Happy Valentine’s Day to all you romantics-at-heart out there.
Here are a few golden oldies from both of us to celebrate all things eros. We wrote these with each other in mind, but they’re published to share with the world. Enjoy!
“This is the soppiest I can get”
By Leilanie Stewart
“Mate”
By Joseph Robert
[Updated 15 August 2018: At the time this post was written in 2016, the Melita Hume Prize was free to enter. In 2018 there is now a submission charge. Please note that at the time I was longlisted for the Melita Hume Prize in 2014, and Joseph Robert longlisted for the Melita Hume Prize in 2015, there were no submission fees to enter.]
Here’s to the future, everyone! May 2016 be a productive and creative year for us all.
To celebrate all things literary for 2016, here is a competition link for the Melita Hume prize, which is how I got my poetry pamphlet, A Model Archaeologist published. Enjoy!
Cheers! See you in January ✌
Let December not be a time for wallowing in what a bad year it has been, but in celebrating how toughness and perseverance can see you through even the darkest adversity. There are always pick-me-ups aside from alcohol!
This lovely stranger opened my mail by mistake and read it too – the pages were dog-eared. But the message of support at a time when all my fair-weather friends have fallen away was a much needed injection of happiness. The power of words is a beautiful thing 🌻
Apologies, readers! Thanks for still stopping by my blog, even though I haven’t been around much. I have been busy lately working flat out, full time providing English intervention support to GCSE students in a secondary school during crucial exam season…and it is taking up all my brain power. My poetry and fiction has, unfortunately, had to take a backseat these past few months. Not to worry. One can still promote!
If you are free on Wednesday 25 November 2015, stop by the Eyewear Pamphlet Launch in Camden . The pamphlet series is currently Award nominated. See my last blog post for more!
Today I found out from my publisher at Eyewear Publishing,Todd Swift, that the Eyewear 20/20 pamphlet series has been shortlisted for the Michael Marks Publisher Awards 2015. It’s really such an honour to be published as part of an exciting range of books that is now award-nominated.
National Poetry Day came and went on Thursday (8 October) and as well intentioned as I was, I didn’t have a thing to show for it. Between my day job (I’m working as an English support teacher in a London secondary school) and spending my evenings preparing for my forthcoming court case, sadly there isn’t much brain power left for creative pursuits in this limbo life of mine as of late. In the interim, here’s another promo shot taken amidst happier times…and better weather. For as we enter autumn, I will reflect on the good times as I walk the road not taken into happier times post litigation!
V is for Victory…House!
Today my poet hubby, Joseph Robert and I swung by the Free Verse Fair at Conway Hall in London. It goes without saying that it was great to see my poetry pamphlet, A Model Archaeologist (available from my publisher Eyewear Publishing and from my online shop Meandi Books) alongside all the other books at the stall.
The fair is on until 4.30pm today. As I’m writing over a coffee in Red Lion square park, it’s great to have a moment to enjoy the last of the nice weather in London before getting back into the throng at the fair. This is a much needed day of poetry book shopping that I have delayed for too long!
Sometimes in life, a writer and poet must struggle with the work-life balance, which can often get knocked askew by things in the real world. In the cold, harsh dawn of reality, the other side of Leilanie Stewart author is fighting a battle that will be going to court in mid-January next year. I have now metamorphosed from writer into litigant in person! Alas, a starving artist must be her own solicitor since there is no such thing as legal aid and court fees are so high in the UK!
A big hairy mess…fighting the legal fight
But some things are worth the fight, for if we do not fight for our rights, we lose them.
With the new academic year about to start next week, what better way to kick off the new term than for young poets to get submitting their work! The Eric Gregory Award is a poetry competition for British poets aged 30 and under for a first pamphlet length collection of up to 30 poems…and a formidable incentive of £20,000 for the first place winner. Details can be found on the competition website here. Good luck!
Leilanie Stewart 