We are starting our fifth birthday celebrations with some great give away gifts and a 5th anniversary competition that features fantastic prizes for literature lovers and writers. We hope you will help us to celebrate five years of innovative, independent, international publishing.

We are looking for keen readers who will read one of our novels and agree to post a review on Inpress, The Book Depository, Amazon or a well read blog. Free novels will go to the first twenty people to email Rowan with their name, address and a short note of where the review will be placed. (Please note we will only be able to respond to the lucky first twenty)

Or buy a copy of Adnan Mahmutović’s gripping novella, Thinner than a Hair, for the introductory special price of £6 a nd get a copy of his short story collection, [Refuge]e FREE. (due out end of March)

Written in the first person voice of Fatima, it is the story of a young woman coming of age in Bosnia: “We lived in the period of Bosnian history when even the way of being a child or the manner of falling in love was political in some way.”

A Cinnamon Press course will give you focus and inspiration, but so often it’s that extra bit of advice and direction after the course that is the missing element. Book yourself into one of the Cinnamon Press writing courses and get a free follow up appraisal of your work – one short story, one chapter of a novel or five poems. The courses are at Llanberis for women writers from 23rd – 30th April; Gardousel Retreat in France from June 19th – 26th, where you can bring a non-writing partner and enjoy organic food, sun and massages or North Wales from October 30th to November 5th. You will find full details on the website events page or email Jan

The Cinnamon Press birthday competition gives you the chance to win a free place on the writing course in North Wales this autumn (October 30 th to November 5 th) . For a £12 entry fee you could win yourself a week in a single occupancy room with a group of committed writers with daily workshops, one to one mentoring and time to write and relax. To enter send a short story of under 2,000 words or five poems or five microfictions plus a cheque for £12 together with your details on a separate sheet to ‘Cinnamon Press Birthday competition’ by the closing date of August 31st. The winning entrant will be published in our spring 2011 anthology as well as winning a place on the autumn writing course. Two runners up will be sent 10 Cinnamon Press books each.

Landeg White brings a lifetime of scholarship and lyricism to bear on this epic, but intensely personal story of a young woman’s search for identity and the realisation that ancestry is not always as it seems. Maria, a student in Brighton, begins to piece together her family history during a dull Christmas visit to her grandmother after buying an African carving that she can’t resist. Discovering that Caroline, the long suffering colonial wife whose letters are still safely kept was not her great-grandmother at all, Maria begins of journey of discovery that pieces together the disparate narratives of this rich and intelligent novel; a journey that draws together ‘people who cared not for nation or tribe but for the infinitely varied networks that were our common inheritance. ‘

“The novel is a rich, informative, sometimes alarming and often moving account ...generous and perceptive ...post-post-colonial in the ironies and sympathies it has available for almost all its characters. ...a novel of confidence and subtlety”

“Original, subtle, inventive ...Livingstone's Funeral has huge potential to become the best seller in its genre.”

The Reverend Albert Toyne had written this in his leather bound diary, his sister’s gift, the evening he first glimpsed Zanzibar after the voyage from Cape Town in the cramped frigate. His spidery copperplate lay before him, a little smudged on the damp page, under the date October 2, 1880, and he tried to remember what inspired them. Had it been his first glimpse from the harbour of the tower of Christ Church Cathedral newly built on the old slave market? That would look good in print, read out at a Mission meeting. But Toyne tried hard to be an honest man and, in fact, all he could remember were the flat green swamplands of the coast with its great brown rivers. Then after dark, when the land breeze stopped, the night air warm as a cloth, smelling of salt and urine.

He had written nothing since. He couldn’t write on the march, needing a proper desk or at least a table like the one Smart had knocked together for him in his brand new house. But now at Migodo, two hundred miles inland and ignoring the passage of nine weeks, he continued writing clearly and urgently.

‘It disturbs me that they came again today. There were more of them than before, all the chiefs and headmen of the district.

Professor Lambkin was the star of the conference. This was only his third visit to Zambwali. He had dropped in once for three days in 1948 en route by flying boat to Southern Rhodesia, and he had spent a week in the capital as a guest of the new government during the independence celebrations. As a result, from his secure post in Aberdeen University, Professor Lambkin ran Zambwalian history. All research on Zambwali was wise to seek his stamp of approval. All appointments in related subjects were channelled through him. All documents surfacing about Zambwalian history were deposited by special arrangement in his university’s special archive. All journals covering the area as a whole consulted him about articles submitted for publication.

He had made his name with a book about the 1917 rising. Making use of materials supplied by friends in Zambwali but writing in Aberdeen, he had constructed a simple story of educated, progressive, nationalist-minded rebels provoked beyond endurance by colonial settler exploitation, but committing the unfortunate historical error of being years ahead of their time.

Professor Lambkin, in sharp contrast, was very much in tune with his times. The book had been published during the interim period of internal self-government which preceded full independence and it became wildly popular in Zambwali. It wasn’t read there—it wasn’t officially permitted to go on sale since the new administration found itself strangely reluctant to allow into the country a book celebrating an anti-government revolt. But it was referred to frequently in the speeches of Prime Minister Kacheche, as he then was, and extracts appeared in the party newspaper. For a few weeks, Mr Kacheche even took to walking with a limp, hinting at physical identification with Ebenezer Chibambo, charismatic leader of the 1917 rising who was shot in the leg before his ascension into heaven.

Curiously, the book’s popularity had little to do Professor Lambkin’s attack on British colonial policies, much more with the picture it provided of ordinary Zambwalians which was felt to be extremely flattering. The professor had found it very difficult to ascribe a plausible composite role to the African supporters of the revolt. Never having met any Zambwalians, apart from the waiters in the lakeshore hotel during his 1948 stopover, he had worried for some time over the problem of characterisation. Luckily, a summer vacation spent at his sister’s cottage on the Gower peninsular and a couple of days in the Rhondda valley provided him with the answer. Zambwalians were delighted to find themselves described as hymn-singing, chapel-going, salt-of-the-earth socialists with powerful puritan traditions and long tribal memories. They were puzzled by the bit about them being passionate rugby fans, but the portrait as a whole was immensely reassuring and they were determined to live up to it.

The professor now crossed the senior common room with a smile which seemed to light up his thick spectacles, his right arm extending behind him as though trailing his unexpected African guest on a leash.

‘Good evening, Vice Chancellor,’ he declared loudly, using the title from necessity rather than policy since he never could remember the man’s name. ‘I want to introduce village headman Ngoleka.’

He turned to examine the end of the leash and found to comical bewilderment that his protégé had slipped his collar.

The Bigger Picture

Extract from How to Pour Madness into a Teacup

Schedule

She dances through
the middle of days,
blends memories with oil of lavender, keeps
conversations in scrapbooks.

She papers the walls with anecdotes,
pinches her lips to hoard her thoughts,
and when asked for her opinions
plucks on her mouth like a harpist
playing on gut strings.

Counsellor

The shine of his hair
swept back by his hand
startles her. He leaves
with her words recorded
in his red This is Your Life folder
tucked under his arm.
He goes before she has finished,
so she swallows her words
and the unspoken sentence
slips down her throat.

You are warmly invited to the launch of On the Brink
At Newport Waterstones, Isle of Wight,
Tuesday March 16th

Extracts from On the Brink

From Pole to Pole

That haunted wing, my mind, resonates
with dialogues and litanies, riots
spill along its corridors, doors slam.
You stalk me, ambush me. I try

to fend you off with pills and booze,
make sleep fill up the space left in my bed
but you, dark one, press through
the cracks and splinters in my dreams.

On garish aching autumn days
I force myself into the sun,
a north-west gale pinpricks my eyes
in lanes leeside high hedges.

I shelter from the squalls off sea
with autumn’s final butterflies,
ragged but still brilliant
through rain and storm and frost.

Island

You see I come from here,
I will not deny the isle nor expel
it from me. Islands either draw you or repel,
hold you tight or wash you onto greater shores.
Indifference not an option, else why stay?

I am from its hills,
swaddled in a web of deep green lanes,
feel sometimes like a figurehead
scanning sea and sky
my Janus face to land and sea.

Islands give themselves to those who let them.
I could never find a new place now
but then, not ever
and though I feel for other places,
when sea small-washes over me
I am driftwood flung ashore and beached again.

Boundaries here are fixed, horizons limitless.

You are warmly invited to the launch of

The Forest Under the Sea by John Barnie

at the Bookshop, Aberystwyth Arts Centre

Thursday March 18th, 7.00p.m.

Free event with refreshments
All welcome

“Unquestionably one of our most urgent contemporary voices.”

Damian Walford Davies

Extracts for The Forest Under the Sea

Big Bend Country

Play me something riverine
about eels, the fistful of cables
slipping from the engineer’s
hands, rubberised against the shock of the
charge that sends them quivering
upstream to enter every orifice
of a sheep snagged by its woolly
jumper on an alder, the roomy
skull and ribcage a shanty home
for a while; you don’t knock there
for a welcome from eyes that see only
prey, from jaws that can only snap
shut on life; let’s tiptoe away
to admire the glitter of the shallows
where the old ferry used to be,
hauled on a steel rope from bank to
bank like a weary shuttle.

Spider Crabs

If I can climb
over the backs of my brothers and sisters
to the hands manhandling this cage

I’ll tear them to red confetti
for a blood wedding;

pity is a word thrown overboard by Noah;
It tasted good,

said the lips of the shark.

Word-Up,
with Cinnamon editor and author Jan Fortune-Wood

Harry’s Bar, Newcastle Emlyn
Monday 22nd March, 8.00p.m.
Open mic slots. Supported by Academi.

Extracts from Stale Bread and Miracles

Called you by your name

What we want to discern is summed up in one word: vocation and calling. As I said, one word. Canon Lynley smiles, breathes deeply and blows, points to a jumble of words, the last one: VOCATION.

In the library, books shed dust like unread words from parchment skins, the Canon nods his white-haired head, asks to its beat, You’re how old, dear?

From the sinking springs of an ancient chair I say I’m twenty-four.

And can you relate to adults, dear? His smile is cherubic. He nods and nods and finally adds, Surely you’d be better off at home—having babies, dear.

The final test, to assess my spiritual growth, is a single question at dusk: Do you have a sense of humour, dear?

Odious to the inhabitants

I wake to a distant tapping sound. Evening: a sodden Saturday in a grey November. I stretch and listen, follow the beat upstairs to where a rupture in the ceiling seeps water onto satinwood. I stare in stupor, rouse and fetch a bucket. The builder says we have a year before the roof beams split.

Rob says, You’d better have a word with your God.

Our Mole is born, rooting and black-haired.

A Christmas boy.

At college I’m given a room of my own to work on my thesis in feminist theology. Just me and Mole and all the students’ wives who come each morning to my study, also known as ‘the designated nappy changing room’.

I dread the smell of faeces in the morning.

Catch up with Cinnamon author Holly Howitt
at
Wrexham Library, Wednesday 24th March
all welcome
(please note change of date)

Excerpt from The Schoolboy

‘I want to suck your bones and wrap them in my skin. I want to kiss your liver and stroke your eyeballs.’

I conclude my letter by putting my initial and then three kisses. Three is a very important number. It means: me, Mum and Dad; it means the number of years that Paul has been in a coma; it means the years I’ve been waiting to be caught.

Three—it’s the magic number.

Also, Miss Cross—Carol—was born on the third of November. It’s a shame it wasn’t March, like me, really, then it could be the third of the third. I still don’t know what year, but the fine mist of wrinkles around her mouth suggests that she is a child of the seventies. Still, she looks good for her age.

Anyway, the letter.

I find a deep blue envelope lurking in the bottom of my bag, ready. I take a silver pen and quiver ‘Miss Cross’ in romantic writing across the smooth paper.

I wonder if her skin feels like this?

No, I imagine her skin like the silver of my pen—fine, iridescent. I imagine it glowing by lamplight. I imagine her nipples. They will be burnt pink like brick. And hard and soft in one moment.

Bollocks, the silver has splodged over the envelope, and worse, my trousers are tight with my fantasies. At least I am alone in the classroom. I take the red paper from the ruined envelope and sigh. The red paper and the blue envelope didn’t look right together anyway. And I want her to see unity in the way the envelope—well, envelops the deep vermilion paper.

Although I think she knows what I want even though I code it.

3. Cinnamon Call for Submissions

Call for submissions to anthology of poetry and prose poetry sequences

We are looking for submissions to an anthology of sequences – written as poetry (all styles and subjects welcome) or prose poetry. Your sequence should contain between 3 and 12 poems/prose poems, each of up to 40 lines or 250 words for prose poems.

The aim of this anthology is to showcase a substantial piece of work from each of the selected poets and to feature a poetry form that is often hard to place with publishers.

You may submit as many sequences as you wish, and those chosen will appear in a new Cinnamon anthology: Sequences to be published in late 2011, co-edited by Rowan and Jan Fortune-Wood.

Due to the huge popularity of the submission calls we are charging a small administration fee. This will help us pay for the time of someone to collate email addresses and send responses etc. This is a small, one off fee per person, not per sequence so you do not have to pay for the number of sequences you send. The fee is £2 payable via Paypal (which will convert other currencies) or you can send a cheque to ‘Cinnamon Press’ (sterling only) with a note of your name and the title of your submission.

Submission Guidelines for Sequences anthology

Please read these carefully. Due to the large volume of submissions expected we will only be able to process those submissions that conform to the guidelines.

The deadline for submissions is: 15th May 2010. Due to high volume of submissions received we will not be able to extend this.

Each sequence must contain between 3 and 12 poems/prose poems, each of up to 40 lines in length or 250 words for prose poems.

Sequences can be on any subject and you may send several sequences, but please submit them attached to ONE email with each sequence attached as a word document using a .doc or .rtf format (so, for example, if you are sending three sequences you will be sending one email with three attachments).

All submissions must be via email. We are not accepting hard copy submissions.

There is an admin fee of £2 per person (this covers as many sequences as you would like to send provided they are in one email).

Submit pieces to both Rowan Fortune-Wood – rowan@cinnamonpress.com and Jan Fortune-Wood – jan@cinnamonpress.com with ‘sequences anthology’ in the subject line.

In the body of the email please type your name and location.

Please ensure your virus protection is up to date.

We hope to inform everyone who has sent a submission of which pieces will be included in the anthology by late October 2010. Please ensure that you inform us if your email address changes after sending the submission.

The decisions of the editors are final.

All those whose work is selected will receive a complimentary copy of the anthology.

4. Cinnamon Writing Courses

Cinnamon Press Writing Weeks – Inspiring your writing for 2010

As the New Year gets underway lots of writers are planning some time away to nurture their craft. Courses from Cinnamon Press are a great way to bring energy and commitment to your writing and this year we have three fantastic courses to choose from; one for women writers and two for that are open to all writers, including the chance to combine your writing with a fabulous holiday in the Mediterranean mountains in France.

With dates in April, June and November, fantastic venues, wonderful food and great tuition we hope you will be able to join us for one of the courses with Cinnamon Press founder and editor, Jan Fortune-Wood and enjoy a week of creative writing workshops, individual mentoring and inspiration in the company of a small group of committed writers. Choose the course that suits you and give your writing a boost in 2010.

The first (for women writers) is in Llanberis this spring, there is only one place left so book soon.
The second is for all writers, at the stunning retreat centre in Gardousel, France in June. An amazing writing holiday to bring your work to life.
The third is back in Wales in November and open to all – an inspirational break before the run up to Christmas and a great way to round off the writing year.

The workshops will focus on making your writing come to life, whether you are working on fiction or poetry. We will explore starting points, imagery and structure and ways of bringing precision and vividness to your language. Each group will be limited in size to allow plenty of time for mentoring sessions. There will also be opportunities to workshop each others’ work and to share work in progress as well as time to write, relax and explore the beautiful locations.

Jan Fortune-Wood has taught creative writing for the Open College of Art, The Writer’s House, the Arvon Foundation (tutoring both adults and teenagers), Women on Tour writing courses in Spain and does mentoring work as part of the co-operative, Triskele Writes. Jan is a qualified teacher and member of the National Association of Writers in Education and Academi’s Writers on Tour scheme. Her books include novels , A Good Life, Dear Ceridwen and The Standing Ground and poetry, Particles of Life and Stale Bread and Miracles, a prose poetry collection which she recently performed at a reading with poet laureate, Carol Ann Duffy. She is currently working on a poetry sequence exploring emotions through landscape and architecture of an abandoned slate mining village, Tŷ Schrödinger and a novel that ranges across three generations and two continents exploring issues of metamorphosis and identity, I’m Still Here.

Spring Writing Week for Women Writers

Where? In a beautiful North Wales farm house near Llanberis, Snowdonia. Accommodation is in a range of twin and single-occupancy rooms, with all rooms en suite. There’s a large kitchen, living rooms plus an extra dining room. The area is stunning with walks all around,

When? April 24th – 30th—a spring writing break to galvanize your writing for 2010.

How much? There’s a sliding scale depending on room, allocated on first come first served basis. The large single-occupancy doubles with en suite are £540; there is a single-occupancy bunk room with en suite at £510 and twin-rooms, also with en suite, at £490 per person. The price includes food (we will share the cooking for the week using easy recipes and wonderful vegetarian ingredients); accommodation and all tuition.

The group? This is a course for serious women writers at a range of levels with limited places available to maximise contact time and attention to individual work.

Booking? Send a non-refundable deposit of £100 to ‘Jan Fortune-Wood’ with booking form downloadable at www.cinnamonpress.com (or email Jan for a the form as an attachment – jan@cinnamonpress.com) Balance due by Friday 9th April (can be paid in installments up to the payment date) This course has only one place available (a single occupancy double), so act fast.

Summer Writing Holiday for all at Gardoussel Retreat

Gardoussel - on 18 hectares

Where? In the tranquil and nurturing environment of Gardoussel Retreat, a magical oasis of calm in one of the most beautiful and untouched parts of France, the mountains at St Andre de Valborgne, 1 hour from Nimes and 2 hours from Montpelier. Accommodation is in a range of single-occupancy rooms (unless you request sharing). Meals are delicious, home-made, organic and vegetarian. The area is stunning with walks all around.

When? Sat 19th – Sat 26th June 2010.

How much? The cost for accommodation (everyone will have their own room unless requested otherwise or you bring a non-writing partner), all meals and tuition is £580. There is also the opportunity to bring a non-writing partner at a cost of £430 for accommodation and all meals. The area has plenty to explore and the centre can offer a range of massages and Ayurvedic consultations at extremely reasonable prices.

Travel

There are various ways to get to Gardoussel. The fastest, simplest option is to fly to Nimes from Stansted or Luton (just outside London), or Liverpool, then share a taxi or travel up by bus (see below). Eurostar runs a train service from London or Paris to Avignon or Nîmes; you can then take a bus to St Jean du Gard. We can help to organise taxi shares and are happy to collect you from the village of St Andre de Valborgne and bring you to Gardoussel. Once the group has booked we will liaise to help co-ordinate travel arrangements.

Ethos

This is a family-run retreat and guests share in the life of the place while there. Guests help by lending a hand after mealtimes – clearing up afterwards and washing the dishes - stocking the wood burning stoves with logs (in winter or cold nights), caring for their rooms and looking after the communal living spaces. In reality, this requires about 20 minutes a day of each guest’s time.

The group? This is a course for writers at a range of levels. There are only eight writer places available to maximise contact time and attention to individual work. Non-writing partners also welcome at a reduced rate.

Booking? Contact Sharon for a booking form by email sharonblack1969@yahoo.com

Winter Writing Break for all in Wales

Where? In a beautiful North Wales manor house close to the coast at Harlech. Accommodation is in a range of twin and single-occupancy rooms, with all rooms en suite. There’s a large kitchen, living rooms plus an extra dining room. The area is stunning with walks all around,

When? October 30th – November 5th —a winter break to breathe new life into your writing.

The group? This is a course for serious writers at a range of levels with limited places available to maximise contact time and attention to individual work.

Booking? Send a non-refundable deposit of £100 to ‘Jan Fortune-Wood’ with booking form downloadable at www.cinnamonpress.com (or email Jan for a the form as an attachment – jan@cinnamonpress.com) Balance due by Friday 1 st October (can be paid in installments up to the payment date)

5. Other writing opportunities and events:

Services for Writers – TriskeleWrites

TriskeleWrites :

Services to writers

TriskeleWrites is a fantastic new venture offering a range of services for writers who want to improve their craft. TriskeleWrites has been set up by three practising writers, editors and tutors: Gail Ashton; Jan Fortune-Wood and Susan Richardson, to offer manuscript appraisals, mentoring services to writers, creative writing courses and specialist packages for those who want to self publish their work.

If you want to know more please see www.triskelewrites.co.uk

or email info@triskelewrites.co.uk

Competitions:

KUDOS (formerly Competitions Bulletin) lists all the latest writing competitions and opportunities in six issues each year. A free sample of a back issue can be emailed as a pdf file. Details of around 250,000 pounds in prize money each issue. At least 50 competitions for poetry, around 40 for short stories. Plus collections, anthologies, playwriting, nonfiction, books etc. Now in longer 32 page format. Only £3 per issue; 6 issues: £18; Cheques to Carole Baldock: 17 Greenhow Avenue, West Kirby, Wirral CH48 5EL carolebaldock@hotmail.com www.kudoswritingcompetitions.co.uk

Events:

Ceridwen Centre Events

The Ceridwen Centre in rural Carmarthenshire has a range of literature events in March. Deborah Rey will be launching her novel on Friday 12th, there’s a Murder Mystery evening on Saturday 13th 7:30pm followed by a crime writing workshop with award winning crime writer Sally Spedding on Sunday 14th 10-5pm. And between all of that Saturday 13th from 10 -5pm is a writers’ day. Kate Noakes will be leading a workshop, “Taking a word for a walk” and Cinnamon editor Jan Fortune-Wood will be leading a workshop on writing for teen readers, based on her novel The Standing Ground. Stay overnight in the Centre to combine a series of fantastic events. Full details at http://www.ceridwencentre.co.uk/

Camden & Lumen: Patron: Carol Ann Duffy

Once again Ruth O’Callaghan has organised poetry events in Camden and Tavistock Square in support of the cold weather shelters – a chance to hear talented small press poets, read at open mics and submit work for the annual anthology.

The Camden dates for 2010 are all the first Friday of the month EXCEPT April (Mar 5th; April 16th; May 7th; June 4th; July 2nd; Sept 3rd; Oct. 1st; Nov. 5th and Dec. 3rd. Trinity United Reform Church, 1 Buck St, Camden Town, 2 minutes Camden Town tube. Proceeds to the Cold Weather Shelter for the Homeless.

Camden March 5th Ruth O'Callaghan presents Dark Age Press poets, John Gohorry & Ian Harrow.

The dates for the Lumen events (88 Tavistock Place, WC1 H9RT, Tubes: Russell Square or Kings Cross. Doors open 6.30 for 7pm are second Tuesdays of the month: Mar. 9th; April 13th; May 11th; June 8th; July 13th; Sept 14th; Oct 12th; Nov. 9th and Dec 14th.

Lumen, March 9th Ruth O'Callaghan presents Jane Elizabeth Martin Memorial Entry to events is £4/£3. Wine.

Poetry on Tap is a monthly poetry and spoken word series co-curated by Ivy Alvarez and Mab Jones. It provides a showcase for electric experimentation and lively risk-taking through poetry, with exciting and uncommon pairings between poets and spoken word artists.

Harnessing this electricity to generate and foster a new creative energy in Cardiff, Poetry on Tap takes place on a laid-back Sunday afternoon right in the middle of Cardiff, upstairs at The Promised Land on Windsor Place, just off Queen Street. £4 entry or £2 for open mic readers. Supported by Academi.

On The Border was created to bring contemporary Welsh poets together with their peers from Elsewhere.

Saturday 6th March 7.30pm Brian Patten & Ann Drysdale

Saturday 3rd April 7.30pm A Celebration of Dannie Abse: with Cary Archard Tony Curtis, Elaine Feinstein, Lynne Hjelmgaard, Chris Meredith, Owen Sheers & Wynn Thomas

Drill Hall, Lower Church Street, Chepstow, Monmouthshire, South Wales NP16 5HJ. bar, book stall. All Tickets £12.00 (£10 concessions)

info@poetryontheborder.com