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Second Light Network

Promotion network for older women poets

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** Anne Stevenson is among the readers at the Second Light
FIFTY-FIFTEEN FESTIVAL, 19-21 November 09 **

about us

events

publications

ARTEMISpoetry

competition

competition results

membership

associate membership

apply to join

contact details

Second Light 'fireworks'

 

About us

Second Light Network is a network of women poets, aged around 40 and upwards (but see Associate Membership), who are published or beginning to get published and who are serious about developing their work.  The Network was founded by Dilys Wood in 1994.  As organiser, she is assisted by Myra Schneider (Consultant), a very-part-time administrator, and a 9-member committee which supports the work of the organisation.

We aim to promote the work of all women poets, and also to develop and promote the work of members, through publications, readings, one-day courses, residential workshops and festivals.  

The Network keeps in touch through e-mail Newsletters and a Noticeboard in ARTEMISpoetry, a twice yearly journal which includes reviews of books by women poets, including books and pamphlets by members, articles, information about workshops, courses and readings.  ARTEMISpoetry also publishes the winning and commended poems from the Second Light Poetry Competition which is held annually. Members also receive the Launde Bag, a supplement of circa 24 pages of poetry arising from Second Light's residential workshop, traditionally held at Launde Abbey in Leicestershire.  

Second Light has published several anthologies in association with established poetry publishers and through its publishing wing, Second Light Publications.   (Publications)

The Membership numbers circa 300 and includes very well-known poets such as RV Bailey, Mimi Khalvati and Penelope Shuttle.

Events

We hold an annual 3-day conference, usually at Launde Abbey, an Elizabethan Manor House of historic significance, near Oakham in Leicestershire.  The Manor House is surrounded by beautiful gardens, parkland and woodland (web-site).  There are several workshops, readings and discussions and attendees are invited to bring along their books for sale.   A 'Launde' competition is held and the winning poems and a selection of poems from attendees is published in the Launde Bag, and distributed (to members only) as a supplement to ARTEMISpoetry.  In 2010, the venue is Holland House, Cropthorne, Worcs.

Festival:  the annual festival takes place, usually in London for ease of access, late in the year (October/November) over 2 days, with workshops and readings.  All events are open to non-members.  Members receive priority bookings.

Tutors: Past and forthcoming tutors at Launde Abbey and the festivals include Catherine Byron, Anne Cluysenaar, Kate Foley, Katherine Gallagher, Hilary Llewellyn-Williams, Mimi Khalvati, Esther Morgan, Pascale Petit, Myra Schneider, Pauline Stainer and Penelope Shuttle.

Other Events:  Readings and workshops are arranged throughout the year, across the UK.   Second Light Network publications are highly regarded, often going into re-run, and launch readings are popular and usually very well attended.  Advance booking is recommended!

Other prominent poets who have worked with the organization include Anna Adams, Gillian Allnutt, Moniza Alvi, U.A. Fanthorpe, Elaine Feinstein, Judith Kazantzis, Hilary Llewellyn-Williams, Meg Peacocke, Caroline Price and Anne Stevenson.

Please let us know if you want to be added to our e-mailing list.

2009

Nov, Thu 19 to Sat 21: FIFTY-FIFTEEN FESTIVAL, London

A rare opportunity to hear a reading by Anne Stevenson...     Booking form (pdf)

Tutors: MIMI KHALVATI, HILARY LLEWELLYN-WILLIAMS, PASCALE PETIT and MYRA SCHNEIDER and there will be a talk from ROSE FLINT and MYRA SCHNEIDER.

The readers at the main event are: RV BAILEY, ANNE STEVENSON, MIMI KHALVATI, ALISON BRACKENBURY, ROSE FLINT, CAROLINE PRICE and LYNNE WYCHERLEY.

There will be a Short Readings event with guest poets, Daphne Gloag, Lucy Hamilton & Ruth O'Callaghan, plus other Second Light members will read 1 poem each.

Ruth O’Callaghan is also presenting an event celebrating the work and influence of UA Fanthorpe, with guest poet RV Bailey, on Thursday 19th.  Second Light members are invited to come along and read, or share their memories of UA, at this event. Contact details on the booking form.

Men are welcome at the readings.

2010

23 - 26 Mar:  Holland House, Cropthorne, Worcs.      Booking Form (pdf)

Come and join us for a 3 day residential workshop with Myra Schneider and Penelope Shuttle at Holland House near Evesham, Worcestershire. Booking is open to women poets aged around 40 and above, with some experience of writing. Priority is given to Second Light members.

Poetry courses start on Tuesday evening (evening meal provided) and go on to Friday lunchtime (lunch provided) and include writing excercises to stimulate your own writing, readings by facilitators and participants, discussions, free time for writing, workshops for feedback on your poems.

The charge is £265 for a single room and £220 in a shared room. More about Holland House on the booking form and on their web-site.

Publications

 

As Birds Do cover

 

As Birds Do

                                              Mary MacRae

This is MacRae’s first poetry collection. She is published in journals and many anthologies. She lives in London but has travelled widely and has close connections with Kent and [West] Wales. Outer landscapes in city and countryside are often her entry point to the inner, spiritual landscape explored in her poems.

Second Light Publications, 2007

ISBN:   978-0-9546934-3-5

£7.95, (68 pp)  (Members £7)

order a copy (pdf file)

 

Becoming cover

 

Becoming

                                              Myra Schneider

" Becoming centres on the highly individual voices of four people as they help each other to escape from intricate patterns of prejudice, frustration and self-doubt. Expert plotting sets up tensions, contrasts, echoes, cuts unexpectedly from voice to voice, while evocative descriptions engage the imagination. Becoming recaptures for modern poetry the neglected ground of dramatic narrative."               Anne Cluysenaar
(see more

Second Light Publications, 2007

ISBN:   0-9546934-2-6

£5.95, (47 pp)

order a copy (pdf file)

 

Images of Women cover

 

Images of Women

" This is a book that has been waiting to be written since, perhaps, the nineteen-seventies, when women at last began to play a serious part in the world of poetry.  These images of women are images of women by women, constructed out of twenty-first century consciousness, unmediated by the male gaze."           U A Fanthorpe
(see more

Arrowhead Press in association with Second Light, 2006, eds. Myra Schneider and Dilys Wood

ISBN 10:   1-904852-14-9
ISBN 13:   978-1-904852-14-8

£12.95, (211 pp)

order a copy (pdf file)

My Mother Threw Knives cover

My Mother Threw Knives

 

sister-publication (pamphlet-style) to Images of Women, Second Light Publications, 2006, eds. Wendy French, Maggie Sawkins and Dilys Wood  (see more)

ISBN:   0-9546934-1-8

£4.50, (77 pp)

order a copy (pdf file)

 

Four Caves of the Heart cover

 

 

 

Four Caves of the Heart

... (Second Light Publications') first independent publication celebrates the work of members with exceptional talent but who are not yet widely known. We think you will find these voices interesting, distinctive and compelling.

Second Light Publications, 2004, eds. Myra Schneider and Caroline Price

ISBN:   0-9546934-0-x

SOLD OUT

Was £8.95   (119 pp)

a few rebound copies available for £2

order a copy (pdf file)

 

Making Worlds cover

 

Making Worlds

...a major anthology of poetry by women writers in Britain. It is the first such anthology produced in this century and it demonstrates the strength of women's writing today and its increasing contribution to the poetry of the last thirty years. The editors have aimed to show the imaginative power, depth of thought and range of content in women's work

Headland in association with Second Light, 2003, eds. Myra Schneider, Dilys Wood and Gladys Mary Coles

ISBN:   1-902096-70-3

£10.95, (272 pp)

order a copy (pdf file)

 

Parents cover

 

Parents

...includes poems by 114 poets living in Britain about their own parents and has work both by established writers and exciting newcomers. Only a few copies left.

Enitharmon in association with Second Light, 2000, eds. Myra Schneider and Dilys Wood

ISBN:   1 900564 71 8

£8.95, (218 pp)

order a copy (pdf file)

 

ARTEMISpoetry

Noticeboard: Members are invited to send news items (information about events, successes, publications) for inclusion in e-notices and the Noticeboard section of ARTEMISpoetry.  The deadline for ARTEMISpoetry is as for poetry and artwork.  ARTEMISpoetry

Send news items by e-mail to : Anne Stewart (preferred), or by post to Dilys Wood.

 

2007 FORWARD PRIZE SHORTLISTINGS...
Myra Schneider's poem "Goulash" (printed in the Launde Bag in the July SLN Newsletter) was shortlisted for the Forward Prize for best single poem AND Joanna Boulter's collection "Twenty Four Preludes & Fugues on Dmitri Shostakovich" (reviewed in the July SLN Newsletter), which was shortlisted for the best first collection!  — and Mary MacRae's poem, Jury, is featured in the Forward Anthology.

 

Competition

Second Light Poetry Competition

The deadline for the 2009 Second Light Poetry Competition has now passed and the poems are with this year's judge, Pauline Stainer.

 

Results

2008  Competition  

Judge:   Gillian Clarke

Second Light now has its own web-site and full detail are posted there.  The winning and other poems placed in the competitions are published in ARTEMISpoetry, a bi-annual journal of writing by women:  poetry, articles, reviews and artwork.

The 2008 winners:

1st prize: Eleanor Livingstone, Snow Hare;
2nd prize: Anne Wigley,
Learning to Swim
3rd prize: Sheila Wild,
Shiant Wife

 

2007  Competition  

Judge:   Carole Satyamurti                  (link to Carole Satyamurti web-page)

1st Prize:     Pat Borthwick            Apple Pie

2nd Prize:   Kate Foley          Thrift

3rd Prize:   Doreen Hinchliffe    The Regular

read the winning poems (pdf file)

Commended:   Anne Alexander (2 poems), Jill Dawson, Kate Foley, Jane McLaughlin, Mary MacRae, Denise McSheehy, Anne Stewart, Fiona Ritchie Walker

Shortlisted:  Astrid Van Baalen, Pat Borthwick, Elizabeth Burns, Tricia Corob, Rhiannon Cree, Clare Crossman, Marilyn Donovan, Doreen Hinchliffe, Maria Jastrzebska (2 poems), Doreen King (2 poems), Gill McEvoy, Shelley McAllister, Jane McLaughlin, Rosemary McLeish, Pat Marum, Margaret Speak, Zoe Williams

2006 Competition

Judge:   Penelope Shuttle                            link to web-page

Winning poem:     Pam Hughes           Seven Sisters

joint 2nd Prize:    Anne Ryland          Snegurochka

                                    Margaret Speak    The Photographer's Apprentice

read the winning and second prize poems and Judge's report (pdf file)

Membership & Renewal

Full Membership is open to women aged over 40, with a concessionary rate available for those with limited means, and Associate Membership is open to women under 40.

Members receive twice-yearly Newsletters, other regular information about Second Light events and publications, discount on publications, priority booking, opportunities for publication in Newsletters and anthologies.

Associate Members (women under 40) receive the same benefits as members, excepting that full members have priority for publication and the chance to read at SLN events.

Current rates:   £20 full membership,    £13 concessionary full membership (concessions:  these are not age-related but are for those who receive benefit relating to low income or are on very low income and not claiming benefit),    £13 associate membership.   There are also special rates for renewal/join with a selection of books.  

Donations welcome.

Apply to join or renew:    Complete the Application (pdf)

Contact details

Organiser:    Dilys Wood

Consultant:  Myra Schneider - web-site

Administrator

Donations welcome.   Please send cheque payable to "Second Light" to Dilys Wood, Organiser, Second Light Network, 9 Greendale Close, London SE22 8TG.

Links:

SecondLightLive - the web-site of Second Light Network

 

Anna Adams          Gillian Allnutt          Moniza Alvi

Catherine Byron          Anne Cluysenaar          UA Fanthorpe          Elaine Feinstein

Kate Foley          Katherine Gallagher(and Katherine on poetry p f )

Judith Kazantzis         Mimi Khalvati          

Hilary Llewellyn-Williams          Esther Morgan          Meg Peacocke

Pascale Petit          Caroline Price          Carole Satyamurti

Myra Schneider (on poetry p f)          Penelope Shuttle          Pauline Stainer

Anne Stevenson       Dilys Wood

 

 Arrowhead Press          Enitharmon Press           The Poetry School

 

Note:  this page created for Second Light Network by poetry p f on a sponsored-page basisno formal association exists otherwise.

 


© of all poems featured on this site remains with the poet
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