Awen Publications

By Irina Kuzminsky June 3, Waterloo Festival, St John’s Waterloo On a spectacularly sunny English summer day some of Britain’s best poets gathered at St John’s Church Waterloo to send out their own call for awareness of the ecological crisis threatening our planet and therefore us. Sponsored, most appropriately, by the World Wildlife Fund and ARC (http://arcworld.org) and curated by poet, author and psychotherapist Jay Ramsay, Writing on the Wall was an ambitious part of the

LIVING A WRITER’S LIFE an evening with Devon poet & author Roselle Angwin BookStop event at The Bedford Hotel, Tavistock, Devon, Friday July 7th  2017, 7.30pm Westcountry poet and novelist Roselle Angwin began her published career here in Tavistock, where she also started the first of her 26 years of popular holistic creative writing courses. Roselle’s deep interests are in how creativity and the imagination can help to transform the way we live in the world, especially in

by Anthony Nanson Charlotte Hussey’s Glossing the Spoils is rather more than a collection of poems. It will have a particular interest, not only to admirers of edgy and crisply constructed verse, but to anyone engaged with medieval romance, legend, and epic, especially in Celtic, Old English, and Arthurian traditions. Awen have now published a new edition of this book, first published in 2012, with an expanded introduction by the author in which she goes into more detail abou

Ballad Tales, while published by The History Press features a number of Awen authors and Fire Springs members, so we’re giving it a shout out here on the blog. The contributors are… Fiona Eadie, Kevan Manwaring (Awen and Fire Springs), David Phelps,  Chantelle Smith (Fire Springs), Richard Selby (Awen and Fire Springs), Pete Castle, Malcolm Green, Simon Heywood, Alan M. Kent, Eric Maddern, Laura Kinnear, Karola Renard (Awen), Kirsty Hartsiotis (Fire Springs, and Awen, backsta

by Anthony Nanson I’m delighted to announce that we’ve recreated the Awen website using more up-to-date software. It’s responsive now on mobile devices, you can order books directly from us via Paypal, and we’re making sure it has plenty of interesting information to advance the cause of ecobardic writing. The homepage and About page outline in brief Awen’s mission to promote quality writing that ‘engages with the world’ – a phrase intended to convey the idea of a reciprocal

Poets, thinkers, writers and people who care for the natural world will gather in Waterloo on Saturday, June 3, 2017 for a unique interactive day of exploring and learning how poetry can help us protect the environment. We’re delighted to announce that a number of Awen authors will be participating in this event. Writing on the Wall is: A day of poetic action and reflection for the planet. The first in a series. A chance for new and established poets, budding writers, fans of

By Nimue Brown Some months ago I put up a hand and offered to help get Awen Publications and its titles in front of people. Publisher Anthony Nanson invited me to blog about what led me here. The short answer is that I have friends with books at Awen and simply wanted to support them. The long answer, is a good deal more complicated. The book publishing industry is worth a lot of money. In 2016, it was worth £4.4 billion in the UK publishers.org.uk/media-centre/news-releases/

by Morgan Blanks Recently I have been thinking about poetry; in particular, haiku, because a whole story can be told in just three lines. What I love about writing is that you can experiment with whatever you set out to do. For example, when I write haiku I do not necessarily follow the five, seven, five rule. Here are some of my poems that I would like to share with you. Motionless, her eyes fixated A shadow in the distance The breeze is her only comfort. A fiery glow, sprea

My name is Morgan Blanks and I have recently become an intern for Awen, for whom I will be managing a project involving the authors published by the company. I’ve recently set about sending questionnaires to each of the authors as a start to finding reviewers for their books. As I am currently in my first year of studying Creative Writing at Bath Spa University, I thought what better way to gain a bit of experience than by doing an internship. So, when the opportunity arose I

I am grateful to Anthony Nanson for inviting me to contribute a few lines on my poetry collection, Pilgrim Station, recently brought out by SPM Publications. Anthony, who offered me some comfort over waiting periods on poems and stories last year, kindly re-confirmed my ecobardic credentials in a lightly worded rejection slip for some other wild project of mine only the other month. And it comes to mind that I have bumped into and worked beside several members of the Awen and

It was a true delight to participate in the event at the Chapel Arts Cafe in Bath on the evening of 10th March. The cafe, which provides a friendly and comfortable ambience already has a strong literary reputation locally, having hosted readings by a number of distinguished writers, so it was perhaps unsurprising that the event sold out quickly. An audience of fifty lively and responsive people were drawn by the excellent tapas meal that was on offer as well as by the program

Jay  Ramsay, author of the poetry collection Places of Truth and editor for the anthology Soul of The Earth has an audio album of poetry as well – Strange Sun. You can listen to the entire album on Soundcloud it’s also on Itunes and Google Play Here’s Jay reading Strange Sun: A Journey into Light #Awen #JayRamsay #Poetry

On the Fire Springs website, the group defines itself in the following terms: “Fire Springs members aim to – Fire the imagination of adults and children Inspire transformation in individuals and groups Reach different audiences with new and traditional tales Empower others to tell their own stories Our artistic roots, as a group, are in the bardic arts – performance storytelling, poetry and song. Individually, our backgrounds are in writing, musicianship and painting, and in