Introduction to 15 September meeting

WHO’S IN CHARGE? THE MUSE ANSWERS BACK

We have long attributed the inspiration poems to ‘the muse’, a suitably vague notion dating back to the Greeks and probably beyond. Yet, when a poem is finished (and, if one is lucky, published), the poet takes the credit. What if, I mused, a writer really let the ‘muse’ speak through him or her? What if one considered the muse to be an actual ‘person’? (Amusements, I thought, would make a good title for a collection…)

     Such thoughts might seem frivolous, but as the American critic Tony Hoagland points out, “The big insight in our era of poetics is that we live inside language, and that insight has affected…poetic practice profoundly.” This being true, and because we are aware of it, at least one of the responsibilities of writing poetry today lies in a metapoetic exploration of the art itself—not simply writing about writing, but a writing that at least carries an awareness of its own process.

DOUGLAS REID SKINNER

was born in Upington, South Africa. His work has appeared in South Africa, Italy, France, the USA and the UK. He has published seven collections of poems, most recently Liminal (uHlanga, 2017, Cape Town). He has translated from Hebrew, Afrikaans, Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese, most recently The Secret Ambition: selected poems of Valerio Magrelli (together with M Fazzini, African Sun Press, Cape Town). An early selection of the Magrelli translations was awarded joint-First Prize in the 1995 British Comparative Literature Association, Open Translation Prize. He directed The Carrefour Press from 1988 to 1992, was editor of New Contrast and the SA Literary Review. He is co-editor of the Cape Town-based poetry quarterly, Stanzas, and lives on the southwestern edge of London.

August 2017 News

July Activities:  On Saturday 8 July Jonty Driver read poems from his "Requiem" collection, alternating with music from a Corelli violin sonata for two violins, led by Peter Fields. This well-attended event, part of the JAM (John Armitage Memorial) Festival, took place in the church at St Mary in the Marsh, near Lydd. Congratulations to Jonty and Ann on their Golden Wedding Anniversary, celebrated on the same day,

There was no society meeting this month, but the annual garden party, held in Howard's and David's garden, was well attended, well fed, favoured by the weather and intellectually extended by no fewer than four quizzes.

August: No Literary Society meeting.

September: The next Literary Society meeting will be on 15 September: "Who's in Charge? The Muse Answers Back" by Douglas Skinner. More details next month

Rye Arts Festival 16 September to 1 October 2017

On Monday 7 August the Box Office opens at Phillips and Stubbs, 47 - 49 Cinque Ports Street, opening hours 9:30 am to 12:30 pm Mon – Fri. (also Saturday 16, 23, and 30 September.) You can also book on-line at www.ryeartsfestival.co.uk  . For friends and patrons the box office is already open.

Of literary interest are:

Saturday 16 Sept 11:00 Talk by Kenneth Clarke about his political memoir: “A Kind of Blue”

Sunday 17 Sept 15:00 Prof Andrew Hadfield with Peter Franczak on Shakespeare in Rye

Sunday 17 Sept 19:00 Talk by Karin Fernald on Jane Austen - The Early Years

Monday 18 Sept 11:00 Allan Downend Guided walk: Mapp and Lucia in Rye

Monday 18 Sept 15:00 Terri Fleming , “Perception”, her sequel to “Pride and Prejudice”

Tuesday 19 Sept 17:30 Sally Smith QC on her biography of Marshall Hall

Wednesday 20 Sept 11:30 Screening of 2014 BBC production of “Mapp & Lucia”

Wednesday 20 Sept 12:30 Guy Fraser-Sampson: Lucia’s Luncheon, at Tuscan Rye

Thursday 21 Sept 15:00 Dame Stephanie Shirley: introducing her memoir, “Let IT Go”

Thursday 21 Sept 19:00 Bowler Crab Production of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

Thursday 21 Sept 20:10 Clueless (Film reworking of Jane Austen’s“Emma”)

Saturday 23 Sept 12:00 to 19:30 “Caravan Shorts” – Two short films

Saturday 23 Sept 15:00 Evie Wyld (award-winning author) “Talk on the Wyld Side”

Sunday 24 Sept 15:00 Claire Fuller on “Swimming Lessons” and how it got written

Sunday 24 Sept 18:00 Nicholas Collett “Your Bard” performance playing two parts

Monday 25 Sept 17:45 “The Art of Translation” by a panel of translators

Tuesday 26 Sept 15:00 Dr Andrew Bamji “Faces from the Front” Facial reconstruction

Wednesday 27 Sept 15:00 Vanessa Nicholson “Have you Been Good?” a memoir

Thursday 28 Sept 20:10 Helen Simonson Writers of Rye (TV documentary)

Thursday 28 Sept 18:00 Margaret Hodge “Called to Account” (political memoir)

Friday 29 Sept 15:00 William Shaw “The Birdwatcher” (his crime novel set in Dungeness)

Sunday 1 Oct 17:00 “Austentatious” the improvised Jane Austen novel

October:  Our Literary Society meeting is on Friday 20 October: 20 October: "Who is Julian of Norwich and why is she so wonderful?" by Claire Foster-Gilbert

An additional event of interest is a talk in St Thomas' Church by Zdenka Fantlova. Here is a reminder from Ann Rachlin, including a link to a YouTube excerpt:

 "Zdenka Fantlova, 95-year old Holocaust survivor, author of "The Tin Ring", will be visiting Winchelsea on October 15th and speaking at 3 pm in St Thomas' at our awe-inspiring "Life is Wonderful” event, accompanied by ten musicians. This will be an inspirational afternoon, in no way sombre - on the contrary, it will be uplifting and life-enhancing.

I urge you all to view this short YouTube excerpt that will illustrate Zdenka's amazing compelling attitude.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMwkJtvP9_o&t=42s

Make sure you start it at the beginning. It often decides to start the excerpt half-way through!
Tickets for "Life is Wonderful" are on sale at £15"