Monday, 11 April 2011

A little taster of what has been happening with NaPo WriMo

So we're in the wild mist of the National Poetry Writing Month and 2 of Bad Language's very own have been taking part. As a little taster here's a pick of two poem's that have been written fresh! Fresh!

Here's one from Daniel Carpenter written in the early days, day 3:


For two women waiting outside Victoria station on a Saturday night.



You share cigarette smoke chatter, under

train station canopies and practise cartwheels

on the gravel. Under glowstick Manchester

sky you change into comfy shoes, tossing

neon purple high heels with dismissive regal

hands. There is electric blue air dancing,

sparking, swaggering around and fractured

disco ball glisten spotlights dancefloor puddles.



A couple embrace under departure board green,

threatening their children with further displays;

you giggle a fifteen year old girl's giggle,

twenty years in waiting; polish off plastic

glass of wine and walk on, leaving no trace,



but a single slippered heel.
 
 
Here's a taster from Nicola West's effort from day 3:
 
Sunday Morning




Your toes, touch the tips of mine,

As we lay side by side.



Sticky summer heat, creeps down my skin,

As I let it rest against yours.



And,



Sometimes, only sometimes

Your lips fit perfectly into mine.

 
We want to know who else is taking part in NaPo WriMo so get in touch!

Monday, 4 April 2011

NaPoWriMo: day 3

National poetry writing month has been upon us for a few days now, and whilst the other results can be seen on my blog Winter Hill but I thought I'd share my contribution for day 3 on here.

For two women waiting outside Victoria station on a Saturday night.

You share cigarette smoke chatter, under
train station canopies and practise cartwheels
on the gravel. Under glowstick Manchester
sky you change into comfy shoes, tossing
neon purple high heels with dismissive regal
hands. There is electric blue air dancing,
sparking, swaggering around and fractured
disco ball glisten spotlights dancefloor puddles.

A couple embrace under departure board green,
threatening their children with further displays;
you giggle a fifteen year old girl's giggle,
twenty years in waiting; polish off plastic
glass of wine and walk on, leaving no trace,

but a single slippered heel.

Friday, 1 April 2011

Once more and again... Bad Language at The Castle Hotel

Bad Language will be running another brilliant night of poetry, prose, general amusement with a fantastic special guest performance from Rod Tame. It will take place on Wednesday 27th April and will kick off at 7.30pm.

Host of Write Out Loud Sale and ‘Rhyme and Dine’ at Manchester’s Earth CafĂ©, Rod is a poetic Performance Artist and actor.

You can find out more about Rod on his website http://www.rodtame.com/

There will also be copies of our wonderful second anthology Scattered Reds available and performances from Bad Language themselves.

If you wish to take part in the open mic section, please e-mail events@badlanguagemcr.co.uk to book a FOUR MINUTE MAXIMUM SLOT.

http://www.thecastlehotel.info/
 
We hope to see your lovely faces down there. x 

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

Bad Language @ The Castle February 23rd

Bad Language will be running another brilliant night of poetry, prose, general amusement with a fantastic special guest, Jo Bell.

From her website: "Jo is a writer and performer, facilitator, workshop leader, editor, live literature promoter and manager of creative projects across the UK. Her main job is to co-ordinate National Poetry Day, for which she is the Director. She is also a director of Living Derby and a trustee of Ledbury Poetry Festival.

Jo devised the online/ hard copy writing project Bugged and is currently writing a play for young people with Action Transport Theatre."

http://belljarblog.wordpress.com/
http://www.bell-jar.co.uk/

There will also be copies of our wonderful second anthology Scattered Reds available and performances from Bad Language themselves.

If you wish to take part in the open mic section, please e-mail events@badlanguagemcr.co.uk

The event will take place on Wednesday23rd February and run from 7.30pm - 10.30pm


http://www.thecastlehotel.info/

Tuesday, 25 January 2011

Submissions the third.

Good news writers! Submissions are now open for the third Bad Language anthology of new writing!

Please follow these guidelines as failing to do so will result in your entry being rejected.

Please only submit to one of the following categories.

Short Stories

Short stories to be no longer than 2500 words.
Only one short story per person.
Stories to have not been published elsewhere.

Poetry

Poetry to be no longer than 40 lines.
Maximum of 3 poems submitted per person.
Poetry not to have been published elsewhere.

Flash and Micro Fiction

Flash and micro fiction not to exceed 500 words.
No more than 3 flash or micro fictions to be submitted per person.
Flash and micro fiction not to have been published elsewhere.

Other

We will also be accepting graphic fiction (as an A5 sized PDF, maximum ten pages of story).

We also accept extracts from novel's, following the same guidelines as short story submissions, however the extract
has to be able to stand alone.

You may also submit non-fiction articles that have a clear relation to literature. These must follow the short story guidelines.




House guidelines.

You must attach your submission as a .doc file to an e-mail (unless it is graphic fiction.)
You must include a 50 word biography as the body of the e-mail
Your e-mail must be titled 'Bad Language Submissions'

Please note we cannot read the same submission twice. If you have had an entry rejected from a previous anthology, please do not re-submit the same piece. We love to read new work!

Due to the large amount of submissions we cannot accept any that do not follow submissions guidelines.

Submissions should be sent to submissions@badlanguagemcr.co.uk by 10pm on the 2nd of March.

Monday, 17 January 2011

Bad Language at The Castle

Dear lover of all things literary,

In nine days time Bad Language will be hosting our second event at The Castle Hotel in Manchester. We've got the brilliant David Gaffney headlining the night, providing his off-kilter short stories and reading from his excellent new book, The Half Life of Songs.

There will also be performances in the open mic section from some of Manchester's finest poets, storytellers and bloggers.

If you wish to attend the event, you can sign up to the Facebook page or check out the fanpage for ourselves here

There are still places in the open mic section left, so if you're interested in performing in one of the nicest venues in Manchester, in front of a lovely, welcoming crowd, then e-mail us at events@badlanguagemcr.co.uk and we'll book a four minute slot for you.

We will be announcing big things at the event and one of us may or may not be performing poetry made up entirely of Arnie's dialogue in The Terminator...this will almost definitely depend on the amount of ale consumed beforehand.

We hope to see you down there.

Bad Language.

Tuesday, 21 December 2010

National Short Story Day

As we take the plunge through towards Christmas and New Years, it's important to note that today we celebrate National Short Story Day! The first of its kind, and hopefully not the last. Here at Bad Language we thought we'd give you a few great short story collections to read:

Junot Diaz - Drown
David Gaffney - The Half Life of Songs
Raymond Carver - What we talk about when we talk about love
Miranda July - No one belongs here more than you
Dave Eggers - How we are hungry

Of course you can do no wrong in picking up a copy of our first two anthologies, 'I know where the city has wings' and 'Scattered Reds'.

For more Manchester based short stories you should check out Rainy City Stories who have published my story entitled 'That's how I got to Manchester'. Their website is filled with fascinating insights into the city, and some rather wonderful short stories. You can also find some great 330 word stories at 330 Words.

So, merry National Short Story Day! We'll be back soon with information about our upcoming open mic nights at The Castle Hotel, so get in touch if you want to perform, e-mail events@badlanguagemcr.co.uk