As part of Portsmouth BookFest 2020, several S&C regulars plus guests from out of town will discuss their travel-inspired poems, novels, articles and reportage – and how you can use your own experiences to create original pieces of travel writing. The event is free but you will have to book tickets here.
The time: Thursday, March 5th 2020 5-9pm
The place: Eldon Building, University of Portsmouth
The schedule is as follows:
5.00 – 5.45pm: An interview with two of our celebrated travel writers.
6pm – 7.15pm: Themed readings from the collected writers and discussions about the various techniques used.
7.30pm – 9.00pm: Hands on workshop. Please book on the separate listing page here.
Come to any part, or all. Please book in advance.
(Please feel free to bring sandwiches etc as there will be no catered facilities at this time. A nearby Co-Op sells basics and coffee.)
The guest speakers/teachers:
Ben Aitken is the author of A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland, recounting a year spent working, travelling and integrating. Paul Ross called it ‘the funniest book of the year.’ Ben also wrote Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island, featuring in The Guardian, The Times and on BBC Radio.
Rubia Dar is an award-winning freelance producer/director, specialising in documentaries, factual programmes, current affairs and news. She’s worked for all main UK TV channels, Al Jazeera English, and American Networks including National Geographic and Discovery Channel.
Amanda Garrie is in the final stages of a PhD in creative writing, where she’s writing a novel, at The University of Portsmouth. She was Portsmouth City Library and Archives Service Poet in Residence for 2019 and is a founder member of T’Articulation spoken word troupe. Much of her poetry and prose-fiction reflects the cultural curiosities discovered on her travels in Spain, Eastern Europe and India.
Mike Manson’s new novel, Down in Demerara, concerns an Englishman who is plucked from his humdrum job and dispatched to the forbidden rainforest of Guyana on a mysterious assignment. Fay Weldon calls the book ‘a fast-moving and wonderfully funny (I laughed aloud a lot) vigorous and intelligent tale of an innocent abroad.’
Richard Peirce, a co-founder of T’Articulation, is well-known on the local spoken-word circuit. His poetry, often connecting emotionally with the people, landscapes and situations, of his travels in the Philippines, Russia and Africa, has been published in a number of anthologies.
Tom Sykes is the author of The Realm of the Punisher: Travels in Duterte’s Philippines which garnered positive reviews in the Times Literary Supplement and the London Magazine. Tom is also the author of Ivory Coast: The Bradt Guide and his travel journalism has appeared in The Telegraph, Private Eye, New Statesman, New African, The Scotsman and many other titles. He is a Co-founding Editor of Star & Crescent
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