Welcome to the first Courthouse Words. Building on the success of Otley Wordfeast, Courthouse Words brings you an extravanganza of words – poetry, prose and scripts for children, adults and all ages in between. To download your copy of the Courthouse Words programme, click on the front cover image below. You can also read on for more details of all the great events we have in store.
- Otley is a well established town for poets. There are three poetry groups meeting regularly and other writing groups which include poets.
- There at least three poets in Otley with full collections published, others who have published pamphlets and many more experienced and new poets including some exciting performance poets as yet to be published.
- In 2015, all the prizes at the Ilkley Literature Festival Open Mic competition went to poets who are members of Otley Poetry groups.
- Otley Wordfeast Press is a local publisher of contemporary poetry. OWF is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company.
Nominations
Nominations will be accepted for or from poets over the age of 18 years currently living or working within a 5-mile radius of Otley. If you are nominating someone else, please ensure they are willing to be nominated.
Nominations must address the following points:
- Name of poet being nominated
- Name of person nominating poet
- Contact for poet
- Contact for person nominating
- Poet’s links to Otley
- Poet’s CV
Nominations can include YouTube links or similar.
Nominations accepted by email to admin@otleytowncouncil.gov.uk with the words OTLEY TOWN POET NOMINATION in the subject box.
Deadline for nominations: Midday Monday 15th February 2016.
The announcement of the name of the Town Poet will be made on 28th February at 7.15pm at the Courthouse Words Exhibition Launch.
For more information email courthousewords@gmail.com
MY FAVOURITE BOOK
28th February – 11th March
10am – 4pm
Free
Exhibition of photographs of local people holding their favourite book.
All the people in these photographs live or work within about 5 miles of Otley. These are their favourite books being read in some of their favourite places.
Our thanks to Otley Camera Club for their kind support.
ON AN EASTERN BREEZE
Wednesday 2nd March
7-8pm
Free
Otley Library
Amina Alyal, Michael Graham and Oz Hardwick will perform their show of original tanka poetry and Japanese music. Together they form the group Sankakei, which has performed Japanese-style poetry and music successfully over the last few years.
Amina Alyal is Associate Principal Lecturere at Leeds Trinity University and has published poetry and academic work widely. Michael Graham is a composer and musician, specialising in Japanese instruments the koto and the shamisen. Oz Hardwick is a Professor at Leeds Trinity University and has published academic books and articles, and several collections of poetry.
Publications
Sankeki – CD of the show from catchmentrecordings.moonfruit.com
A book of the poems, “Close as Second Skins” from indigodreamsbookshop.com
Amina Alyal: The Ordinariness of Parrots from stairwellbooks.co.uk
Oz Hardwick: An Eschatological Bestiary from doghornpublishing.com
Otley Courthouse and Otley Film Society have programmed films to support Courthouse Words. Based on a diary and a novel, these films are an important part of the “Page to Screen” workshop
MOVIE MATINEE – MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
Thursday 3rd March – 2pm
A film adaptation of a diary kept by Colin Clark of the time he spent with Marilyn Monroe and Sir Lawrence Olivier while they were filming in London
Otley Film Society presents GONE GIRL
Thursday 3rd March – 7.45pm
£4 or free to Otley Film Society members
Adapted by Gillian Flynn, Gone Girl finds Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) implicated in the disappearance of his wife Amy (Rosamund Pike). But was he…?
CHILDREN’S BOOK NIGHT
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL A LATER DATE.
Friday 4th March – 7pm
£6/4 in advance, £5/7 on the door
Meet award winning author Emma Reeves whose work includes “Eve”, “The Snow Child”, and “Hetty Feather” (stage adaptation). Emma has also written award winning episodes of “Tracy Beaker” and “The Dumping Ground”. Also featuring international award winning performance poets Leeds Young Authors – “voices of a new generation”.
PAINES PLOUGH
Come to where I’m from: OTLEY
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN POSTPONED UNTIL A LATER DATE.
Friday 4th March – 9.30pm
£8/6 in advance, £9/7 on the door
Local playwrights write and perform short plays about the place they call home as part of a national project promoted by Paines Plough. Since 2010 more than 100 playwrights from across the UK have written plays about the places that shaped them. Together these plays make up a theatrical tapestry of the nation – a playwright’s guide to Great Britain.
Paines Plough – the national theatre of new plays – brings its acclaimed “Come to where I’m from” series to Otley as part of Courthouse Words, inviting local writers to ask if home is really where the heart is.
You can listen to plays from around the UK online at painesplough.com or via the “Come to where I’m from” app available free from the app store.
#CTWIF
@painesplough
WRITERS’ SURGERIES
Saturday 5th March – 10am-1.30pm
£10 for 30 minute individual surgeries
Join James Nash to discuss your writing in a one-to-one consultation, whether it be poetry or prose, memoir or fiction. James, a well established poet, writer and tutor, will talk you through any issues you may have with your work or simply give honest and supportive feedback.
jamesnash.co.uk
PAGE TO SCREEN
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Saturday 5th March – 10.30-1pm
£10/8 in advance, £11/9 on the door
Led by Liz Rymer and Maggie Roux of Leeds Trinity University, this illustrated workshop will look at the key elements in transferring a novel or play to the screen – how images can replace words, how to adapt your favourite scene in a novel, and how characters can move easily from the page to the screen. Reference will made to “My week with Marilyn” and “Gone Girl” both being screened as part of Courthouse Words.
Liz Rymer and Maggie Roux are Associate Lecturers in Media, Film and Culture at Leeds Trinity University. Liz was the Leeds Film Festival Director, later the Yorkshire Screen Commissioner, and has contributed to a number of high profile feature films; Maggie has many years experience as a producer for the BBC and has been an advisor on a number of Film Festivals around the world.
BUILDING A CHARACTER
Saturday 5th March – 11am-1pm
£10/8 in advance, £11/9 on the door
What brings a character alive? Find out about contradictory characteristics, an old green overcoat and a character compass you can follow to the end of the plot. Dr Adam Strickson and students from the University of Leeds Writing for Performance and Publication MA course will pass on tips and strategies to make your characters jump off the page. Suitable for script, prose and poetry. Please come with a partly formed character in mind.
Dr Adam Strickson, tutor on the popular MA in Writing for Performance and Publication at the University of Leeds, assisted by his students, will introduce a cross genre “character kit” to improve your characters, assisted by his students. From October 2015 the MA has been delivered in association with West Yorkshire Playhouse, and MA tutors and Playhouse staff have been leading workshops in both locations.
WRITING FOR POPULAR TELEVISION
Saturday 5th March – 1.15-3.15pm
£15/12 in advance, £16/13 on the door
Do you watch Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Eastenders or Hollyoaks? Would you like to write scripts for soaps? This session give the inside information on how anyone can get on the writing team of a UK soap.
Alison Pennells and Matthew Cooper, who are leading this workshop, write scripts for all these popular soaps. Alison won the Yorkshire TV Short film award and wrote the first short film in Yorkshire to be shortlisted for Brief Encounters Festival; Matthew is the winner of British Screen Film Award and teh Lloyds Bank Film Challenge.
WHAT DOES SHE DO?
Saturday 5th March – 3.30-4.30pm
Free
Otley Library
Jacqui Honess-Martin is the Literary Associate at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. So what does the Literary Associate of one of the country’s leading theatres actually do? Come and find out in this informal discussion.
SUPER SLEUTHS a 1930s Murder Mystery
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED.
Saturday 5th March – 7.30pm
£12/8 in advance, £13/9 on the door
When famous golden age detectives are invited to a remote mansion by a reclusive author they get more than they bargained for as he reveals that one of them is the mysterious thief “The Falcon”. Before he can reveal which one of them it is, he ends up…. DEAD!
Can the other detectives uncover the truth before it is too late? A classic murder mystery to celebrate Miss Marple’s 89th birthday.
Free glass of wine or juice for those coming in appropriate costume!
littlegargoyle.co.uk
WALK WITH WORDS
Sunday 6th March – 9.30am-3pm,
Free
The walk, part of the Courthouse Words programme is led by Jur Keessen. Meet at the Buttercross at 9.15am with the walk starting at 9.30. We’ll proceed via Cockpit Farm, Clifton and Kell Beck. It will finish back at the Buttercross in time for the book launch and Open Mic at Korks. There will be several stops along the route for readings. Walkers are encouraged to please bring something to read – but all will be welcome anyway.
LOCKED BOX MYSTERY GAME
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS EVENT HAS BEEN CANCELLED
Sunday 6th March – 11am-1pm
£6/4 in advance, £7/5 on the door
Led by Catherine Cable and Liz Cable, this 2 hour workshop will get you making your own locked box mystery game. Learn how Escape Rooms create their puzzles, and then make a set of five puzzles to confuse and confound your friends and family. Will they discover the secrets within your Locked Box Mystery? Or will they run out of time…?
Catherine works at the Tick Tock Unlock Escape Room in Leeds, and has been a Rookie Coach at Kings Camp. Liz is Senior Lecturer in Digital Narratives and Social Media at Leeds Trinity University; together they run Time Games.
timegames.org
MYTH AND STORYTELLING
Sunday 6th March – 11am-1pm
£10/8 in advance, £11/9 on the door
For millenia, myth has been a powerful force in every culture from Iceland to Australia, but perhaps most famously from ancient Greece. This workshop will explore how myths are structured, how they work in terms of meanings and interpretation, and what we can learn from them to inform our own contemporary writing.
Amina Alyal is Associate Principal Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University and has published poetry and academic work widely. She is also a member of Sankeki, which performed as part of Courthouse Words.
OTLEY WORDFEAST PRESS
Otley Wordfeast Press is a local publisher of contemporary poetry. Its first publication “Spokes” celebrated the 2015 Grand Depart of the Tour de France. Subsequent publications include “The Garden”, “Speak another language” (Noel Whittail), “Narrow Ruled Feint with Margin” (The Great Boltini). “Surprise View” is their fifth publication.
OWF Press also publishes a series of pamphlets – short collections from individual poets.
Courthouse Words is delighted that OWF press is hosting a book launch and the Spoken Word Competition.
“SURPRISE VIEW” BOOK LAUNCH
Sunday 6th March – 2-4pm
£3 includes a glass of wine
Korks Wine Bar
The Otley Wordfeast press launch of the recently published volume of poems about Otley. Come to Korks for a glass of wine to celebrate Otley, to meed the poets and listen to their poems.
THE OWF SPOKEN WORD COMPETITION
Sunday 6th March – 4.30-6.30pm
£2 (performers are free)
Korks Wine Bar
Come and hear poets compete for cash prizes. Poets interested in taking part, please email openmic@owfpress.com
