Membership, meadows and community at the end of May!
In like a lion, out like a lamb - Dialect celebrates all things writing in the merriest month...
DIALECT DINNER WITH ADAM WEYMOUTH
TUESDAY MAY 28th 7pm
Last call for tickets to our next online Dinner! This Tuesday night, join us for three courses of adventure with acclaimed travel writer and journalist, Adam Weymouth.
Adam’s first book, Kings of the Yukon, tells the story of his 2000 mile canoe trip down the Yukon River in Alaska, exploring the decline of the king salmon and how their disappearance is impacting on the many people and ecosystems that depend on them.
The book won the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year, The Lonely Planet/ Stanfords Adventure Travel Book of the Year and the Prix Paul-Emile Victor.
His journalism exploring land rights, climate crisis and community has appeared in numerous publications, including Granta, The Observer and Huffington Post, and he was selected by the National Centre for Writing as one of 10 writers shaping the UK's future. He is a visiting professor in creative writing at Warwick University, and his new book will be published by Penguin later in 2024.
Adam will be bringing along some of his favourite dishes alongside a discussion of his writing, journeying and creative life. A great way to ease yourself back into the week after a Bank Holiday weekend!
Tickets can be booked here - £5 each, donations welcome
FREE for Dialect members, caregivers and those on a small income - just click the free ticket button on the same event page.
And if you’re not sure what on earth an online supper club is all about, you can watch the video of our first ever Dialect Dinner with Nick Hunt, complete with three incredible travel tales in full here
DIALECT MEMBER CHARLIE SANDERSON WINS FIRST PRIZE IN XR WRITERS REBEL FLASH FICTION COMPETITION
A HUGE congrats to Charlie Sanderson for winning the top prize in Writers Rebel flash fiction competition!
‘The Road is Long’, weaves threads of grief, resilience and hope into a haunting piece of poetic prose. The judges unanimously agreed it deserved to win, and you can hear Charlie’s powerful reading here
Charlie is a voice artist and writer living in the woods with a neurotic Labrador and a toddler. She has journaled from childhood and writes poetry and creative nonfiction with the hope to instil a bit of hope and love in hard times.
She attended our Writing Climate Hope workshop with Sarah Davy earlier this year, and wrote the first draft of this piece during one of our Saturday Power Hours and she says ‘I wouldn’t have had the seed that I grew the piece from if it hadn’t been for the Dialect membership.’
‘We need to shift how we talk and feel about climate change; when we focus only on the things going wrong and this idea that it is the end of the world, it doesn’t help anyone, it just creates overwhelm and fatigue. I read a poem recently by Cleo Wade where her vibe for life’s hard times was basically to hold out each of your hands, one holding fear, the other love. In this way we can find a way forward, and I hope that the piece I wrote helps to show that. I feel scared all the time but I also feel so much love and that anything is possible if we can set our hearts to it; as storytellers we must make writing that inspires the power of choosing love over fear, possibility over despair.’
We couldn’t agree more! Charlie has been a warm light in our Dialect members group, and all of us are pleased as punch for this well deserved win.
Find Charlie on Instagram @countrylassactress and @charliesandero for X
If you are interested in joining Dialect’s friendly and supportive online membership, this starts from £20/month, and if you are a caregiver or on a small income, the cost is free/pay as you wish.
TWILIGHT POETRY WALKS
Making the most of the long summer evenings? Let us lift them to the next level with our new series of poetry walks with Philip Rush.
Following on from the success of his previous events, these will take place at dusk, in three magical places near Stroud, Gloucestershire
Dates & Time
Each walk begins promptly at 7.30 pm.
25th July Saul (sunset 9 pm)
22nd August Ozleworth (sunset 8.30 pm)
26th September Standish Woods (sunset 7.30 pm)
We can’t promise you owls, bats, badgers and foxes, but we can mention them.
Book your tickets here
£30 for three walks or £12 for a single walk. Booking is below.
If you are a carer or on a low income, you are eligible to pay what you can or just make a donation. Email us: dialectwriters@gmail.com.
And finally, many thanks to those who joined us last weekend on our first ever Dialect Open Air/Open Mic!
We walked around a really special place known locally as The Heavens, a set of semi secret fields and valleys on the edge of Stroud in Gloucestershire, much loved by locals and currently the subject of a campaign for community ownership. And as we walked, we stopped at trees, streams and meadows to read our work.
Some people joined in person to walk and read - but as Dialect has members living in rural places all over the UK, more joined via the wonders of the internet, as the words they sent us were played aloud on the walk, joining us all together in one place in that moment.
Follow us on Instagram @dialectwriters to hear a recording of ‘A Boswell’s Love Song’ by the former Nailsworth Poet Laureate Mark Corcoran, with the sounds of the Heavens in the background as we played it aloud there.
We are so grateful to have Mark in the membership - his beautiful poems, prompts and encouragement in our online group has given us a lot of inspiration! Mark is also a participant in our GROW mentoring scheme, developing his work in progress alongside mentor @jlmmorton. More recordings to come, so watch this space!
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