A celebration of the written and spoken word will take the form of a competition on the theme of Diamonds to recognise ‘The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee’ in Otley, West Yorkshire.
The closing date for entries is 20th January 2012 so get your poems or short stories in to good order. ‘To take part in the free-to-enter competition, all you have to do is polish up your writing skills by entering a short story of up to 600 words or a poem of up to 60 lines on the theme of ‘Diamond’. Diamonds are renowned for their brilliance and rarity, but you don’t just have to stick to the jewel, any interpretation of the word and its associations is fine.’
Adult winners will receive two free tickets to the ‘Grand Opening Feast of Creative Writing’ on March 9th plus a mystery gift and an opportunity to read their winning work. Younger winners will receive Amazon gift vouchers from the Otley town mayor.
Otley Creative Writing Word Feast
The Word Feast will be a weekend series of events in March and Grand Opening Feast is planned for Korks wine bar on Friday the 9th March 2012 with lots of other events over the weekend.
Come to Wetherspoon’s at The Bowling Green to discuss how you get from the blank page to the finished manuscript or poem. Local writers will be starting off the discussion.
On the poetry front Pat Borthwick ‘will use a variety of starting points to inspire ‘sensational’ new writing. There will be published poems available as models and the session will include some quiet time to develop one or two of your starting points further. The last hour will be set aside for readback/feedback time so that your poem gets its first public airing. Constructive comments will be encouraged so that writers take home from the workshop ideas for ways to further improve their poems’.
That is not all with events to suit all ages and skill levels.
Other Otley Events and Activities
Besides this inaugural writing festival Otley hosts a very popular Walking Festival, Agricultural Show, Carnival, Cycle Races, Street Festival, Vintage Transport Extravaganza, Folk Festival including a ‘poems and pints’ event, Beer Festival, Science Festival and Victorian Christmas Fayre.
Keep an eye on Otley as a lively community is always bringing new ideas to locals and visitors.
Other Contacts
Otley Courthouse
Otley Word Feast
Otley Town web site
Otley Film Society