Writing Hampshire Sneak Preview…

Last time I said I’d be writing my fastest ever blog post, but I lied (at least in terms of overall length – in terms of words per minute it was pretty darn impressive). This time I’m not lying: in 30 minutes I’m going to be on Radio Solent again, being interviewed by the very nice Steve Harris, and he’s going to ask me about my Writing Hampshire Project and direct people to my website. So there had better be a post here for you good people to look at! And here it is –  earlier than planned, hence the hurry and no image!

Writing Hampshire is going to be the flagship project of my Hampshire Poet year. I want to get the people of Hampshire writing poems about the places that matter to them, and then sending them to me for public presentation. That means not just the pretty parts, but the whole county; and not just the people who already write poetry, but people of all ages, from all walks of life, whether they think they’re poets or not. I want to get a kind of poetry map of anywhere we live, work, learn, play, eat, or have fun – recording in poetic form what happens in our county, what we think of it, how we imagine it.

Details are still being worked out, but I hope there will be a competition, and then an anthology or website of the best work.

I’m looking to work with different groups of people from across the county to write these poems. If you know of an organisation that might like to consider getting involved, please get in touch by emailing me.

Right, better get on the bike!

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