Written by Howard Betsworth. Posted in Guest speaker
Writing: Is it All That Jazz?
Jen Wilson founded Jazz Heritage Wales in 1986 after the miners' strike. She will be talking to the Circle about her book, FREEDOM MUSIC: Wales, Emancipation and Jazz 1850-1950, which was published in 2019 by the University of Wales Press.
Jen took a circuitous route into the academic world. She left school in 1960 with RSAs in shorthand and typing, but was encouraged back into education by Ursula Masson MA after the miners’ strike. Jen gained an MSc (Econ) in Women’s Studies in 1996 while a Tutor in Performing Arts at DACE Swansea University. She left DACE for the voluntary and community sector, where she developed and delivered community arts projects: Women's Big Band, touring Exhibitions, a schools touring performance Before Freedom, while continuing to write. Her first published piece was Zen And The Art of Thelonius Monk, Honno Press 1989.
Jen has given academic papers in Ohio, West Virginia, New York, and has a paper accepted for Univ. of Austin Texas in July 2020. Jazz Heritage Wales moved into UWTSD in 2009, where Jen was made Hon. Professor of Practice in 2016. She received the Welsh Government’s St. David Award for Culture 2017.
Her publications can be seen at www.jenwilsonjazzpiano.com Log in to see the presentation and meeting video.
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Written by Eleanor St Clair. Posted in Guest speaker
At 7pm on 3 June, Circle members will be welcoming travel and fiction writer Karen Phillips to talk to the group via Zoom. She will be chatting with us about travel writing after the pandemic, but she'll also be holding a general Q&A session on writing and getting published.
Join the circle
All current Circle members will be invited - and new members are always welcome, so if you would like to be involved,
please contact us.
About our speaker
Karen is a freelance writer living in Pembrokeshire. She writes fiction with a magical realism twist and narrative non-fiction on travel, scuba diving, women’s health and living overseas.
An award-winning travel writer and recipient of a Literature Wales Bursary, Karen has lived across the world, from Mexico to Turkey, but always returns home to West Wales, where she was born. She is a frequent contributor to online and print journals including "Deeper Blue", the scuba website and "New Welsh Review".
In 2016, she was highly commended in the New Welsh Writing Awards for "Stranger Shores", a book-length account of her trip to the Yucatan, Mexico.
Find out more on Karen's website.
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