Winter Newsletter 2023
Welcome…
Winter nights are closing in and Christmas is around the corner… Fairylights, treelights, candlelight…and lamplight. The writer Lewis Hyde gives us the word “lucubration”... for a beautifully exact description of thoughts and writing that emerge from the study by the light of a lamp. With that in mind, we wish you an imaginative and productive Winter solstice time with loads of wonderful reading and writing projects to unwrap and enjoy!
WHAT WE’VE BEEN READING:
Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp by Józef Czapski, introduction and translated from the French by Eric Karpeles.
A reminder of how the great French novelist provides nourishment and inspiration - even in the most straitened circumstances - this account is informative, intelligent and richly realised in Karpeles translation.
https://www.nyrb.com/products/lost-time
WHAT WE’VE BEEN LISTENING TO:
Adam Schatz on the LRB podcasts talking about the Gaza war.
https://www.lrb.co.uk/podcasts-and-videos/podcasts/the-lrb-podcast/war-in-gaza
WHAT’S GOT US THINKING:
GOLDSMITHS PRIZE
“Cuddy”by Benjamin Myers was the winner of the 2023 Goldsmiths Prize for innovation in the novel. Judges describe it as “ A millennia-spanning epic told in a multitude of perfectly realised voices, this visionary story of St Cuthbert and the cathedral built in his honour echoes through the ages. The reader comes away with a renewed and breathless sense of what a novel of this ambition is capable of.”
https://www.gold.ac.uk/goldsmiths-prize/archive/prize-2023/cuddy/
WHAT WE’VE BEEN UP TO LATELY:
ST COLUMBA’S HOSPICE EDINBURGH
We attended the annual international Symposium ‘The Colours of Dying’ about the importance of the arts in palliative care. The work of Dr Giorgos Tsiris and the arts team at St Columba’s and of all arts workers in hospices continues to inspire and motivate us.
HOW ABOUT:
We’ve spent Autumn stocking up our bookshelves with everything from Barry Lopez’ early essays that heralded the term “nature writing” to poems by Christopher Middleton and the great-now-late Louise Gluck. There’s more Neil Gunn,the last two novels of Cormac McCarthy, some Radclyffe Hall and Alice Hoffman. Now! Let the reading commence!
UPCOMING COURSES:
Our new range of courses are now up on line and available to book. Check out our website for 2024 - and start planning your WordPath towards your writing future!
BE INSPIRED !
Sisters Heather and Sheri Benning, one an artist the other a poet, instigate installations, publishing adventures and creative communities through their work together and as co- publishers of the small but perfectly formed Deer Mountain Pages
