Formed over forty years ago, our Writers Circle is based in Felixstowe, Suffolk. Meetings are held in The Room at the Top in Felixstowe Library, normally on the first and third Tuesday of each month commencing at 7.30pm and finishing by 10.00pm. Check this weblog for details of meetings.

There is an annual November to November fee of £30, April to November is £20 and June to November £15. For members preferring to pay at each meeting the charge is £5 per meeting. To contact Felixstowe Scribblers simply email scribblers.1@btinternet.com or the Secretary, catherine.stafford1@ntlworld.com

Wednesday, 11 May 2016

Poetry competitions ...

... can be found at:

www.welshpoetry.co.uk

From the Wirral:-
http://festivaloffirsts.com/poetry-competition/




V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize 2016 £1000 for the best unpublished short story of the year

'Something glimpsed from the corner of the eye, in passing...'  
- V.S. Pritchett on short stories
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Dear Felixstowe Scribblers , 
 
Our annual short story competition, the
V.S. Pritchett Memorial Prize, is open for entries. 
 
£1,000 will go to the best unpublished short story of the
year and the winning entry is also published in Prospect
online and the RSL Review.

Entries should be written in English, and be2000-4000
words in length. 
Entrants must be resident in the UK and
likely to be available for a prize-giving event in autumn 2016.

The closing date for entries is 20 June 2016.

Please do forward this information to writers you know. It
would also be great if you were able to share on Twitter : share on Twitter
 
 





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Suffolk Libraries May 2016 newsletter


As you may have seen, 2016 is Suffolk Libraries’ Year
of Reading and there are plenty of literary festivals taking
place this year. The BooksEast festival has kicked off
this week and you can still book tickets for events taking
place. Next month we have Southwold Library’s
Crime Writers’ Festival and Felixstowe Book Festival in
late June with the library one of the key venues.
Later in the year we’ll have our very own
Suffolk Libraries Bookfest from 21-30 October.

Don’t forget you can take part in our Reading Campaign
by making a reading pledge, and you have until the end of
the month to enter our photo competitions!

Thursday, 5 May 2016

The Felixstowe Book Festival

Extraordinary East Anglia 

This week we are looking ahead to events that have a distinctly ‘local’ flavour, both in terms of the speakers and the subjects. And what a smorgasbord we have! Fiction, poetry, non- fiction and a chance to get involved yourself. It’s all here! 
We start in East Anglia itself. Tom Blass will be telling us about his travels around the edges of the North Sea, piecing together its histories from those who know it best, in his book The Naked Shore: Of the North Sea. Whilst our eventSet in Suffolk sees authors Rosy ThorntonPauline Mandersand Mary Powles come together to talk about how Suffolk has influenced their writing. Rosy will also be running a workshop on using landscape and the natural world when writing fiction.
Suffolk based author J.M Hewitt will be talking about her debut crime novelExclusionA Country of Refuge Zone, set in the modern day and exploring the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, as well as discussing the process of getting published. In a twist on the traditional methods of publication, Lucy Popescu turned to a crowd funding campaign to publish her new anthology A Country of Refuge. In what will no doubt be a very thought provoking and timely event, human rights activist Lucy will be discussing her new book.
Ruth Dugdall

For poetry lovers, Essex poet- musician- columnist Martin Newell will be reading two of his long poems, accompanied by original music composed by The Hosepipe Band. AndFelixstowe Cafe Poets will be joining us for Pimms in His Lordship’s Library, with a range of poetry, music and possibly a little audience participation!If you are a fan of ‘Domestic Noir,’ look no further than Home is where the hurt is in which Felixstowe born Ruth Dugdallwill be joining Julia Crouch and Elizabeth Haynes to discuss its popularity and effect.
This year has seen the 400th Anniversary of the death of William Shakespeare. The Orwell Writers’ League will be reading a selection of their own short stories, inspired by the Bard himself.
Meanwhile Felixstowe Scribblers join us for not one, but two events! Start the Day with a Story by listening to the Scribblers read a selection of their work, then try it for yourself with their Flash Fiction event.
If you enjoy writing, have you entered our adult short story competition yet? The closing date is 13th May, so there is still time! And you can hear the finalists reading their entries in Bedtime Story, our final event of the festival.

And don’t forget our fabulous Book Trail which is fun for all the family! The trail will take you around Felixstowe where you must solve our bookish clues. Successful trails will be entered into a prize draw.
There certainly is a lot going on! We hope you’ve found something that has piqued your interest. You can find details of our programme in full here.
Until next time!
Kelly and the Festival Team

Tuesday, 3 May 2016

Meeting Report


Apologies: Carolyn, Cathy and Gerry
Present:  Richard, Jane, Mairead, Liliane, Steve, Jim, Beryl, Ruth, Dick and Dave.

Business items:

After the low attendance last time it was nice to have a healthy turn out that included one new member and an old friend.

It was welcome to Steve for his first meeting at Scribblers. Steve has been on a UEA Creative Writing Course and is currently re-editing his novel. He did attend one of our meetings around two years ago but has now decided to join our group.

Another warm welcome goes to Ruth who is now back in Felixstowe and aims to attend Scribblers whenever she can. She is an excellent and experienced writer who can help with her words of wisdom. Ruth mentioned the Luke Bitmead Bursary which has now opened for entries of completed novels. The fee is £10 and details can be found on the Legend Press website at http://www.legendtimesgroup.co.uk/legend-press/365-luke-bitmead-bursary Ruth won in 2009 and is quoted thus: ‘Winning the bursary was my absolute breakthrough moment, but even knowing that my novel would be published I could never have been prepared for what happened next. Readers told me how moved they were, how the story lingered long after they closed the cover; such feedback is a gift for any writer. And other gifts followed with foreign rights being sold, and the championing of the novel by Amazon. I have also had two other books, The James Version & The Sacrificial Man, published by Legend Press.’ 

Cathy was unable to attend because of a prior family commitment whilst Caroline is preparing for another trip to Paris and Gerry is under the weather.

Tonight’s work was generally in preparation for the Felixstowe Book Festival and there certainly was a good collection to choose from. Writers will be contacted shortly about sharing their work at the Festival.

Tonight’s offerings:

Dick: Landguard Fort, Felixstowe, Suffolk. (blank verse) and Retired Landguard Fort (rhyming poetry).

Liliane: Felixstowe and Me.

Richard: I’m Thinking of Felixstowe.

Dave: Lost Daughter.

Steve: The Encounter (an extract from his novel).

Beryl: Winter Dawn in Felixstowe. (blank verse).

Jane: Postcard to Dad and Postcard from the Front Line (two examples of flash fiction).

Jim: A Wonderful New Friend.

Ruth: Under (an extract from her next novel).

Mairead: The Edge of Sanity.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable meeting with some tremendous work from new and established writers alike. Next comes the task of selecting and practising reading the work available. Time is getting shorter!

Our next meeting is on 17th May when the homework assignment is to write up to 1,000 words with the first line beginning, “I remember that week in November”.

Until then,

Keep Scribbling!

Dave





Monday, 2 May 2016

Our meeting

Hope you've had a nice Bank Holiday away from work and free from chores etc.,

Our meeting this week (tomorrow Tuesday 3rd May) is centred round the subject of... Felixstowe. Where else? It is a homework theme in preparation for the forthcoming Felixstowe Book Festival and, hopefully, we'll be able to have some of the stories to read out at the Festival and possibly included on our display boards too.

Looking forward to the meeting so hopefully we'll see you there,

Dave

Competition...

Essex Book Festival's
Crime Writing Short Story Competition 2016

To celebrate the life and work of Essex literary legend, crime writer Margery Allingham who lived in Tolleshunt D’Arcy, Essex Book Festival is launching its first Crime Writing Short Story Competition in collaboration with BBC Essex. We are inviting entries from published and unpublished writers based in the UK.

Essex has a long tradition of nurturing some of the UK’s best-loved crime writers, including renowned Witham-resident Dorothy L Sayers, and more recently, No. 1 bestselling author Martina Cole, born in Aveley, Essex.

Are you next in line?

PRIZES: 1st £250, 2nd £100, 3rd £50
DEADLINE: Monday 23 May 2016

For more information
call 07913 061948

or email hello@essexbookfestival.org.uk