Preston Guild "Week" including Preston Arts Festival

The Guild Week starts today and continues until the 9th September.

 

Part of this is the Preston Arts Festival which the Poetry Society is involved in.

 

On the 1st September will be the Poetry book launch at Waterstones between 10am and 4pm.  A book of poems from members of the poetry society with many different styles and themes. A great treasure created once in 20 years. Free event. So come along and check the book out.. and find about the society too.

 

Also the Guild Poem adjudication and presentation with poetry reading by Michael Symmons Roberts. Find out who is the Guild Poet for 2012... a once in a 20 year opportunity... but who for? Another free event so come along and enjoy some poetry at County Hall on 6th September  at 7.30pm.

 

There are many other events both in the Arts Festival (click on the image below to see the brochure) and the Guild.

 

 

Be the Preston Guild Bard

The Poetry society are proud to be running a competition for the Preston Guild. The competition is to write a poem which can be in any style or form, but must feature Preston within it.

The winner will win £100 and be featured in the Society newsletter, second prize is the Jackie Hayes Award.

The competition is to be judged by Michael Symmons Roberts. He is a Whitbread Award winning poet born in Preston before moving to Newbury.

You can read the article in the Lancashire Evening Post here.

An entry form can be downloaded here.


And if anyone has problems with that link then you can open the jpgs below and print off:

Details:                                Form:

Spring Newsletter

The Spring Newsletter is now available on the Newsletter page (and also a quick link here).

It contains details on latest poets being published and the top 3 poems of the MacKenzie Trophy.

Preston Guild Update

A lot has already happened this year to do with the Guild and a lot more in the future. The Poets Guild Publication is almost ready to be printed... after being edited , re-edited and a lot of work being poured into it. I will post details on here when it is published.

One big Guild event that happened over Easter was the Preston Passion, which was a contemporary retelling of the Passion story. This was not just a Preston event but a national event too as it was shown live on BBC around the country. (Here is a clip of the rehershals http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17636858 and a news report on it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-17633443 and also some about it here http://www.prestonguild2012.com/?OBH=838).

There are many more events (and of course our publication) to look forward to. A what's on guide can be found here http://www.prestonguild2012.com/whats-on-guide . One of the events I am entering is a 5k at the start of next month, but there are many other events including the Young Musician which starts soon and G-volution music festival.

Happy New Year

Happy New writing Year to you all. The new calendar for the year has been published along with the latest newsletter (both available on the website). PPS are currently working through the drafts of their booklet for the Guild festival which is looking good. So keep an eye out for that and also I wish you all a good writing year!

Merry Christmas and new poetic year

The Christmas meeting now far behind and Christmas upon us. (Link here to the pie I usually make for it and another winter poem).

So we want to wish you a wonderful festive time and here is winter haiku :

Frost and ice outside
All the presents now opened
Inside, hope and warmth

By Ian f.

Have a great time.

Gearing up for the Guild

Currently the Preston Poets Society are working on a book of poetry, which will contain  many different styles and many different poets. This is being produced for next year which is the Preston Guild year. Preston Guild (for anyone unfamiliar) is a celebration which is now held every 20 years and has been held since 833 years ago. In 1179 Preston was granted a Guild Merchant by Henry II. The Guild controlled trade in the town and so the list of members had to be updated from time to time. This was also the time for celebration.
Although later on there was free trade in the town the Guild survived because of the social occasion which continues to this day or in fact next year! I will let you know when there is an update on the book, also more details on the Guild and events etc can be found here.

Also I have written up a little article on my other blog about Preston being European City of Sport next year. This along with my running poem that I had already posted can be found here.