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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 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. The newsletter also includes the winning and commended poems from the Second Light competition which is held annually, and the Launde Bag, a supplement to the mid-year edition. The editor features member poets by invitation.

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

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

Events

Launde: We hold an annual 3-day conference, 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, a supplement to the mid-year Newsletter.

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, 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 feel free to print the events list for friends and colleagues: Second Light Network events list (pdf) and do let us know if you want to be added to our e-mailing list.

2008

Nov, Thu 20 to Sat 22: Autumn Festival, London

Booking now - booking form (pdf)

Tutors: Katherine Gallagher, Hilary Llewellyn Williams, Myra Schneider and Penelope Shuttle and there will be a talk from Kate Foley and Dilys Wood. The main readers will include Kate Foley, Hilary Llewellyn Williams, Ruth O'Callaghan, Meg Peacocke, Myra Schneider and Penelope Shuttle. The main reading will take place on Saturday 22nd and all the workshops will be in The Art Workers Guild, 6 Queen Square, London, WC1.

Ruth O�Callaghan is also presenting a reading by Second Light members on Thursday 20th November in Camden. Readers at this event will be eligible to submit for the bluechrome �from the floor� anthology due out in 2009 and, for those accepted, a potential reading opportunity at Foyles bookshop in London.
Men are welcome at the readings.

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) has been 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), has been 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 2008 Second Light Poetry Competition is 1st OCT 08, open to women 30 and above. Members of Second Light Network are entitled to one free entry. This year�s judge is Gillian Clarke.

Gillian Clarke is President of Ty Newydd, the writers� centre in North Wales which she co-founded in 1990, tutor on the M.Phil in Creative Writing at the University of Glamorgan, and the current National Poet for Wales. Her poetry is studied for GCSE and A Level throughout Britain. Recent books include Making the Beds for the Dead, 2004, a prose collection, and At The Source, 2008. A new collection, A Recipe for Water, is due in 2009.

competition entry form (pdf) (2 copies)

Results

2007 Competition

The winning and commended poems will be published in the Feb/Mar 2008 edition of the Second Light Newsletter and on the SecondLightLive web-site (due for launch, March 2008).

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:

Second Light Network (lists contributors to Images of Women and My Mother Threw Knives)

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 basis� no formal association exists otherwise.

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