THIS HALLoWEEN, ENTER THE SHADOWLANDS…

October 24, 2023October 24, 2023 | angelatcarr

Join me to peel back the thin veil between worlds and illuminate the darkness of the season. Shadowlands | Illuminate the Darkness is an all new 30-day Writing Challenge, inspired by Carl Jung’s Archetypes and the universal themes of storytelling, to help you put pen to paper every day in November.

At the heart of all storytelling, there are narratives so deeply resonant of the shared human experience that we never tire of hearing them.

Plato described them as ‘forms of intuition’; Swiss psychologist Carl Jung called them Archetypes — a rich tapestry of patterns and symbols woven through the collective unconscious, offering a template for understanding human behaviour.

From Homer’s Odyssey to George Lucas’ Star Wars, we are endlessly enthralled by the exploits of these archetypes — The Hero, The Magician, The Innocent, The Mother, The Outlaw etc. — as they embark on hazardous quests and fall prey to the seductions of the Dark Side.

Join me this November to explore the universal themes of Jung’s archetypes and their legacy in literature, art and pop culture. Together, we will harness the power of opposites and learn to balance light and the dark in your own writing.

BOOK YOUR SPOT ON SHADOWLANDS 30-DAY WRITING CHALLENGE

BENEFITS OF THE WRITING CHALLENGE:

Make a daily commitment to your writing.
Find new focus, inspiration and motivation.
Embrace the blank page and quiet the voice of your inner critic.
Experiment with fresh styles and subjects.
Connect with a supportive community.
Write at a time and a pace that suits you.

HOW DOES THE WRITING CHALLENGE WORK?

Each day you’ll receive an email with a writing prompt or creative task, example poems, writing tips plus oodles of inspiration. Set aside 15 minutes to free-write around the prompt or do the task. Don’t worry about whether it is good or bad; enjoy playing with ideas and trying something new.

If you enjoy working as part of a community, there is also a Facebook option, where you can post your piece, an extract or an update on how you’re getting on with the task. The group receives encouragement and support by reading and responding to each other’s work.

And in addition to the usual prompts, we’ll also welcome special guest Irish poet and writer, Eleanor Hooker, recipient of the Michael Hartnett Award 2022 and the Arts Council Markievicz Award 2021 — who’ll be reading from her latest collection ‘Of Ochre and Ash’ (Dedalus Press, 2021) and chatting about the work of poetry.

At the end of the Challenge, there’s an online group reading — an opportunity to share your work — which is open to everyone who has taken part.

WHO IS THE WRITING CHALLENGE SUITABLE FOR?

The 30 day writing events are designed to suit writers at all levels. Originally, they were created with the beginner or emerging writer in mind – the daily prompts are jam-packed with ideas to stimulate your imagination and get you writing each day.

However, we also have experienced writers who enjoy taking part in the challenges as a way to shift focus after working on other projects, to shake up their writing routine or to generate new project ideas.

The asynchronous nature of the challenge also makes it ideal for neurodivergent writers.

DO YOU OFFER DISCOUNTED RATES?

Yes, there are a number of free places available for low income and under-represented writers — click on the button below and go to the FAQs for more details. Scholarship applications are welcome until Friday 28 October 2023.

Or join my mailing list to receive early bird discounted access to writing events.

For more information and to book, click the button below.

BOOK YOUR SPOT ON SHADOWLANDS 30-DAY WRITING CHALLENGE

All the details are at the link and if you have any questions, please drop me a line and I’ll be happy to help.

“The sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light
in the darkness of mere being.”
Carl Jung

Join the Summer Fling: 30 DAYS OF PLay WRITING Event in August 2023

July 18, 2023July 28, 2023 | angelatcarr

Next month, I’ll be bringing the larks and fun with an all new 30-day writing event — Summer Fling: 30 Day’s of Play, kicking off on 1 August 2023. If you’d like to kick up your heels and indulge in a little creative playtime, this is your chance!

Research shows that embracing our playfulness boosts self-confidence, sharpens problem-solving and communication skills, hones adaptability and resilience, and improves mental and emotional wellbeing. In short, it transforms our quality of life.

The word ‘play’ comes from the Old English pleg(i)an meaning ‘to exercise’, and plega meaning ‘brisk movement’, both of which are related to the Middle Dutch word pleien meaning ‘to leap for joy, to dance’. In modern English, play covers everything from childhood activity, sport and exercise, games and gambling, to musical and dramatic performance.

For Summer Fling | 30 Days of Play, we’ll be reconnecting with our inner child, embracing the beginner’s mindset and trying out lots of new ideas in our writing, just for the fun of it. It’s the perfect way to shake up your writing routine, break out of a rut, clear a writing block, or simply let loose on the page!

In addition to the usual prompts, creative exercises, images, music and writing tips, we’ll also welcome special guest UK poet and artist, Helen Ivory, whose practice includes everything from painting to collage to felting — she’ll be treating us to work from ‘Wunderkammer: New & Selected Poems’ (Mad Hat Press, 2023), and chatting about bringing a sense of playfulness to our work.

There are a number of free places available for low income and under-represented writers — click on the link below and go to the FAQs for more details. Scholarship applications are welcome until 20 July 2023.

For more information and to book, go to Summer Fling: 30 Day’s of Play on the Wordbox website.

If you haven’t taken part before, the 30-Day Writing event is the ideal accompaniment to a daily writing practice, with bite-sized daily exercises, inspiration, opportunity to explore, and a supportive and encouraging community of writers in the private Facebook group.

For those of you using this time to send your work out, there are still plenty of opportunities available in the July Poetry Competitions, Submissions & Opportunities list!

I completely understand that this might not be the right timing for you to take part and that’s OK. Nurture your creative self in any way you can – DO WHAT YOU LOVE – play, read, make art, make something with your hands, knit, sew, mend, grow seeds, bring something new into the world this August.

If you’d like to join in the fun, all the information is on the website – just click the link below for details – and if you have any questions, please drop me a line.

Sign me up for the Summer Fling: 30 days of PLAY!

TIMEY RYMEY: A FREE ONLINE WRITING CHALLENGE FOR POETRY DAY IRELAND 2020

April 27, 2020May 2, 2020 | angelatcarr

‘Time is a storm in which we are all lost.’ – William Carlos Williams

‘…it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff.’ – The Doctor

‘There Will Be Time’ is the theme for Poetry Day Ireland 2020 and to celebrate you’re invited to become Time Lords for the day and explore the phenomenon of Time in all its glory in this FREE online writing challenge!

We are living in the eye of a global storm right now but through poetry we can write the words to change the weather, unravel the wibbly-wobbly bits or find our way home.

The rules of the challenge are simple.

Read the Time-themed prompts and poems.
Listen to the Time-themed tunes.
Write for 15 minutes.
Share your poem in the Facebook group.
Read and respond to other posted work.

Most of all, be creative and enjoy yourself!

how do i join the writing challenge?

Here’s what to do:

Sign up for the FREE challenge on Eventbrite by clicking the button below.
Join the Timey Rhymey Challenge Facebook group on 29 April.
Get ready to enjoy a day of Timey Rhymey poetry writing fun!

What are you waiting for? Click here to sign up:

join the Timey Rhymey Poetry Day Ireland 2020 Challenge!

The group opens on the 29 April, with a welcome, introductions and time-related stuff to get you in the mood for writing.

The challenge proper kicks off on Thursday 30 April for Poetry Day Ireland 2020, with poet Angela T. Carr sharing new prompts and inspiration throughout the day.

This event is hosted in conjunction with Poetry Ireland as part of their Bright Ideas programme for Poetry Ireland Day 2020.

what’s next?

Please share the challenge on social media with the hashtags #PoetryIrelandDay #ThereWillBeTime #TimeyRhymey.

Don’t forget to tag me @adreamingskin and @poetryireland (Twitter & Instagram).

What I Learned By Turning My Writing Into A Word Cloud

December 23, 2014December 23, 2014 | angelatcarr

As things wind down for Christmas, I’ve been having bit of fun creating a word cloud from my debut poetry collection, How to Lose Your Home & Save Your Life.

The idea came via Jo Bell – UK poet, Canal Laureate and creator of the poetry and writing blog ’52’ – who recently shared a word cloud of her forthcoming collection, ‘Kith’, on Facebook.

It’s a bit of fun but also a great way to get a fresh perspective on existing writing. The cloud allows me to see the entire collection in a snapshot – the more prominent words tell me if I’m hitting the mood and tone I’m looking for and also give me a sense of which words or literary devices I may rely on a little too heavily, eg. if the word ‘Like‘ features prominently, then it may be time to cut back on the use of simile. We all have a go-to writing toolbox and a good way to hit the refresh button on our work is to kick away a few of those verbal crutches!

What I didn’t expect – and am really enjoying – is discovering little mini poems in the juxtapositions of the cloud’s random arrangement:

– Think blue drumming words;
– Tree’s hands fold half-beat whispers;
– Old wind-eyes walk shadow morning;
– Ghost years ground skin, beginning bodies wings;
– Sea silence, speak yellow.

These conjour strange and curious images – perfect as idea prompts for new writing!

If you’d like to try this writing tip, check out word cloud creators Wordle and Tagxedo. I liked Tagxedo because it offers a choice of shapes and pretty colours PLUS whenever I changed the font, it created a completely different arrangement, with lots of new mini poems waiting to be found.

Book Cover Photography: Jana Heimanis

November 11, 2014December 27, 2014 | angelatcarr

Ever since I began promoting the launch of my debut poetry collection, I’ve been receiving compliments for the beautiful book cover photography and I thought it was high time I introduced the woman behind the photo: Jana Heimanis.

Jana is an inveterate globe-trotter, taking photos wherever she goes; when she posted pics from a trip to Iceland, I saw the image above and something clicked.

I’ve talked before about what makes a good book cover and, as I started to think about what the cover of my own book should be, asked other writers about their thoughts on this part of the publishing process. Yvonne Cullen, poet and creative writing teacher extraordinaire, gave me a beautiful benchmark for what a book cover should do:

“The key in my mind… is a sense that image plus book equal more than the sum of their parts. The reader has to go somewhere, imaginatively… ideally, right into the emotional landscape of the book, to join image and title together.”

For me, Jana’s image does just that – capturing the sense of loss at the heart of the collection but also reminding us that in the bleakest of moments, there is the potential for great beauty. Although taken in Iceland, people keep recognising parts of Ireland in it and I love that it has a universal quality that speaks to everyone.

Originally from Sydney, Australia, I met Jana through mutual friends, from working at the same architectural practice in Dublin (but at different times) and I’ve always loved her spirit of adventure.

So I asked her to tell us a little bit more about herself – work, travel, photography and, of course, poetry.

Jana, tell us a little bit about your background:

I trained as an Australian architect at the University of Sydney, and the University of Newcastle (the one in Australia). Worked in Sydney for several years in small architecture firms on local jobs and large firms on foreign jobs. Found my way to Dublin, spent three months architecturally drafting, then was recruited by a dear friend, met fashion designer, John Rocha, and began a working collaboration that has lasted ten years.

How did you start taking photographs?

It probably started with holidays in Australia, bookended by (mostly long) road trips – the world framed by the back-seat window. Photography is most certainly a part of travel for me. I travel solo a lot, both for work and for curiosity’s sake. Taking photos is a bit like having a traveling companion, like pointing out the new things, funny things, beautiful and different things ‘hey, check that out’.

Also my training and work, being about detail and beautiful things, has a huge influence on what catches my eye – I like to put composition, texture, colour, and a story in the frame.

What do you love about photography?

I am a bit of a point and shooter, I like the simplicity of it. I have a good digital camera, with a nice lens and a zippy zoom, and some other features I’m not that au fait with. I love that I can use that simple tool to collect images that work. I love that it can be accidental, that moment, or place. I love creating a composition that satisfies, is possibly beautiful, is balanced, hints at a conversation, tells a story without words.

What’s your favourite place from your travels?

This year I had a number of wonderful road/train trips. Iceland was spectacular, icy and remote and just awesome – your photo is from the very North of the country, a farm that found itself sunk lower than the water table after one of the frequent earthquakes that happen when there are volcanoes around. Here in Australia, I took the smaller roads from Sydney to Melbourne and back via the Great Ocean Road. Other favourite places – Kyoto (temples, the buses, kimonos along the river at dusk), Istanbul (mosques, snakes in jars, markets, carpets, sensory overload), Leon, Sevilla, Cork, Berlin… sure, I find discovering a new city to be very exciting.

You must have have some good travel stories…

So many, and I’m not a good teller of stories… Some snippets? Sharing a stranger’s sandwich on a train in Poland because he wasn’t convinced my plain bread roll was ‘lunch’; rowing a boat in the Arctic circle off the coast of Norway; hitch-hiking to avoid rambling bulls in Latvia….can we say that my pictures tell better stories? Instagram has a few of my latest tales…

I know you’re also a reader of poetry – any Aussie favourites we should check out?

Banjo Patterson – a classic. Responsible for Waltzing Matilda, but I like him for Been there Before, and Clancy of the Overflow. Gwen Harwood and Paul Kelly – ok, he’s a songwriter and musician, but I reckon he’s a poet.

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Discover more of Jana Heimanis’ beautiful travel photography on Instagram or at her forthcoming web-site: www.jana.net.au.

Mslexia Poetry Competition 2014: After The Storm – The Story of a Poem

November 5, 2014November 5, 2014 | angelatcarr

Back in September – yes, I am woefully slow at reportage, one of many reasons I am a poet, not a journalist – I had a poem published in Mslexia, the UK literary magazine for women who write. The poem, After The Storm, was selected as a finalist in the Mslexia Poetry Competition 2014, judged by poet, Wendy Cope.

People often ask where ideas for poems come from and this one I remember quite clearly.

I was in Gothenburg, Sweden, kipping on the sofa of a friend’s house-swap – a top floor flat, six flights up, next to a monument on a hill, surrounded by trees. It was early July, thunderous, all the windows flung wide to gather scraps of fresh air.

As I lay there in the darkness, the wind got up and tree shadows scurried across the ceiling, lit by street lamps; it seemed as though they had invaded the room, the hallway, the kitchen, the attic overhead.

Too lazy to get up and search for pen and paper, I fumbled at the coffee table for my phone and by its tepid glow tapped out a draft text: “The trees are children running through the house.” Then turned over and went to sleep.

In the morning, I found the text and the seed was planted.

My Swedish jaunt was very productive on the poetry front – I came home with the bones of 4 or 5 poems laid down. Sometimes, you just need to step out of familiar surroundings to open the door to new ideas.

The ending was prompted by another poem I’d read – I can’t remember the name of the poet or poem, sadly (Reasons I’m Not A Journalist #573) but the image that stayed with me was one of absence, in the dent of a pillow where someone had lain, and it was the sense of emptiness as a concrete presence I wanted to evoke at the end.

Mslexia holds a very special place in my heart, as the first print magazine to publish my work, when I came second in their inaugural Mslexia Short Story competition, in 2009. I can still remember the phone call: I shot out of my chair and performed an arrhythmic celebration in the medium of dance around the kitchen, to the utter disdain of the neighbour’s cat, lounging on the window cill.

It’s a beautiful journal, with lots of valuable, practical advice for writers and I was delighted when the latest issue hit my doorstep. I’ve sent work to the poetry competition in the past and this is the first time I’ve made the cut – one of 20 final poems out of 2000+ entries. Wendy Cope talks of her process for choosing the winning poems on the Mslexia competition page and also provided feedback for all the finalists in the print edition:

“It isn’t easy to describe a storm in a poem because it is such a familiar subject; I can’t help thinking of Ted Hughes’ ‘This house has been far out at sea all night’. But Angela T Carr has found her own way of doing it in ‘After the Storm’ without sounding derivative. This is another poem about bereavement. The quiet after the storm suggests the quiet after the funeral, when the person left behind has to ‘fold around’ the new emptiness.”

Yup, I’ll take that. Thank you, Wendy!

After the Storm is included in my debut collection launching in Dublin, next week.