Music and words combine to lauch Settle Sessions 2017

April 21st 7.30pm at The Folly in Settle 
The Bousfields (postponed from 2016) and Veronica Caperon

Christine Bousfield is interested in psychoanalysis using dreams and free association in her own poetry and in the workshops she runs. She is fascinated too by the music of poetry, and how it often works unconsciously. Her poetry often borders on song (its original purpose) and is widely published in magazines, anthologies, on CD, DVD and radio. John Bousfield plays with the poetry/jazz group ‘Nightdiver’, enhancing and developing the musical implications of poetry.


Poet, playwright and photographer Veronica Caperon launches Two Left Boots her first collection of poems published by Fisherrow Press. website:veronicacaperon.blogspot.co.uk
In Two Left Boots you'll find her natural funny, touching and instinctive style.  The subjects of her poems range from hair to heaven, love to libraries in a variety of forms and an easy, open style.

What the reviewers say: Lively, varied, tender, humorous, full of affection yet never sentimental (Carole Bromley)....much to enjoy and to ponder, in these carefully wrought, yet always accessible poems - love, loss, landscape, laughter – what more can we ask? (Ann Pilling)...This pamphlet packs a great deal into a small space (Jean Stevens)....It's brought tears to my eyes, made me laugh in parts, lifted my heart in others. It's a book to treasure (an 'ordinary' reader).

The ‘Read Two’ open mike spot, prize winners from the 2016 Setyle Sessions national poetry competition will read a couple of poems each – Kerry Darbishire, Maggie How, David Smith and Andrew Knowles.

Tickets £6, are available from Cave and Crag, The Courtyard Diary and The Folly.

Dates for your 2017 diary

We can now confirm the dates for the 2017 Settle Sessions.
We are still confirming the main poets and writers but these are planned:

All evenings will be on Fridays at 7.30pm.

April 21st at The Folly in Settle

with The Bousfields (postponed from 2016) with poems accompanied by music; and writer Veronica Caperon who launches her debut collection Two Left Boots

June 23rd including reception and AGM at the Folly, with Kathleen Jones

September 29th, venue to be confirmed,
with Kim Moore

November 17th at The Folly with Jean Harrison and Sue Vickerman

We will be contacting people soon to invite them to take part in the Read Two slots, for each event.

Tickets are £6 (members £5.50) available from Cave and Crag, The Courtyard Dairy and The Folly, nearer the dates.

More details from info@settlesessions.co.uk

Poems reach new heights in national and local competitions

A great celebration of words!

With over 200 entries from all over the country to their 2016 competitions, organisers of Settle’s National Poetry Day celebrations have declaimed them a great success.

Winners were presented with their prizes at Victoria Hall in a special evening organised by Settle Sessions.

The national competition attracted entries from throughout the country. First prize went to Jenna Plewes from Alvechurch with ‘Driving Home’, second prize to Jenny Morris from Norwich with ’Box Room’ , and Maggie How from Grange-over-Sands took third prize with ’Between us’. Also commended in the competition were Tricia Robinson from Settle, Jane Eagland from Lancaster, Joan Butler from Austwick, Kerry Darbishire of Kendal, David Smith from Middlesbrough and Rona Laycock from Avening.

 

Hannah Chapman and judge Kathy Swinscoe

In the North Craven Primary Schools competition, Hannah Chapman from Giggleswick Primary came first,

Lauren Taylor

Harry Armstrong

Erin Hutt-Holgate and Max Clark

Lauren Taylor from Bentham School was second and third prize was won by Joel Monks from Giggleswick Primary. Commended young poets were Maisy Baillie, Harry Armstrong, Tom Birkett-Bentley, Max Clark & Erin Hutt-Holgate,

Tom Birkett-Bentley

Edie Eccleston and Dylan Lightbody

Joan Butler with judge Ann Pilling

Craven’s funniest poem in the 2016 competition was won by Joan Butler from Austwick with her poem ‘Hawk Talk’.

To conclude the evening, Settle Sessions brought together established poets John Killick of Settle and Yorkshire poet Michael McCarthy. They delivered amusing, touching, deep and accessible work based on their life experiences from Ireland to Settle. We look forward to hearig much more from them in the future.

An anthology of the winning and commended (in the national competition) poems is available at £3 each (plus £1.50p&p). Please contact John Killick on john@johnkillick.co.uk

Michael McCarthy

Judge and main reader John Killick with

 Tricia Robinson

Kerry Darbishire

 Contact us at info@settlesessions.co.uk

The world, pink poppies and the rain

There was a packed audience at The Folly for the third Settle Session of the year. The poems shared gave us insights into what others notice about the world, their reactions to it and what touches them deeply.

Poets Isobel Thrilling and Pauline Yarwood drew from their extensive writing. 

Isobel’s selection came from observations during childhood about a North York moors mining village, her interest in quantum physics, disturbing ‘pink’ poppies and how to look more favourably on rain ‘there’s an art to listening to rain’.

Pauline’s poems responsed to living in The Lyth Valley, ‘the importance of nature over human concerns’, the rebukes of family in ‘Mary Ann’ and injustice with ‘Clinical Notes’, ‘the careless shredding of his life’.

Barbara Bowman read Hugh Crane’s ‘Forgetfulness’ and Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken’. 

John Rose focused on teenage rebellion with Irene Rawnsley’s ‘Purple Shoes’ and Ian MacMillan’s unentitled ‘can’t be bothered to give a title’. Kathy Swinscoe and

Olwyn Bolger connected with childhood for Walter de la Mere’s ‘The Listener’ and ‘I saw three Witches’; and from a much treasured childhood poetry book ‘Stars and Primroses’ for Laurence Binyon’s ‘The Little Dancers’ and Edward Thomas’ ‘Adelstrop’.

Sarah Wiltshire 9th September 2016

2016 competition winners

Wide ranging styles from all over the country

We are delighted to announce the winners of our inaugural poetry competitions! We've had a wide range of subjects and styles and all the judges report a very high standard. 

The winners have been invited to read their work at our National Poetry Day Celebrations on Thursday 6th October at Victoria Hall - everyone welcome! The evening will also feature published poets Michael McCarthy and John Killick.

Tickets £6.50 (members £5.50), 2 adults accompanied by children £8.50. More details from info@settlesessions.co.uk

Our national competition 

attracted entries from all over the country and included entries from new writers as well as established poets:

FIRST PRIZE      Driving Home   Jenna Plewes (Alvechurch)
SECOND PRIZE   Box Room   Jenny Morris  (Norwich)
THIRD PRIZE    Between Us  Maggie How  (Grange-over-Sands)
COMMENDED  
Loss    Tricia Robinson  (Settle)
Broch of Gurness   Jane Eagland  (Lancaster)
The Blacksmith   David Smith   (Middlesborough)
Autumn Garden   Kerry Darbishire  (Kendal)
Tuesday She Irons   Rona Laycock  (Avening)
The Eloquence of the Dales Farmer
on the Matter of Weather    Joan Butler  (Austwick)

The Craven Funny Poem competition 

Hawk Talk     Joan Butler  (Austwick)

North Craven Primary Schools competition

We had over 70 entries from budding poets - it's good to know the next generation are honing their skills:

FIRST PRIZE   Woodlouse  Hannah Chapman, Giggleswick Primary School

SECOND PRIZE   Home   Lauren Taylor, Bentham Primary School

THIRD PRIZE     Snow Haiku    Joel Monks, Giggleswick Primary School 

COMMENDED
Home  Maisy Baillie
Refugees at sea   Tom Birkett-Bentley
Home  Harry Armstrong
Escape to Safety Max Clark & Erin Hutt Holgate
Street Games   Edie Eccleston
Playing   Dylan Lightbody

Congratulations to everyone who took part, to the winners and those who were commended. 

An anthology of the winners and commended (in the national competition) is being produced to coincide with our National Poetry Day celebrations on October 6th. 
contact settlesessions@gmail.com for details

From Suffolk to Settle

Isobel Thrilling was born in Suffolk, and brought up in a mining village in the north-east of England; she read English at Hull University and spent many years as Head of Service for Teaching English as a Second Language in a London borough. She first started writing after eye-operations that saved her sight. She is married, with a son, a daughter and two grandchildren. She has been widely published in magazines and newspapers, and her work has been included in many anthologies from publishers such as O.U.P, Longman, Hodder Headline and Macmillan. Her poems have been broadcast on BBC Television, ITV; and BBC Radio 3 and 4.

Pauline Yarwood is a poet and ceramic artist living in Cumbria.  Her poems have appeared in The North, The Interpreter’s House and Fire Crane( a number of poetry magazines). In 2013 she was mentored by Judy Brown at the Wordsworth Trust, and collaborated with artist Kate Bentley to write a short series of poems for her exhibition Skyline. She was co-director of this year’s inaugural Kendal Poetry Festival.   She is a member of Kendal Brewery Poets. Born in Cumbria, Pauline grew up in Manchester but returned to the Lyth Valley in 1987 where she writes, makes pots and tends a very boggy garden next to the River Gilpin.

In the Read Two spot will be local readers John Rose, Olwyn Bolger, Kathy Swinscoe and Barbara Bowman.

Tickets are available (£6, or £5.50 for members) from The Folly, Cave and Cragg and The Courtyard Dairy in Settle. More information from info@settlesessions.co.uk


Our National Poetry Day celebrations will be on Thursday 6th October at 7.30pm at Victoria Hall in Settle and will feature poets Michael McCarthy and John Killick along with the winners of our national poetry prize, the North Craven School prize and the funniest poem in Craven!

Tickets £6.50 (members £5.50), 2 adults accompanied by children £8.50. More details from info@settlesessions.co.uk

Evocative and quirky evening

Laughter, lyrical and well loved!

All present at Settle Sessions in the Folly on Friday 1st July, agreed it was an excellent evening. 

Ed Reiss

Ed Reiss from Bradford got us all laughing as he read a dozen or so of his quirky and thought-provoking poems. Politicians should beware when Ed gets loose on them. 

Jane Routh contributed lyrical reflections, some on life in Tatham showing her deep love of the countryside and others evoking time spent in the Hebrides.

Jane Routh

Four others read more briefly. Among them Hazel Richardson is to be congratulated for her courage in reading her own work in public for the first time – and with considerable impact. 

Hazel Robinson (centre)

Veronica Caperon gave strong renderings of two of her pieces, Joan Lee delighted us with a heart-felt reading of a poem she’d loved since the age of eight, Leisure by WH Davies, and Rodney Hooper took us back to the First World War with Edward Thomas.

Joan Lee (right)

Rodney Hooper

The Folly makes wonderful setting for such an occasion. The volunteers quietly saw to the practical arrangements so that chairs and refreshments appeared exactly as required. The next Session is on Friday September 9^th

Jean Harrison Friday 1st 2016

Entries were invited to two poetry competitions - the deadline is creeping up: 12th August 2016, the details are on our comeptition page on the website.