Medway River Lit's third weekend began on Friday 15 November with a takeover by Big Trouble at our regular Poetry Republic event, at Coffee Republic in Chatham.
Big Trouble is Medway's longest-running spoken word evening, featuring guest poets from Kent and beyond as well as their popular free-for-all open mic. Hosts David and Bethany welcomed guest poets Richard Scott and Jah-Mir Early to each perform a set, which was thought provoking and powerful in different ways. The open mic showcased a variety of local writers in many different styles. What a treat!
"What a fantastic event, so glad I came"
"100% another bangin evening"
On Saturday 16 November, at Chatham Library, we were delighted to provide some literary content for our younger readers. First up, Anne-Marie had the pleasure of presenting our Medway Youth Laureates with their prizes and hearing their poems in person. The task was to write a poem in response to the question, "What's the weather like?" in view of the challenges facing the climate across the continents.
"It was a real privilege to present the inaugural Youth Poet Laureate awards to three very worthy winners, chosen from a very strong field". (Find out about the Laureates here.)
We then had the pleasure of hearing from Crystal Peake writers, Samantha Fitzgibbons and Colin R Parsons. Crystal Peake is a publisher based in Ramsgate who specialize in YA and children's books.
Meanwhile, over in Strood Library, Caitlin Davies ran a fascinating Masterclass in Writing and Researching for Historical Crime Fiction, which gave the attendees some really great ideas for writing historical-based crime. This was followed by talks from AA Chaudhuri talking about her psychological thriller, Under Her Roof, then Caitlin Davies gave a presentation on the fascinating history of UK female sleuths.
On Sunday 17 November, at Rochester Library, we presented a very interesting and entertaining panel on 'How to write better short stories' with Maria C McCarthy, Neil M Thorne and Charlie Fish, expertly helmed by MRL co-director Sam.
"There was advice, discussion, and each of the writers read a tantalising extract from their work. It really was terrific."
Barry then spoke to writer April Doyle about her novel Hive, set in a near-future Kent where pollinators are almost extinct. Then Anne-Marie rounded off our Sunday Session at Rochester Library in discussion with author Thomas McMullan, talking about his novel The Last Good Man, and previewing his next novel, which is out soon.
In the week, we also hosted an event for our Ukrainian community, fundraising for medical aid for Ukraine, attended by the Mayor of Medway, plus a fascinating talk from Bird Wise North Kent, on some of the endangered and dwindling bird species that we can see locally.
Join us for week four of Medway River Lit, from Monday 18 November at Gillingham Library for a talk from Jennifer Godfrey on the Secret Missions of The Suffragettes, and on Wednesday 20 November at Wigmore Library for the Wigmore Lecture, where Barbara Havelocke, will be speaking about her novel Estella's Revenge.
You can hear from many of the authors mentioned above in our podcast, The River Is Lit, available on Spotify and YouTube - search for The River Is Lit, or see links on our Podcast page.
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