for Wales. Her poetry is studied for GCSE and A Level throughout Britain. Recent books include Making the Beds for the Dead, 2004, a prose collection, and At The Source, 2008. A new collection, A Recipe for Water, is due in 2009.
