As well as the poetry course at Swanwick, I was also asked to lead the two showcase events. These were essentially poetry readarounds – a rather more restrained atmosphere than a normal open mike, but along those lines.
There were other showcase sessions on at the same time, in fiction and non-fiction, but we had a good turn out and it looked as if there would be far more people reading than there was time for.
Continue reading “listening and reading”
I’ve been back in the UK for the Swanwick Writers’ Summer School; hence the lack of updates here.
Early in the week there was a conversation over breakfast about “txt-speke” and emoticons. Personally, I loathe emoticons, Continue reading “international language?”
Today, after six days, they have finally announced that the fire in the mountains is “controlado”.
In the end, the area of land destroyed is said to be around 4,200 hectares. That sounds vast to me, but Agustín González, presidente de la Diputación de Ávila, has described it as “un rinconcito” – a tiny corner – Continue reading “ash Monday”
Some years ago there was a great fuss about whether Spain was to be allowed to keep on producing and using computer keyboards with the ‘ñ’ character. I think it was around the same time that the alphabet was reformed and, although the eñe retained its independence, the ‘ch’ and ‘ll’ ceased to be treated as separate letters in dictionaries. (I was reminded of this on my last UK visit, when I had fun trying to find things in my sister’s old Collins dictionary published decades before the reform.)
Continue reading “of eñes and Elvis”
I went outside on Thursday morning before the sun was up, and what struck me most was how quiet it was. It felt like an autumn morning in the UK: chilly, with a slight blur to the air. In the UK, that would have been from bonfires; here, of course, it was from wildfire smoke.
The helicopters started again soon after 8am, and a walk to the village showed that all was not over: the polideportivo was ‘occupied’ by soldiers and firemen, and the fire was still the main topic of conversation everywhere.
Continue reading “‘tranquilo’”
don't confuse the narrator 