Jen Wilson. September 2nd 2020

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.

Dewi Heald. 1st July 2020.

Written by Howard Betsworth. Posted in Guest speaker

1 July at 7pm the monthly meeting will take place via Zoom and our scheduled speaker, Dewi Heald, will be giving a video talk and a Q&A session. This meeting will be for members only.

Dewi Heald - A sideways look at the world

Dewi Heald writes books, novellas, poetry, blogs and writes and plays his own music too. He claims that his hobbies include trampolining and lying about trampolining.

After studying at Aberystwyth and living for several years in Cardiff, Dewi is now based in Llantwit Major, which is the setting for his novella, "Me, I'm Like Legend, I Am" which won the Highly Commended Award in the New Welsh Review's Dystopian Novella Competition at the Hay Festival 2019. Dewi explained at the time that “I was watching the film 'I am Legend' and I started to wonder why the last survivor of the apocalypse is always living in New York or Los Angeles, so I wrote a version where the last survivors on earth live in Llantwit Major."

THE MAY CIRCLE MEETING - USUAL TIME, YOUR PLACE.

Written by Eleanor St Clair. Posted in General

Swansea and District Writers Circle met for the first time on Zoom this week. Our chair, Ann Marie, hosted the meeting and everyone who attended spoke about how they were finding social distanced life, what they were working on and usual club news.

Membership

If you haven't yet paid your membership fee, you can still do so by bank transfer and PayPal. The details are on the membership form, or members can find them on the forum.

The Corona Diaries

How are you spending Lockdown? Dr Michael Ward from Swansea University is looking for volunteers to share their experiences, and several circle members expressed an interest in joining the project. If you want to contribute to this valuable research, check out The Corona Diaries here.

A successful meeting

The meeting went really well and we look forward to seeing one another again in June.

Travel writing after COVID-19: Zoom talk by Karen Phillips

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.

SDWC Round up - April

Written by Eleanor St Clair. Posted in General

Whilst our meetings have been cancelled, for now, there is still lots going on at Swansea & District Writers Circle.

May Circle Meeting - usual time, your place.

Our May meeting will be held virtually so we can all get together and chat with each other from the safety of our own homes. As the meeting will be held via Zoom, it will be restricted to members only this month.