EVENT – Thursday 24th November 2022
Carlisle Folk Experience
John Hegley and Errant Thieves joined Jean Hill's Carlisle Folk Experience at the RAOB Club in Carlisle on Thursday 24th November 2022, for an evening of music and poetry, including readings and performances from A Scarcity of Biscuit, published by Caldew Press.
For more information or to purchase a copy of John Hegley's A Scarcity of Biscuit please email:
EVENT – Saturday 1st October 2022
Carlisle Poetry Symposium
Caldew Press was at the Carlisle Poetry Symposium held at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery on Saturday 1st October 2022.
It was wonderful to see and hear from all the talented poets and writers, and to take part in the inspiring workshop before the main event.
Thanks to Andy Hopkins for all the organising and looking after the bookstall.
EVENT – Thursday 29th September 2022
John Hegley at Keats House, London
John Hegley and friends perform at a cabaret to celebrate John Keats and act as a launch for the collection A Scarcity of Biscuit, including readings and songs.
The audience enjoyed a wonderful evening held in very special surroundings.
Special thanks to Rob Shakespeare and the team at Keats House.
For more information or to purchase a copy of John Hegley's A Scarcity of Biscuit please email:
EVENT – Monday 29th August 2022
Brampton Community Centre - Open Day
Caldew Press supported the open day event and friends from Brampton Poets.
There was also the opportunity to meet the Mayor, Carlisle City Councillor Mike Mitchelson, alongside David Simmons and his ‘Carlisle in Haiku Form’ project.
Thanks to Ali and the team for organising the day.
EVENT – Wednesday 20th July 2022
John Hegley at Live Theatre, Newcastle
As part of his Biscuit of Destiny tour John Hegley performed material in preparation for his Edinburgh Fringe shows, after extreme heat had effected the rail network and a mad dash in a taxi from Carlisle.
Copies of ‘A Scarcity of Biscuit’ were sold and John signed them at the end of a laughter-filled evening.
Thanks to the Live Theatre team for all their help and assistance.
John was also presented with a copy of the latest SpeakEasy Magazine (the Freiraum Phase 2 edition).
EVENT – Saturday 16th July 2022
Cumbria Unity Festival
Healing together was the main theme for the Cumbria Unity Festival, as well as celebrating and engaging with different communities, in this instance, in the Carlisle area.
The main event was held at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle. As part of a packed programme people were able to share words, poems and stories at the SpeakEasy poetry open mic.
Thanks to everyone involved for making the event happen.
Congratulations to Mark Griffiths and GRID - an outside inside journey through Cumbria for making the short list for the ‘Lakeland Book of the Year Awards 2022, Wordsworth Grasmere Award for Literature and Poetry’.
Thank you to the organisers, judges including Hunter Davies OBE, Fiona Armstrong, Eric Robson OBE, sponsors James Cropper, Wordsworth Grasmere, Latitude Press Ltd, Bookends Bookshop, The Bill Rollinson Award Association, Striding Edge, The Gilpin Hotel and Lake House, and Stonecross Manor Hotel for hosting the event.
Here are some photos of Mark collecting his runner-up prize.
GRID - an outside inside journey through Cumbria is available now priced £8.00.
For more information about the collection please email:
EVENT – Tuesday 12th July 2022
Lakeland Book of the Year Awards 2022
GRID – an outside inside journey through Cumbria by Mark Griffiths - runner up
Martyn Halsall, Kelly Davis and Kerry Darbishire launched their poetry collections at Cakes & Ale cafe in Carlisle on Friday 8th July 2022 with an evening of readings from Visible Music recently published by Caldew Press, and Glory Days published by Hen Run, Grey Hen Press.
Thanks to Lucy, Stephen, and Cakes and Ale for making the evening happen.
Both titles are available from Bookends Carlisle; Visible Music RRP £8.00 and Glory Days RRP £4.00.
For more information about the collections please email:
EVENT
Carlisle Folk Experience
John Hegley and Errant Thieves joined Jean Hill's Carlisle Folk Experience at the RAOB Club in Carlisle on Thursday 9th December 2021, for an evening of music and poetry, including readings and performances from A Scarcity of Biscuit, recently published by Caldew Press.
For more information or to purchase a copy of John Hegley's A Scarcity of Biscuit please email:
David Simmons and Mark Griffiths launched their poetry collections at Cakes & Ale cafe in Carlisle on Friday 5th November 2021 with an evening of readings and performances from Carlisle in Haiku Form and GRID, recently published by Caldew Press.
Thanks to Steve, Frida and Lucy for making the evening happen.
Both books are available from Bookends in Carlisle priced £8.00.
For more information about the collections please email:
ONLINE EVENT
We shared some lovely pieces inspired by John Keats, and then John Hegley (accompanied by Cristina's beautiful Italian translations, and occasionally Phil playing the part of John Keats) entertained us with a wonderful collection of poems, songs and thoughts based around Keats.
He was thrilled with all our paper fishes, our poems and letters, and for the warm welcome. It was a really fun event and a huge thank you to everyone who was able to join us.
Hopefully we can meet in real life in the not too distant future!
ONLINE EVENT
'Writing, Drawing and Drawing out the Creative' with John Hegley.
John Hegley led an online workshop with Caldew Press on Zoom on Saturday 14th November 2020.
There was a wonderful creative mix and he was really thrilled with all the responses, and particularly liked the drawings of all the biscuits!
He looks forward to hopefully doing some more stuff with us in the not too distant future.
To celebrate Earth Day we held an online Zoom event so people could share some of the prose, poetry, prose-poetry, flash-fiction and articles, eco-worriers and eco-warriors contributed to eco collection 'Poetry for a Purpose' published by Caldew Press.
Climate emergency, extinction rebellion, sustainability and environmental disasters seem to be a uniting and driving force among, particularly, younger people and giving voice to concerns is a healthy way to examine our fears and educate others. Boundaries, barriers and horizons - we can also be hopeful, and look beyond the constraints we encounter.
This event was more a preview of the collection than a book launch. 'Poetry for a Purpose' is available on Amazon but it would be nice to do a physical launch event at some point in the future.
Contributors will receive their free copies in due course once things have returned to a kind of normality we will announce further details regarding an event and for distributing copies of the anthology.
Many thanks to all who contributed as we try to change the world with words! Hope everyone is keeping safe and well.
December 2019
Fresh Air
Cakes and Ale cafe in Carlisle hosted the launch of 'Fresh Air' by Tony Hendry, published by Caldew Press, on Monday 9th December 2019.
Working with Carlisle Eden Mind, Cornerstones Artists and Writers Groups (part of the Glenmore Trust), with Tony Mason, Watchtree Nature Reserve, Linden Print Artists, Cumbrian writers, artists, film-makers and musicians, and supported by Patchwork Opera CIC and Cumbria County Council, Mind Trees of the Urban Forest explores how isolation, forest bathing, connection, meditation, communication, support, and the urban and rural contrast affect our mental health.
Taking the form of a multi-media installation, with a spoken word event to bring the scattered seeds together, we invite people to explore their connections, their responses and to know that the forest path can lead to wellness. The installation, forming part of the Carlisle Collective Fringe, encourages participation, shared response, sensory exploration, and supportive reaction. The accompanying film created by Tolivar Productions uses work from this anthology, testimonials from people on the forest path, and music created specifically for the project.
This project uses trees, and the path through the forest, to explore our connection to our own psyche, and that of those around us. Our mental health and spiritual connection to others becomes a forest: roots put down; protective canopy unfurled.
WatchTree Nature Reserve was the location for a writing workshop held on 26th May 2019. Writers took part in the workshop which was led by Jean Hill. She organised tasks and prompts which encouraged people to look at nature and mental health in different ways and produce work from fresh perspectives as part of the 'Mind Trees of the Urban Forest' project. Some of the pieces can be found in the 'Mind Trees' publication.
