Exciting News - Greenacre Mini Lit Festival: 26th May 2012

Greenacre Writers are delighted to confirm the authors who will be appearing at the Greenacre Mini Lit Festival, 26th May 2-5.30pm, Trinity Church Centre, Finchley, N12 7NN.

We are pleased to have Paolo Hewitt who is a former NME journalist and author of over 20 books. He has written for Melody Maker and NME, as well as Vogue Germany, Fare Musica in Italy and The Sunday Times. Among other books, he is the author of The Jam: A Beat Concerto, The Small Faces: The Young Mod's Forgotten Story, Getting High: The Adventure of Oasis, and Alan McGee and the Story of Creation Records, as well as several works of fiction and his autobiography, The Looked After Kid. Paolo will read from various works and discuss the writing process.

Emily Benet's debut book Shop Girl Diaries began as a weekly blog about working in her mother’s unusual chandelier shop. Interest in the blog from Salt Publishing and Television Director, Chloe Thomas, led to the publication of the book in December 2009 and the shooting of the ‘Shop Girl Blog’ TV pilot (soon to be finished). Her blog was announced winner of the Completely Novel Author Blog Awards (published category) at the London Book Fair 2010. Her short stories ‘Camouflage’ and ‘Harry’ were selected for readings at Foyles while ‘Looking for Castles’ was the runner up of Word Market Short Story Competition 2008.

Andrew Bradford has written Live Eels and Grand Pianos, which is both a family memoir and a significant contribution to the social history of the twentieth century. It tells the story of the author's parents, Charlie and Kathy Bradford. Charlie and Kathy were seriously disabled by polio when they were young children. Charlie contracted the disease in 1909, when he was three, and Kathy in 1913, when she was ten months old. Live Eels and Grand Pianos tells the story of their extraordinary courage in the face of adversity.

Lane Ashfeldt's stories appear in various anthologies, from Portico’s rough and raucous ‘Punk Fiction’ to the rather more genteel ‘Dancing With Mr Darcy’. Prizes for her fiction include the Fish Short Histories Prize and a Jane Austen Short Story Award runner up prize. Her story, ‘Catching the Tap-Tap to Cayes de Jacmel’ (awarded a Global Short Stories Prize) is part of the Haiti fundraiser anthology ‘A Lime Jewel’.

Admission is free but by ticket only. E-mail greenacrewriters@gmail.com

'Trinity in May', is part of a small arts festival over 3 weekends in Trinity Church, involving music concerts, exhibition of paintings, a creative writing workshop 5th May (run by Greenacre Writers: Rosie Canning & Lindsay Bamfield) and other arts events.

Sponsored by Trinity Church with charity collection during 'Trinity in May' on behalf of the Stroke Group and Greenacre Writers will be raising funds for the Greenacre Bicycle Rally.

Creative Writing Workshop

Ways Into Writing...

Saturday 5th May 2012 2.00- 5.00pm

Trinity Church Centre, 15 Nether St, North Finchley, London N12 7NN

Greenacre Writers are holding a creative writing workshop open to all. Suitable for beginners, but many more experienced writers find these sessions valuable too.

Come along to try writing exercises to stimulate the creative juices and receive supportive feedback in an informal, friendly environment.

The workshop will be led by Rosie Canning and Lindsay Bamfield.

e-mail greenacrewriters@gmail.com for more information.


The workshop is part of Trinity in May. Entrance is free, but we request donations for the Greenacre Bicycle Rally on 10th June 2012.

Change of Venue for Get Yourself A Reputation - Workshop

Greenacre Writers invite you to a Creative Writer’s Afternoon:
Saturday 24th March 2012 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Get Yourself A Reputation
NOTE CHANGE OF VENUE: Trinity Church Centre, Nether Street, North Finchley, London N12 7NN

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The workshop will introduce you to some ideas of how to raise your writing profile and get your writing published - suitable for beginners. This workshop is not how to get your book published. The workshop starts way before sending manuscripts to publishers and looks at ways to get a writing reputation.

* Writing exercises
* Ideas for flash fiction and websites
* Online writing forums
* Promoting your writing profile
* Self-publishing
* Talk/Feedback from a self-published author

The aim of the afternoon is to meet fellow creative writers, to work on creative writing exercises, and share your work to receive supportive feedback and ideas in a friendly and stimulating environment.

There will be a small charge to include refreshments:
Members £5; Non-members £10
(Cheques payable to: Greenacre Writers - cancellation available up until 7 days before the event)

For further information or to reserve a place contact: greenacrewriters@gmail.com

Extra information - for those driving to the workshop on Saturday, there is very limited parking at the venue and the surrounding streets are controlled parking zones. The nearest free parking is around Woodside Park Station within the CPZ that runs only from Monday to Friday. Beware of the nearby streets as these are controlled on a Saturday. Look at the signs! Allow extra time in case you are unable to park outside the venue.

Woodside Park Station is about 5-10 mins walk - it's actually a little nearer the venue than West Finchley Station - but if coming by tube make sure you exit through the main entrance as this way is quicker.

Congratulations to Rosie Canning

Rosie Canning has been selected as one of the volunteer judges for the Chris Evans Breakfast Show 500 WORDS competition.

Message from Lemn Sissay

Lovely message from Lemn Sissay about the Greenacre Anthology: I'm reading it and I'm loving it. xL. Thank you.

There is only ONE Lemn Sissay in the world. Click here to find out more.

Lemn Sissay is a poet and playwright. He’s associate artist at at Europe’s largest arts complex, Southbank Centre. He’s the first poet commissioned to write for the 2012 Olympics. His poem “Spark Catchers” is etched into a Transformer on The Olympic Site. He is an honorary Doctor of Letters. He curated the world’s first Literature Festival of The Sea. His Landmark Poems are written in throughout Manchester and London. In London they adorn The Royal Festival Hall and The City. His Landmark Poem Gilt of Cain, commissioned by City of London is based near fenchurch st station and was unveiled by Bishop Desmond Tutu in 2006. In 2010 Lemn travelled to The Arctic with Jarvis Cocker, Laurie Anderson, Martha Wainwright, KT Tunstall, Lesley Feist. He is featured in Burning Ice, a film of the voyage.

Lemn is author of five books of poetry spanning twenty five years He reads on stages throughout the world. He is an honorary Doctor of Letters and was awarded the 2010 travelling award scholarship from the Society of Authors. His play Something Dark directed John McGrath (artistic director of National Theatre Wales) is winner of a RIMA award and has been performed throughout the world. BBC made a television documentary about his life – Internal Flight. In 2010 he was made a MBE by the queen of England for services to literature. Lemn is Patron of The Letterbox Club and The Reader Organisation. He is education ambassador for Arvon Foundation and Trustee of World Book Night.

If you would like to order a copy it is £6.50 plus £1.49 p&p Send a cheque/postal order for £7.99 payable to Greenacre Writers, 25 Chislehurst Avenue, London N12 0HU.