Gillian Clarke is one of our best-loved authors, whose name has long been synonymous with contemporary poetry. She has been the National Poet of Wales since 2008 and, over several years, Carcanet has published more than a dozen of her collections, as well has her prose book At the Source. Carcanet is delighted to announce that Clarke’s latest book, Ice, will be published in October 2012. In Ice, Gillian Clarke turns to the harsh winters of 2009 and 2010, in which Nature reasserted itself and renewed the environment for Clarke’s imagination.

Also a distinguished war poet, Gillian Clarke has just become the first woman to receive the prestigious Wilfred Owen Award, an honour given biennially to a poet whose sustained body of work includes memorable war poems. The award ceremony will take place as close as possible to Remembrance Day 2012.

Carcanet is delighted that Gillian Clarke headlined the 2012 Oswestry Festival of the Word. To listen to an audio recording of the evening, find out more about Gillian Clarke and her books, please visit www.carcanet.co.uk.

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BOOKA BOOKSHOP on Church Street, Oswestry stock a range of Gillian Clarke’s latest books.

Well, what a Lit Fest that was!  

I just wanted to say a huge THANK YOU to the Lit Fest team: Carrie at Booka, Heather and Teresa (Oswestry Library), Pam (Shropshire Council), Sian (Oswestry School) and Jools (Jools Payne Partnership) – so much hard work, but it was well worth it.

Also a huge THANK YOU to the venues: Oswestry Library, The Walls, Booka Bookshop, Willow Gallery, Oswestry School, Woodside School and Memorial Hall.

Big thanks too to our Festival Sponsor: The Jools Payne Partnership – who with great energy, zest and creativity, spread the word of the festival far and wide.  To Morris Cook Chartered Accountants for sponsoring our fabulous David Nobbs lunch.

Also, our thanks to the Advertizer, Shropshire Star, Oswestry Chronicle, Oswestry Live, Shropshire Life and Shropshire Magazine for their help and kind support.

The festival in a nutshell:

1.         18 events over 10 days
2.         1,260 people attended
3.         10 schools participated
4.         9 venues hosted
5.         75 books given away
6.         150 Crumblicious cupcakes consumed
7.         170 Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Design entries received
8.         1 VW Camper Van
9.         1 Gruffalo
10.          364 days to wait until the next Oswestry LitFest begins

And a huge THANK YOU to each and every one who came to the events – the comments and feedback have been tremendous and have inspired us to make it even more amazing next year!

With kind thanks,
John
Festival Director

Gillian went through poems from nature to war and with each one, gave fascinating insights into the context from which it was inspired.

There were moments of light and dark throughout and Gillian’s warmth and openness made for a very special event.

Peter Owen, Wilfred’s nephew, was our guest of honour with his wife, Elizabeth, and took the opportunity to announce that Gillian had been awarded the Wilfred Owen Poetry Award to be presented later in the year.

If you’d like to discover Gillian’s poetry and her new collection, A Recipe for Water, Booka Bookshop still have some remaining copies.

A beautiful evening and one I shall never forget.

We learned about the long lost martial art of NO CAN DO, how to describe oneself in terms of curtain material and we all became poets by collaborating on a splendidly funny poem about biscuits.

There was love poetry too:

IF LOVE

If love
can build a bridge,
can affection
put up a shelf?

I came away bamboozled, tickled and inspired.

A huge thank you to Arts Alive and Oswestry Library for hosting a splendid evening that will stay long in the memory, probably in Arial font.

Come along and enjoy the festival events – there is something for everyone.

The pic shows two of our the OsLitFest team, Pam Parish (Shropshire Council) and Carrie Morris (Booka Bookshop)

Lowri at Siop Cwlwm in Oswestry Indoor Market will be having a Gruffalo storytime – featuring, so the rumour goes, an appearance by his Gruffness.

Lowri Roberts, the owner of Siop Cwlwm said, “We’re very pleased and excited to be a part of it, and bring a little bit of a Welsh flavour to this border town event.”

Gruffalo Appearances

Friday, 16th March at 2pm in Oswestry Library

Saturday, 17th March at 11am at Booka on Church St

Saturday, 17th March at 2pm at Siop Cwlwm in the Indoor Market on Bailey Head

Speaking to the Guardian, the 73-year-old said she was “stunned”, because she was “not accustomed to winning things”.

“I believed it with my head, but not with the rest of me,” she said.

Born in 1937, Clarke has published a series of collections since her 1971 debut, Snow on the Mountain, which have made her one of Britain’s best-loved poets, and seen her work become a fixture on exam syllabuses.

The poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy, who served on the prize committee, saluted the award, which she said was in recognition of both Clarke’s latest collection, A Recipe for Water, as well as her body of work, which at its best “stands comparison with Seamus Heaney”.

[Source: The Guardian]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/dec/24/gillian-clarke-queens-gold-medal

Come along and see Gillian Clarke at the Oswestry Lit Fest

Sat 17th, 7 pm at Peter Humphrey’s Centre, Oswestry School
Tickets:  £10 (£9 pre-booked before end of Feb)
BOOK: 01691 662244 or email mail@bookabookshop.co.uk

Mandy Kirkby, author of the compendium book joins Vanessa at what promises to be one of the most popular events of the festival.

Rumour has it that the vehicle itself might be making an appearance.  All a bit hush-hush at the mo.

On the other side of the world, the MAKE A SPLASH campaign which raises money for water projects where they are most desperately needed is a project close to Frank’s heart. 

It’s a fantastic campaign, so have a watch of the video and please do support it if you are able.

Find out in this fascinating YouTube clip: