Word Soup #3 @ New Continental

Word Soup, Preston’s live literature night is back later this month on Tuesday 23rd June 2009 at the New Continental. But, the novels have been put down and poetry is back. Here’s some details:

Up until now our focus has been on prose but for Word Soup #3 we’re focusing exclusively on poetry. We’ve three great performance poets booked to perform and – in a change to our usual format, have open mike spots available to book on the night.

Each open mike slot will be for three minutes, and unlike our first two nights, there is no theme – the night is completely open to new and emerging talent.

Sarah Miller is a playwright and performing poet. She recently performed for Apples & Snakes at PUSH in Contact, Manchester and at the Spoken Word Open Mic in the Brewery, Kendal. Sarah is influenced by youth culture, overhearing conversations and Barrow-in-Furness where she lives. Her plays Asboy, Ice Baby and Surfacing were recently toured by the Ashton Group Young Apprentice Actors.

Gary Bridgens is new to the spoken word scene but has been performing as a clown and street performer for 20 yrs. He took part in Superheroes of Slam which was his first slam last year and got through to the semi final. Since then he has impressed audiences with his witty banter and fast patter uke numbers. He has been support act to internationally renowned Polar Bear and he’s been a guest performer and compere for Apples & Snakes in Cumbria.

Ann the Poet has been performing poetry in pubs, theatres and at festivals for fifteen years. She was the Poet Laureate for South Cumbria in 2006. She’s a regular compère at the Brewery spoken word nights and at Solfest. She published her collection Synesthestic last year. She features on the poetry/sonic art net albums The Resting Bench by Ann Wilson and Clutter and The Resting Bench Remix Projects 1, 2 and 3 which can be downloaded free at www.earthmp.com.

Word Soup is a Preston Writing Network event.

The first Preston Bloggers Meetup – May 13th

The official Preston Bloggers Meetup logo

After posting the other week about organising a bloggers meetup, we got a good response so we’re going ahead. Here’s the details:

The Preston Bloggers Meetup will be bringing together all the blogging talent in Preston, along with those interested in starting a blog, to find out more about blogging. You do not need to have your own blog to come along.

There will be a guest presentation from pro-blogger, Andy Dickinson, on how to start up and run a successful blog and the opportunity to ask his advice. Find out how it’s easy to setup and get going and add your voice to the blogsphere.

Preston has an ever-growing blog scene and this is the chance for those who blog to come together and meet other bloggers and also pass on tips to those who want to blog.

A few of the more experienced bloggers in the Preston community will be on hand to answer any queries people might have on how they can improve their blog, technical problems or just any issues they might be having. A kind of ‘bloggers surgery’ if you will.

The event will be held in the Snug at the New Continental in Broadgate on Wednesday 13th May 2009. We can only take 40 people, so make sure you register to reserve your place. It’s a 7.30 PM start, we don’t know what time we’ll finish.

If you can’t make it along, you can follow on twitter using the #prestonbloggers tag.

The event is being organised by Preston Blog and Preston Writing Network.

We hope you’ll join us to chill out with a beverage, possibly a laptop and learn/talk about social media.

The logo above is by the lovely Kerry Sholicar, she’s an ace graphic designer we know. She also did the Preston Tweetup logo. And we liked that, a lot.

Review: Word Soup @ New Continental

This is a guest post by Mel Webster. She is studying at the University of Central Lancashire and blogs at What do you do in Preston? If you’d like to write a guest post for Preston Blog see how you can get involved.

Steven Hall (left) and Chris Killen (right) discuss books before taking to the stage for their readings

The Word Soup reading event at the New Continental was the first of its kind in Preston, according to organiser, Jenn Ashworth of Preston Writing Network. With writers ranging from international bestsellers to exciting new unpublished talents, it was a diverse and edgy night out for everyone who came.

The event held in the venue’s event space on Tuesday night got a great reaction from the audience who were treated to readings on the theme of risk.

Organiser and published writer, Jenn Ashworth read from her novel “A Kind of Intimacy” which has been getting rave reviews from the press. Her comic timing brought her dark novel about love and obesity to life.

Speaking afterwards she said: “Despite a few technical hitches and last minute panics, I think it went really well!”

Cult best-seller, Steven Hall (The Raw Shark Texts) impressed with his confident reading of a passage about conceptual information streams from his award winning novel whilst Manchester writer and award winning blogger, Chris Killen (The Bird Room) gave an effective nervous energy to his reading about a paranoid boyfriend hiding his girlfriend’s ex’s bushes.

Watch interviews with Chris Killen and Steven Hall from after the event

Cat Dunlop and Catherine Cable. new writers from the Continental Collective creative writing group, read their own original work and Sally Cook read a hilarious story about stealing apple juice.

Live music in between the readings came from singer/songwriter Ottersgear, who claimed to have named himself after a bridge he used to sometimes sleep under.

Check out the live tweets from the evening at #wordsoup.

See more images from the night.

The next event is on the 19th May and the theme is going to be skin.