JOHN HALL EXHIBITION

Artifice and Candour is a poet's exhibition by John Hall, currently writer in residence at Plymouth College of Art. He describes it as 'an exhibition that sees the look of letters as a part of the play of meaning, that responds to the way that printed words, far from being rendered obsolete in visual culture, are central to its means and displays'. See for yourself at the Viewpoint Gallery, Plymouth College of Art, Tavistock Place, Plymouth, PL4 8AT from Thursday 12 March to Saturday 21st March, admission free. The text artwork that heads this item is copyright John Hall 2009, and used by permission of the poet. 

NEW WRITERS COMPETITION

A great opportunity for emerging writers to compete for a new prize and see their work printed in this journal edited by Anthony Caleshu and published by University of Plymouth Press. Get the details here.

BABS HORTON IN HOLLAND

Babs Horton's latest novel is coming out in Holland this spring. Recipes for Cherubs, published in paperback in the UK by Simon & Schuster in May 2008, is a mystery story with a 13 year old heroine, set in the 1960s at an old hotel on the Welsh coast. Dutch and German translations are in progress so far.

    Babs is the Royal Literary Fund fellow at the University and she spends part of her time each week helping students with their writing. She sees students one to one and has helped many of them cope with essay crises and various kinds of writing block. A professional author with 4 novels published, Babs is in the second year of her fellowship at the University. See her author's page on the Simon and Schuster website. Copyright photo of Babs Horton used by permission of the author.

THE LANGUAGE CLUB with Contemporary Music Preview

The Language Club is collaborating with the Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival on a preview event Poetry in Performance at Plymouth Arts Centre, Saturday 7 February at 7.30pm. Guest readers: Simon Jenner and Norman Jope, with open mic and bar, tickets £5 and £3.

    Simon Jenner edits Eratica magazine. His latest poetry book About Bloody Time was published by Waterloo Press in 2007. Plymouth writer Norman Jope's The Book of Bells and Candles is also just published by Waterloo. Norman will be performing a contemporary music collaboration with Alexis Kirke.

    The Peninsula Arts Contemporary Music Festival this year is themed for the Darwin 200 celebrations with special Darwin related commissions and performances. Composers, sound artists and writers in attendance will include: Michael Stimpson, Ian Pace, Maggini Quartet, Rebecca Stott, Karen Wimhurst, Eduardo R Miranda, John Matthias, Jane Grant, Nick Ryan, Miso Ensemble and Miguel Azguime, Sam Richards, Simon Ible, Ten Tors Orchestra, Roland Perrin. 

PLYMOUTH READING BY MARK FORD

LATEST ARTS COUNCIL AWARD

Tom Vowler is the latest in a cluster of MA Creative Writing graduates to be awarded an Arts Council grant. In Tom's case, £5000 to develop his writing and work on a novel by extending a short story 'Old Enough' that was originally written for an MA workshop. He's writing a blog about his progress with the project and hoping to interact with other writers at Old Enough Novel. Tom was an editor of Ink magazine.

    His stories have been published in the journals Brand, Words and Riptide. Last year he won first prize in the HappenStance short fiction competition.

POET AND PAINTER

MA Creative Writing graduate Rupert M Loydell has had two poetry collections published by Shearsman Books of Exeter, the most recent is An Experiment in Navigation with a beautiful cover painting by the artist and poet. Jane Routh writes: 'More than ever, Rupert Loydell's new book reminds me that he is a painter. I don't mean that his writing is primarily visual, but that he rejoices in discovering what his medium is capable of . . . Echoes, alphabets, series and collage are part of the sense of play and pleasure with which Rupert Loydell makes order from disorder. These are mixed media poems. They are serious and they are full of games. Running through them all is a quiet and open-hearted voice.' 

    Rupert is editor of Stride magazine, a wide ranging online compendium of new writing and reviews, worth checking for both. He is Lecturer in English with Creative Writing at University College Falmouth and lives in Cornwall.