The Folkestone Book Festival (always worth a visit) has some excellent competitions this year and – even better – most of them are free to enter.

Some great prompts and ideas there.

Click on this link to find out more. Here at Writing Matters HQ, we recommend you try every one that’s free to enter.

Congratulations to Anne Petrie on an amazing story.

Young woman ice skater on park lake. Photograph by Carl Michel, ca. 1915 Missouri History Museum Photograph and Print Collection. Carl Michel Collection n36227

You can read it here.

Those great people over at The Word Factory have posted their September list of competitions. Click here to visit their site and find out about some fabulous competitions.

Get working towards those 100 rejections…

Back in 2014 Hanef Kureshi caused a bit of a stir when he cast doubt on the value of creative writing courses.

Here at Writing Matters Towers, we think our ‘bums on seats’ – and more so, our ‘repeat custom bums on seats’ – speaks for itself about the quality of our teaching. We believe that properly prepared lessons, accessible teaching methods and happy confident students make for a thorough and useful course. Our teaching is peer-reviewed by our partner organisations at least once a term within our own quality assurance framework.

Most of our new custom comes from word-of-mouth referrals which is always great to hear.

This article is an interesting reply to Kureshi’s original statement.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/14/creative-writing-courses-advice-students

We’re always on the look out for good competitions at Writing Matters, especially free ones… Free ones that from an organisation with a great reputation are even better. 

This really fits the bill: https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/competitions/firewords-quarterly-writing-competition

Great theme and perfect challenge. Closing date October 31st 2016

It is with great sadness that we announce the death of Dr Rosemary Dunn. Ro was a stalwart of the Deal class and an exceptional writer. She continued to write throughout her illness and has left a brilliant body of work for her family and friends to read and treasure.

Ro’s obituary appeared in the Guardian today: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/sep/01/rosemary-dunn-obituary but she is best remembered by her extraordinary writing. This poem, about her hero, appeared on the order of service at her funeral. Further examples of Ro’s work will be read at a concert to celebrate her life which will be held in 2017.

Homage by Rosemary Dunn

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) started to go deaf before he was 30. In 1824, and stone deaf, he completed his 9^th symphony (the ‘Choral Symphony’ whose last movement contains the famous ‘Ode to Joy’ – now the European Anthem). He insisted on conducting the first performance so, to honour his request, he was placed to one side of the (hearing) conductor. At the end of the performance Beethoven had to be turned round to see the applause which he was unable to hear. 

They say
you enjoy a drink
with the locals

They say
you are spurned
in love

They say
you are ill-tempered
and grumpy

They say
your music is too hard
to play

They say
you’re thumping your piano
to bits.

But now, Ludwig,
let me place my hands
on your shoulders
and turn you round
to face the eye-music
of adulation

I can’t hear
what you are saying
because it is drowned
by the sounds
of cheering

I have seen
your ear bent close
to the keys, tilted
towards the visibility of your hands
shaping out
the splintered metaphors
of your music.

They say
you died in a thunderstorm

They say
you had white teeth
’til the day you died

I saw
an old man
in the Zentralfriedhof
bring you flowers

His own Ode to Joy

Congratulations to Fay Franklin (Wednesday group) for a brilliant runner up story in last Friday’s Faber #quickfic. We’re huge fans of #quickfic at Writing Matters and even bigger fans of Fay’s amazing writing.

You can read the story here: https://www.faberacademy.co.uk/news/