Here’s a fantastic opportunity for young poets to enter the Foyle Young Poet of the Year Award, run by the Poetry Society. You need to be aged 11 – 17 to enter and can enter as many poems as you like, although the judges advise you spend time re-drafting your work and only send in your very best. There are some amazing prizes on offer, including having your work published in an official winner’s anthology and attending prestigious courses and ceremonies. You can see all the details for entering at http://www.poetrysociety.org.uk/content/competitions/fyp/. You’ve got until 31st July and can enter online. Good luck and let us know if you’re entering!

Lucy

I love this time of the year. Hopefully you’ve noticed the incredible green of the trees and the proud blush of colours from the flowers in our parks and gardens. In our Saddlebacks session the other day, we used the word ‘FLOWER’ for a warm-up writing exercise. We had to find as many words as we could that could be created from the letters in that word. We then selected three of them and made twenty-word quick stories from them. We came up with some very interesting results!

What words can you find in ‘FLOWER’? Can you spot any animals? Post us your comments!

Lucy

What does the word ‘home’ mean to you? Perhaps you have fond memories of a house you lived in when you were younger, or maybe there’s a different place where you felt you particularly belonged. I grew up in the New Forest and there was a spot in the forest next to an old fallen down tree where I always used to go if I wanted a space to think. In the last Saddlebacks workshop we have been exploring our thoughts and feelings about ‘home’ and creating poems. Some of us sent entries to the East Sussex County Council poetry competition so watch this space!

Where is home to you? Post us your thoughts.

Lucy

Happy World Book Day everyone!

How are you celebrating it?

I am reading ‘Half of a Yellow Sun’ by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. How about you?

Leo, originally uploaded by littlegreenpig.

You can now see some photos from our February open mic on our Flickr page.

Due to popular demand, from this Saturday 5th March we will be adding an extra workshop, and changing the age groups slightly. We will now have:

Piglets 1: 7 – 9 year olds

Fortnightly on term time Saturdays, 9.30 am – 10.45 am

Piglets 2: 9 – 12 year olds

Fortnightly on term time Saturdays, 11 am – 12.15 pm

Sessions cost £3.50 if you book in advance, or £5 drop in. Please spread the word to any new people who might want to come along. Dates for the rest of the year are Saturday 5th March, 19th March, 9th April, 7th May, 21st May, 4th June, 18th June, 2nd July, 16th July.

We are also planning some holiday workshops for Easter, May half term and summer – details coming soon, as soon as our new website is ready!

Ella

Naoise, originally uploaded by littlegreenpig.

Thanks to everyone who made it to our February open mic night earlier this week. Here’s a picture from the night of Naoise, from our Piglets group, performing her poem “My Koala Bear.’ Naoise has a really great way of performing her work with lots of expression – I think you can see from this photo that she was enjoying herself!

We also heard pieces from the Saddlebacks group – I particularly liked Pearl’s funny duologue about someone making excuses, and the group seasons haiku were great too.

Local poet Sharon Tyas was our host for the night and read a couple of her funny poems about her grandmother’s taste for guinea pigs and a kenning about her son.

Thanks to everyone who came along and helped us raise money to keep Little Green Pig going. We hope you had a good time and had a chance to try some of the delicious cakes! What were your best bits? Any suggestions for our next open mic in June? Please leave us a comment.

Ella

I hope everyone from the Piglers group has received something in the post by now. When you’ve worked out your anagram, use it in the most interesting and intriguing sentence you can think of and post it in the comments below. A winner will be picked and random and will receive a £5 book token.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas. I hope you get lots of good books to read over the holidays. Workshops start again on Saturday 8th January so see you then!

Ella

Snowy christmas trees, originally uploaded by xtremepeaks.

Hope you all enjoyed the snow while it lasted. I found the white and quiet really beautiful. You never know, maybe we’ll actually get a white Christmas this year…

Talking of Christmas, we’ve got a gift to give away to the Saddlebacks group – a £10 book token! All you have to do is post your responses to this question:

What’s the most interesting thing you’ve done on Christmas day? Mine would probably be cruising down the Nile in Egypt in the lovely hot sunshine. Not a snowman in sight.

So, post us your interesting Christmas day stories! The winner will be announced in January.

Have a great Christmas and New Year,
Lucy