Today in our poetry news round-up we bring you some information about the 2019 Robert Lewis Stevenson Fellowship. We also have an article about a collection of poetry that has been uncovered after 100 years and the poet who has been busy filming for a new television series.
2019 Robert Lewis Stevenson Fellowship Opens for Entries
The Robert Lewis Stevenson Fellowship, which is open for professional writers and poets who are living in Scotland, is now taking applications for 2019.
The fellowship has been in existence since 1994, and is supported by Creative Scotland to give a chance to writers based in Scotland to
Successful applicants attend a retreat to the beautiful Grez-sur-Loing which is located in France, a village that Stevenson visited frequently.
In total, four fellows will be given a fellowship lasting one month each with travel, accommodation and a grant for living expenses paid.
Previous winners of the fellowship include the current Scottish Makar Liz Lockhead, the poet Michael Pedersen and the novelist Jenni Fagan.
The closing date for the 2019 fellowship is 30th January.
Lost WWI Writing Made Into Poetry Book
A chance finding made by siblings clearing out their mother’s house to put it on the market has led to a rather amazing discovery.
Rosemary and Robert Stewart grew up knowing the story of their great Uncle, Second Lieutenant Hamish Mann who died in 1917 at the Battle of Arras. What they did not know was that he wrote poetry. In an incredible discovery, made last year – 100 years after his death – they unearthed a box in their mothers’ attic. The cherrywood box contained Mann’s moving accounts of what life was like on the frontline as well as. Delving deeper into the box they discovered that there were also around 100 poems in the collection, all written whilst he was a boy during a lengthy illness.
The siblings took the papers to Jacquie Buttriss, an author and they have now been turned into a book.
Because of his ill health as a child, Hamish did not need to go to war but he forged his papers and went anyway. He wrote his last poem just three days before his death. In it he mused about the fate of his fallen friends and contemplated the very real possibility that he could well be next.
The book is called “A Muddy Trench: A Snipper’s Bullet” and it tells Hamish’s story together with featuring not only a number of the poems he wrote whilst serving but also some of those he wrote as a young boy. It will be available to purchase from 30th November.
Poet Spotted at Filming
The Black Country Museum was host to the filming of a number of scenes for the new series of Peaky Blinders. Series five will be shown on BBC1 rather than BBC2 following the announcement of its move earlier this year.
The poet Benjamin Zephaniah was also seen on set. His character is set to make a return this series.
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