Our project with the Pathhead Choir has now come to an end. ‘Here We Are!’ saw Autumn Voices working with songwriter, workshop tutor and choir leader, Sophie Bancroft. Sophie guided a group of Pathhead community members aged 60+ to write original songs for The Pathhead Choir to perform. These songs were arranged and notated for the choir by … Continue reading Hear We Are: The Pathhead Choir Project
Joanne Durham lives on the Atlantic coast of the US, with the ocean as her backyard and muse. She loved, drafted, and taught poetry all her life, but only began seriously writing in 2018, and has enjoyed seeing her poems published in different parts of the world, including Dodging the Rain (Ireland), Love in the … Continue reading To Drink from a Wider Bowl
Love’s Floreloquence by Wendy Ann Webb is published by Inherit the Earth Publications and available now from Amazon. The poems were written over many years, some lighthearted, others very serious issues, to provide poems of love that lasts a lifetime. There’s something for all ages and stages of love and the accompanying heartache of real … Continue reading Love’s Floreloquence
As part of Autumn Voices’ Third Age Plus Pioneers project, singer songwriter Chiara Berardelli and multi disciplinary cabaret artist Miss Annabel Sings worked together on a very special project with Alf Barnett, a 93 year-old man (and Annabel’s dad) living in Wembley, whose long held dream was to write songs and perform. Listen to Alf’s songs, ‘Roses’ and ‘Memories’. … Continue reading Two new songs by Alf Barnett
Last week, Sheila Templeton introduced us to the idea of getting started writing in Scots. This week, she tells us about her early experiences of writing and how she got started writing poetry in Scots, using the words that were familiar to her from her native Aberdeenshire. Sheila’s been kind enough to share some of … Continue reading Writing in Scots: the honest voice
There’s just one week left to enter the Autumn Voices poetry competition! If you’re desperate to submit an entry but feeling a bit stuck with your writing, we’ve got the perfect blog to get your poetry juices flowing. Kay Ritchie, one of the highly commended poets featured in the recent Living Our Dying competition, tells … Continue reading Poetic Inspiration
Last week, we announced the winner of the September flash competition on the theme of ‘dementia and memory’. This week, we’re publishing the runner-up entry as it was such a close vote and we think it’s an excellent piece our readers would like to see. The entry is by 70-year-old Abigail Ottley and we know … Continue reading Dementia and Memory – Runners Up Entry
We’re now just past the halfway mark in our poetry month here at Autumn Voices and you still have almost two weeks to enter our annual competition. This week’s blog will whet the appetite of anyone who’s ever written in Scots, or wanted to write in, and it comes to us courtesy of Sheila Templeton, … Continue reading How do we learn to write in Scots?
We’re delighted to let you know that the winner of the September flash prize on the theme of ‘dementia and memory’ is 79-year-old Donald Adamson. Donald is originally from Scotland and is now based in Finland. His entry, ‘Scratching To Be Let In’, was picked by the staff team as their favourite and he wins … Continue reading Dementia and Memory – Winning Entry
We continue our poetry theme this week with a blog article from Caroline Johnstone about her experience of being a poet in residence. Just in case it’s escaped your attention, the Autumn Voices blogs are poetry-themed this month because of our annual poetry competition, so don’t forget to enter that! About Caroline A fortified ruin … Continue reading A Poet in Residence spills the beans …
It’s poetry competition time here at Autumn Voices, just in case you didn’t notice us shouting loudly about it all over social media. Throughout October we are running our annual autumn poetry competition, which will be judged by the wonderful Des Dillon, and also celebrating National Poetry Day on Thursday 6th October. This means our … Continue reading Then and Now
It’s Oddfellows Friendship Month and at Autumn Voices we wanted to celebrate the role of friendship as a nourishing and sustaining presence in our lives for those of us lucky to have good friends – whether new, or life-long. This week, 65-year-old Sheila Wakefield, Autumn Voices Steering Group member and publisher at Red Squirrel Press, … Continue reading Friendship
Throughout August we asked you to send in your flash entries about cats, Edinburgh, or allotments. The twist being this had to be photo instead of a piece of poetry or prose. We loved looking through all your photos! There could only be one winner though and we’re pleased to announce Sara Baker, aged 72, was … Continue reading Cats/Edinburgh/Allotments – Winning Entry
We’re now almost halfway through September and we find ourselves in Pension Awareness Week, running from the 12th to the 16th of the month. With the death of Queen Elizabeth II and the public response to the events of the last week dominating the deadlines, it’d be no surprise if this particular theme had completely … Continue reading Money Matters ?
Our journey through the calendar year brings us anniversaries, events, important milestones and themed monthly celebrations in honour of worthy and vital issues. We find ourselves now in Autumn – a season traditionally associated with advancing years and one which inspired our name, Autumn Voices. It’s also September, a month often connected with growing older. … Continue reading Food For Thought
