Greetings winter darkness!
Phew! What a busy autumn it’s been with new young writers’ groups starting and lots of Hive activity for the Off the Shelf Festival of Words – including the launch of The Camellia House & Other Stories, an anthology of poetry and fiction inspired by the families, gardens and histories of Wentworth Woodhouse.
It was such a joy to edit and contextualise this wonderfully evocative collection of writing. There’s the most magnificent range of creative work that tenderly, innovatively, and sometimes humorously, brings history to life through compelling new voices. Accompanying the work, are many absorbing contextual and historical insights, such as the importance of pineapples in 1800s England, and what life ‘below stairs’ was really like. The anthology features the micro-commissioned works of 31 emerging writers aged 16+ from the Hive network, many of whom were inspired to write several pieces. These include prize-winning writers such as Luke Worthy and Freya Bantiff, and Sheffield Poet Laureates Warda Yassin (2020-22) and Beth Davies (2024-26). There are also pieces from several established writers including Ian McMillan and Helen Mort.
“The Camellia House & Other Stories offers us a beautiful and varied collection of hymns to the past, as emerging writers celebrate and sing the history of Wentworth Woodhouse. Here you will find exotic animal interactions and religious visions, the voices of aristocrats, servants and disgruntled vegetables, the sound of giggles which carry across history. This wonderful collection creates a place in which the writers of tomorrow and the people of history can meet, through the magic of language, in the most fantastic, shared now.” Jonathan Edwards: Poet & Fiction Writer
The perfect Christmas present for the history buff or word lover!
Buy The Camellia House & Other Stories here.
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And it’s been a joy to see the Canal Works project, and resulting crowd-sourced poem by Hive poet Warda Yassin, waking from slumber to make its mark on the Sheffield to Tinsley canal.
In 2021, I was delighted to mentor and support Warda on the project, devising and delivering workshops inspired by the canal’s waterways, wildlife and histories, with members of the public and young people from the Mixing Roots Programme. The Canal Works project – a Waterlines collaboration between The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust – was aimed at celebrating the history and life of the Sheffield to Tinsley Canal route.
The project culminated in Warda creating a crowd-sourced poem using writing produced in the workshops. The poem Canal Works, inspired an installation by local Sheffield artist Grace Visions which is now displayed along a wall by the Bacon Lane Bridge entrance of the Sheffield to Tinsley Canal, with an accompanying QR code to the full poem.
You can watch short films [by Aidan Joseph] of the poem and the creation of the installation here. Read the full text of the poem here.
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Also this autumn, it was a lovely moment to bring together the readings of five of the eight Hive poets who have won the New Poets Prize over the last eight years at Off the Shelf Festival of Words. Hive New Poets winners over the years are: Safia Khan (2021), Warda Yassin (2018), Beth Davies (2022), Lauren Hollingsworth Smith (2020), Georgie Woodhead (2020), Luke Worthy (2023) Freya Bantiff (2023) Charlie Jolley (2024). I’m so very proud of them all and it’s been the biggest delight to see them develop their confidence and voice over the years.
And finally, last but certainly not least, Hive poet Beth Davies was announced Sheffield Poet Laureate (2024-26) at Off the Shelf Festival of Words by previous laureate Danae Wellington (2022-24) on Thursday 24th Oct 2024. The aim of the laureateship is to champion engagement in poetry and support its wider community reach.
Both poets follow fellow Hive poet Warda Yassin who was Sheffield’s second laureate from 2020 to 2022, succeeding Otis Mensah.