AND THE WINNER IS.....

The Gods of Literature were well and truly focused on Newham on Saturday 12th September, particularly on Stratford Library where not only were we blessed with stunningly glorious weather, but more than 200 people showed up to the awards ceremony for the Changing Face Newham Writing Competition.

As Newham writer in Residence, I, along with poetry judge, Charlie Dark, Short Play judge, Georgia Fitch and Short Story judge, Maureen Duffy welcomed Councillor Corbett (left) from Newham council, who wished all the winners well as they received medals, trophies and cash prizes for their literary efforts.

Maureen Duffy as ALCS President, spoke about writing and copyright on behalf of the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society, recounting the exceptional work they do on behalf of writers, and I must say it was indeed a pleasure to have the support of the ALCS who were the kind sponsors of the young people's awards which meant every entrant under 21 received a leather-bound notebook.

We were also blessed with sublime performances from local poets Marc Seetal, Samuel Jimah and Holli Wood as well as readings from some of the winners. Highlights for me were 7 year old Dise Ockri overwhelmed at winning the short story prize in the Primary School section, 79 year old Lillian Rabey receiving a commendation and 88 year old Sheila Madge Lee winning a prize in the poetry section; the shock on Klaudija Visockyte's face on picking up a 2nd award for poetry and the same for Annette du Plessis grabbing a 1st, 3rd and commended prizes in poetry and short story followed by whoops of joy for Julian Hilaire as he won the poetry 1st prize.

The full lineup of winners is listed below with some of the winning poetry entries published below them. if you want to see a comprehensive catalogue of photographs of the event courtesy of Camilla at Spread the Word, check out: http://www.flickr.com/photos/42495411@N08/sets/72157622348437284/

Also don't forget for further information on events and literature opportunities in Newham email nathalienewham@spreadtheword.org.uk and for info on opportunities across London and beyond go to http://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/

So until we meet again under the great oak tree... Tally Ho!
Newham Writing Competition 2009 Results

POETRY
1st Prize
Julian Hilaire - Newham is Proud

2nd Prize

Jacqui Durand - That Battle

3rd Prize

Elaine Baker - I have seen

Commended Koel Mukherjee

PRIMARY SCHOOL Category

1st Prize

Piotr Ambrozik - I Do Not Know But I Do Know

2nd Prize

Joshua Brian - I Do Not Know But I Do Know

3rd Prize

Jamie Brooks - I Do Not Know But I Do Know

Commended Simran Dovedi, Joe Young

SECONDARY SCHOOL Category

1st Prize

Rida Hasan - Changing Face

2nd Prize

Fahima Khanum - The New Building

3rd Prize

Klaudija Viscockyte - The Changing Face

Commended Ann Adesolabomi, Oluwatunmise Daniels, Akil Job Omari

UNDER 21 Category

1st Prize

Natasha Mwansa - The Changing Face

2nd Prize

Sophia Mahmood - The Changing Face

3rd Prize

Shuhena Bhanu - The Ghostly Face of Newham

POETRY OVER 60'S Category

1st Prize

Gordon Kirkley - The Changing Face

2nd Prize

Janet O’Brien – Hurdler’s Dream

3rd Prize

Sheila Madge Lee - A Morning In The Park

Commended Lilian Rabey

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE Category

1st Prize

Annette du Plessis - Hopeless Homeless

2nd Prize

Barry Freedom Taylor - The Changing Face

3rd Prize

Klaudia Visockyte - The Changing Face

SHORT STORY

1st Prize

Sylvester Onwordi - Galleon’s Reach

2nd Prize

Joy Stone - Changing Places

3rd Prize

Colette Fleming - Nellie

Commended Jacqueline Applebee, Annette du Plessis

PRIMARY SCHOOL Category

1st Prize

Dise Ockri - The Changing Face

2nd Prize

Grace Raji - The Changing Face

SECONDARY SCHOOL Category

1st Prize

Irsalan Ahmed - The Greenway

2nd Prize

Sherena Hamilton - The Changing Face Of Hope

3rd prize

Afrida Alam - Envisioning Glory

Commended Billy Tonks, Zeenat Abdoolwahed

UNDER 21 Category

Joint 1st Prize =

Zele Huma Butt - Aurora Borealis-The Lady Aiken
Remya Unnithan - Tom Cruise’s Diary

OVER 60'S Category
1st Prize

Alan Lancaster - A Face In The Mud

2nd Prize

Trevor Hadley - The Wallet

3rd Prize

Christine Edwards - Rose’s First Telegram

Commended Carol Price, Cynthia Adejayan

ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE Category

1st Prize

Sandra Nam - A Day in Newham

2nd Prize

Rajagopalan Giridharan - From East With Glory

3rd Prize

Annette du Plessis - Forgotten

Commended Chiedza Penelope Mwandiambira

SHORT PLAY

1st Prize

Annette Kamara – The 104 Bus Stop

2nd Prize

Clive Power – Hollow The Leader

3rd Prize

Paula David – Second Chance

Commended Deb Scott-Lovric

Congratulations to all the winners and everyone who took part in this, Newham's first ever borough-wide creative writing competition for residents and those who work or study in the borough. We're already looking ahead to next year's competition, but in the meantime, take a look below at some of the winning poetry submissions...

Poetry 1st Prize

NEWHAM IS PROUD, NEWHAM IS GREAT
1966 Born in Newham was I
Bobby Moore, Hurst, and Peters had taken us to a new high
East London , Born and Bred
Names like Ethel, Bill, Elsie and Fred

Changes over the decades we have seen some
But still Newham remains popular, and still they come
From around the world to see Cockney Life
Trying to forget their ‘Troubles and Strife’

From Forest Gate to Canning Town
So many changes No need to frown!
The sixties came the sixties went
‘Love and Peace’ surely words that were heaven sent

Our proud Newham Heritage from years gone by
Leave for Barking, Hornchurch and farthest Essex?
I wonder why?
People from different countries came
But underneath we’re all the same

We still have our pie, We still have our mash
Now at Christmas, and Dilwali, we All have a bash!
In the Seventies we had disco and flares,
Reggae and Skins, Kids without any cares

Markets at Rathbone, East Ham, and Green Street,
Get your Saltfish, Fruit n Veg , Halal Meat
The eighties gave us New Romance,
Punks, well they never really had a chance.

Famous places and Famous faces, all with lots of style
Businesses that stand the test of time just like Tate and Lyle
Lennox Lewis, Vera Lynne and The Brave Jack Cornwall
And FANTASTIC buildings like our Newham Town Hall

If it’s Sport you want to play until dark
We have Wanstead Flats and West Ham Park
Exercise everywhere at Newham’s Leisure,
Never forget, West Ham United, our local treasure.

Labour, Tory, Liberal or Respect
We also have Newham Police to serve and protect
We need Someone who really CARES,
That’ll be Sir Robin, he’s OUR Mayor

Past the nineties, into a new millennium
From Eastern Europe our newest friends have come
Different, yes, but people the same,
Lets make them PROUD it’s to Newham they came,

We have to invest in our youngsters TODAY
More jobs, No KNIVES, let them have a say,
We must give them the tools to cope
To give them a future a place with HOPE,

Our biggest victory was yet to be won,
The chosen borough, for Olympic fun,
To show the world stage, what we are about,
Newham is PROUD, Newham is Great, Let’s hear you shout.

Julian Hilaire

1st Prize Poetry - Primary School

I DO NOT KNOW BUT I DO KNOW
I do not know how to speak Chinese
The words you can hear are all the same
Why do they like to talk about dragons?

But I do know how to speak Polish
The sound of my language
Hearing it every day and every night
And even the dark moon
And the bright shiny stars talking to me.

I do no know how it feels to die and be under the ground,
The feel of the sand on my face,
The dreams of what is happening in the real world.
But I do know how the 02 Arena looks like,
The big empty field and suddenly people
Surrounding around me.
The sound of Michael Jackson having a practice lesson.

I do not know how it feels like to be a twin.
People staring at us, our mums and dads.
We look the same like two plums in a large field.
But I do know that my name is Piotr
And it belongs to me forever.

Piotr Ambrozik, Plaistow Primary School

1st Prize Poetry - Under 21

THE CHANGING FACE
So many people dream of Caribbean Isles
Enriched with golden sands
Or thermal spa getaways
Complete with manicures and cocktails.

However pleasant such places may be
The destination my soul craves rests at home
And more precisely
My bed.

For it is the transition of moon to twilight
Where my eyes twitch
And from twilight to eve
Where my breathing slows
And the tight clothing that binds me are released.

Truly this is bedtime.

A haze of slumber wafts before me
And the dots of light beneath my shut eyelids
Dance in synch with my thoughts
Like glitter ballerinas.
Then I drift
And I sail
And I fly.

I have asked God why the world is round
And questioned my mother of my existence
I have asked Rosa why she didn’t just stand up
And Martin why he didn’t just sit down
I have touched the serenity of Mount Everest
And felt the wrath of Mount Vesuvius.

As I am roused bitterness engulfs me
As I realise that my unconscious adventures
Bear no significance
In what we call reality.

Natasha Mwansa

1st Prize Poetry - Over 60's

THE CHANGING FACE:
MODESTY

Depends on what you mean.
The changing face of me, or the country?

I remember I was a baby when I was born.
My face, my self have changed since then.
‘Cos I was all wrinkled,
Like a prune

And as I got older,
The wrinkles appeared again!

But I’m still a very handsome chap.

Gordon Kirkley

1st Prize Poetry - English as a Second Language

Hopeless Homeless
Dear old man,
What have you seen?
The evolution of concrete mountains?
The multiplying tittering of tongue?

Deal old man,
where have you been?
Crow’s feet have trampled your legs.
Your lifetime mapped on your skin.

Dear old man,
birthed from war,
living on tar river banks,
cannibalised honour eating on Newham floor.

Old man,
hear whispers say:
“Change is earned
when effort’s displayed.”

Annette du Plessis

LET THE SUMMERTIME FESTIVITIES COMMENCE...

Saturday 18th July saw us sharing a pitch with The Gate Library at the Forest Gate Street Festival, now in its 10th year. The festival sees thousands of local people strolling in the sun while enjoying the sights, smells and sounds of what can only be described as a fantastic cultural event. (See film clip below)

Our display featured a magnificent tapestry produced by members of Age Concern Newham and many of the artists who worked on it popped along to see their handiwork on display.

T'was great to see their pride as they explained the process of making it to various members of the public, including the Mayor!

Thanks to Joan at Age Concern for her hard work in making this happen and it was indeed a pleasure to meet Joan C, Olive, Maggie and all the other wonderful ladies.

We also had a 'Wishing Table' (see above) - a great idea nicked from Annette at Spread the Word (credit where credit's due)- where we recorded nigh on a hundred wishes and poems from the day.

Those with eagle eyes and sharp minds may notice I keep saying "we". Well it certainly aint the Royal "We". The 'we' is actually poet, Nathalie, the new project manager in Newham and myself... welcome to Newham, Nat. Ho ho.

It also turned out to be a hard days' work for Library Facilitator Andrew and his assistant Genevieve who were kept busy all day signing up young people to the Summer Reading Challenge which effectively kicks off about... now.

I loved the talent contest (The first act was the winner in my eyes) and the young local band who covered Rolling Stones songs had a great vibe about them. However t'would've been great to see them do some original material. The jazz band really cleaned up though...

So one can confidently say the festival was a triumph for the organisers... well done. The only downside was that I didn't manage to get myself a festival T-shirt!

The 3-week Break into Freelance Journalism

course at East Ham Library with Jo Mears came to a successful end. An average of 11 people attended each session and the feedback was extremely complimentary about Jo and the camaraderie of the group. I'll be looking out to see the participants moving on in their careers.

Rock on till next year's festival, but while we're waiting, here's a snippet of some of the wishes written by the Newham public:

I wish I had a billion pounds to spend on improving the world and access to the money / I wish my cat could speak / I wish the world was chocolate / I wish I had a lap top (Ahmed, age 5) / I wish for a loo (Sara, age 5) / I wish we had Barack Obama for PM / I wish I had a normal family / I wish I was younger / I wish that I was a millionaire! BRAP! / I wish I could find my perfect soul-mate / I wish I could become a famous singer and actor / I wish to become a professional writer ( and lots of cake would be nice) / I wish that there was no cancer / I wish to be a princess / I wish I could be a in a rock and rowl gang / I wish I were happier /

I wish I were cleverer / I wish I were more approachable / I wish I was rich and could get a good job like something in law and speak like a policeman / I wish everyone had a job / I wish I could shake the Mayor of Newham’s hand / I wish for molecular manipulation / I wish everyone could make a small and positive difference / I wish I would never be dead / I wish for more sweets

Oh, I wish

Water was wine

Women were flowers

Songs were the rain

The air was wealth

And the sky was wisdom:

Oh, but a wish, wishes

Can only be a dream

Wrought from the dark

Reaches of troubled minds

Seeking restitution

from laboured lives, lives

Yet to be conquered

of themselves in time

Oh, I can but wish.

I wish Forest Gate festival was every day!

'THE CHANGING FACE' Newham Borough Writing Competition 2009

Interested in writing poetry or short stories?
Live, work, study or go to school in Newham?
Want to win a prize and have your work published?

Then why not enter the Newham Borough Writing Competition?

With prizes totaling well over £1000 Newham Libraries and Arts & Festivals Service in association with London’s leading writing organisation, Spread the Word, launches its first borough-wide writing competition for poetry, short stories and stage-plays.

In recognition of dramatic changes taking place in Newham today the theme for the competition is ‘The Changing Face’ and the submitted work, in some way, should reflect this in its content. The deadline for entries is 29 May 2009.

Aimed at writers of all ages and abilities the competition seeks to capture the essence of London’s most diverse borough with additional awards for under-represented groups such as schoolchildren, the Under 21’s, the Over 60’s and those with English as a Second Language.

Don’t worry if you’ve never written before, Spread the Word will be hosting a series of Free creative writing workshops in Newham Libraries to help you get the most from your work.

The workshops will cover poetry, short stories and writing for the stage and will be tutored by playwright and novelist, Laura Bridgeman (left, seen here teaching at Beckton Globe) Laura, who has a PH.D in Creative & Critical Writing teaches at the London Metropolitan University and was recently shortlisted for the Charles Pick Fellowship for her latest novel, Raphael Coombs.

The second workshop tutor is poet Vincent De Souza (below right). An experienced tutor and experimental poet, Vincent ran the central London based experimental workshop Physical Poets and in 2007 he launched his first collection
Weightless Road. He currently co-hosts Ride the Word a poetry and prose reading series and his second collection of poetry Resurrecting Knives published by Salt Publishing is due out in March 2009.

The Workshops will be taking place at these venues and at these times and do call the numbers below to book your place:

Saturday 14 February 2pm - 4pm
Canning Town Library Barking Road, Canning Town E16 4HQ
Tel: 020 7476 2696

Thursday 19 February 6pm – 7.45pm
Custom House Library
Prince Regent Lane, Custom House E16 3JJ
Tel: 020 7476 1565

Saturday 28 February 2pm – 4pm
East Ham Library
High Street South, East Ham E6 6EL
Tel: 020 8430 3648

Thursday 5th March 6pm – 7.45pm
Green Street Library 337-341 Green Street, Upton park E13 9AR
Tel: 020 8472 4101

Thursday 12 March 6pm – 7.45pm
Manor Park Library
Romford Road, Manor Park E12 5JY
Tel 020 8430 2207

Thursday 19 March 6pm – 7.45pm
North Woolwich Library
5 Pier Parade, North Woolwich E16 2LJ
Tel: 020 8430 5900

* Special Teenagers’ Creative Writing Workshop
Saturday 21 March 2pm - 4pm
Canning Town Library
Barking Road, Canning Town E16 4HQ
Tel: 020 7476 2696

Thursday 26 March 6pm – 7.45pm
Plaistow Library North Street, Plaistow E13 9HL
Tel: 020 8472 0420

Saturday 4th April 2pm – 4pm
Stratford Library
3 The Grove, Stratford E15 1EL
Tel: 020 8430 6890

Saturday 11th April 2pm – 4pm
Library @ The Gate
4-20 Woodgrange Road, Forest Gate E7 0QH
Tel: 020 8430 3838

The Competition Judges are:

Maureen Duffy – Short Story
Maureen was born in 1933 in Worthing, Sussex but lived for a large part of her life in Newham. After a career as a schoolteacher she made her debut as a novelist with That’s How It Was, published to wide acclaim in 1962. Duffy has published around 30 other books, including five volumes of poetry. Her latest collection of Poetry, her first in almost twenty years is called Family Values and was published by Enitharmon Press in 2008.

Charlie Dark – Poetry
Charlie Dark is a London-based poet, writer, producer and DJ. He makes up one third of the hip-hop inspired trio Attica Blues and is the founder of Blacktronica, a monthly club night featuring the best acts currently working the black electronic music scene in the UK. He makes regular appearances on the performance poetry circuit, is an experienced tutor and was a Poet Coach for the London Teenage Poetry SLAM for three consecutive years.

Georgia Fitch – Playwriting
Georgia was born in Plaistow. Her plays for the stage include adrenalin …heart, I like Mine With A Kiss, The Footballer’s Wife (Old Red Lion), Come Dancing, Arrivals and Dirty Dirty Princess for the RNT/Connections 2008 Season. Georgia also writes for radio and television.

‘The Changing Face’ Rules

CONDITIONS OF ENTRY
1. The theme for this competition is ‘The Changing Face’
2. There is one entry per person.
3. Poetry, short stories and short plays can be submitted
4. There is one award category for Short Plays.
5. There are five award categories for poetry and Short Stories:
(i) General – for all entrants
(ii) Entrants aged under 20
(iii) Entrants aged Over 60
(iv) Entrants who have English as a second language
(v) Entrants attending School
6. Each Entry must be the undisputed work of the Entrant
7. No covering letter or other material should be enclosed with your entry. 8. Once submitted, entries cannot be withdrawn from the competition or alterations made.
9. Entries will not be returned so please do not send your only copy. 10. Acknowledgement of receipt of entry will only be given if a stamped, self-addressed envelope marked ACKNOWLEDGEMENT is enclosed.

ELIGIBILITY
11. Entries will be accepted from writers of any nationality provided that: (i) they live, work, study or attend school in the borough of Newham (ii) they are written or translated into English (iii) they have not previously been published in any form (including appearing on the internet) (iv) they are not translations of another author’s work 12. Employees of Spread the Word and members of its Committees and Management Board and their immediate families are not eligible to enter.

GUIDELINES
13. Stories must be no longer than 1,000 words.
14. Poems must be no more than 42 lines in length
15. Entries must be typed or clearly written on one side of the paper only.
16. Plays must be maximum 30 minutes (As a guide: 1 page per minute, double-spaced) with a maximum cast of five characters.
JUDGING
17. Winners will be decided by professional judges.
18. The judges’ decision is final and no correspondence can be entered into. 19. The closing date for receipt of entries is 6pm Friday 29 May 2009. All entries must reach us by this date.
20. Shortlisted entries will be notified in writing by end of June 2009. 21. Competitors who want to receive a printed list of prizewinners must enclose a separate stamped, self-addressed envelope marked “prizewinners”

PRIZEWINNERS
22. The list of prizewinners will be available after the prize giving ceremony in August 2009
23. Prizes for short story and poetry are:
£100 for 1st Prize, £50 for 2nd Prize and £25 for 3rd Prize.
In addition there will be supplementary prizes for commended work as well as prizes for winners currently attending school.
24. Prizes for Short Plays will be rehearsed, public readings with professional actors, staged at Theatre Royal Stratford East.
25. All winners will agree to participate in any reasonable request by the Organisers to fulfill marketing obligations relating to the Competition and their own Entry.
26. Winning and commended poems and short stories will be published in an anthology and the authors offered mentoring and professional advice. The authors of the winning plays will be offered future dramaturgical support with their writing.

COPYRIGHT
27. Copyright will remain with the author, but Spread the Word and Newham Writing Competition reserves the right to arrange the first publication in an anthology.
28. Submission of a poem, short story or play implies the competitor’s acceptance of the conditions set out above.

COMPETITION RULES
29. These terms and conditions are the Competition Rules (‘Rules’) and by entering the competition, all entrants agree to be bound by them.
30. You can enter online by requesting a submission form from writingcompetition@newham.gov.uk

Postal entries can be sent to: Newham Writing Competition, Library at The Gate, 4-20 Woodgrange Road, Forest Gate, London E7 0QH

Hey, it's CHRISTMAS!

OK, so there's a credit crisis, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan; political unrest in Greece, Somali pirates on the high seas; Zimbabwe... and some guy's been shifting 50 Billion dollars from company to company, bank account to bank account for ten years and nobody knows about it? Yeah, right! It's Christmas not April Fools!

And now we have all the multi-national corporations seizing the opportunity to balance their books and settle old scores, sacking staff and writing off billions of dollars from world money markets. Even the residents of Sark, the tiny little island off the English coast have gone all militant. It might seem as if all hell's breaking loose all over the world, and perhaps it is, but hey, it's Christmas!

Even those who don't celebrate Christmas recognise it as a wonderful time to re-charge the batteries. One can look forward to starting all over again... the grindstone, the recession, the electric bill up again, speeding tickets, or worse, parking tickets, newspapers with no news, the smell of napalm in the afternoon...

Righteo, now that's off the phlegmatic chest... hosted a couple of great events during November, the exceptionally warm and erudite poet, novelist and playwright Maureen Duffy and the equally brilliant playwright Georgia Fitch.

Maureen read from Family Values, her much vaunted recently published collection of poems at Stratford Library. She talked about her family connections to Newham and Stratford in particular and built up a beautiful mosiac of what it must have been like to live in Newham just after the war with her incredibly revealing reading style. She followed this by reading from her first novel That's How It Was - brilliant.

It was very exciting hearing her talking with the audience about the tremendous change taking place in the borough. Largely in favour of the massive investment and new opportunities in the area, I wondered if there was a tinge of regret lurking in the back of her mind about the diminishing indiginous culture. But hey, it's Christmas!

The following night saw the extraordinary talented Georgia Fitch at The Gate Library in Forest Gate. Completely at ease in home territory, so to speak, it was fascinating to witness her warm relationship with the audience and her natural ability to engage them with her ideas of what theatre means to her. Georgia regaled the standing-room-only audience with the story of her career from actor to producer to writer and certainly inspired a number of the people there who were keen to write plays for the stage and I have since heard from two of them who are indeed stepping onto that treadmill. There are plans to bring Georgia back to Newham to host a practical workshop for which you'll have to watch this space. Hey, it's Christmas!

Talking about Christmas, I went along to the press night of Theatre Royal Stratford East's panto Hansel & Gretel which I thought was wonderful. The music was great with some really energetic performances and a lovely panto-damish turn from Marcus Powell as Delberta. So, I 'm recommending this show to everyone, the kids are going to love it.

Looking ahead, 2009 is going to be an exciting year for creative writing in Newham, not least because at some point in January we launch a creative writing competition. What I like about this proposed competition is that it will be all inclusive, that means everyone has the chance to enter and perhaps win a prize with publishing opportunities. I'm not going to pre-empt the announcement of the event but again I say, watch this space.

I'm also going to be working on a unique event with young people and film and another event which I'm really excited about is a creative arts project with the Over 60's. In this youth-orientated world I hunger to hear the stories, the thoughts and opinions of the elder generation who have lived through some of the fastest technological advances since Man first picked up a rock and split the atom... well he didn't know he was splitting an atom- to him it was a walnut, but hey, it's Christmas!

It's been a great 2008, but 2009's gonna be greater!

All the best

Peace.