October 2025: LOOE FESTIVAL OF WORDS
Building on the success of the first two festivals and with a theme of WAVES OF WONDER, our third year saw over 400 people attend a week of workshops, talks, walks, and more. Our bookfair moved to a new venue at the Hannafore Point Hotel and a number of new events were introduced. These included a book themed quiz with cream tea, a presentation on dyslexia, an author visit to a local bookclub, an evening of sea shanties, and a night of ghost stories.
This year we ran events in the lead up to the Festival week to increase awareness in the form of a family trail around town featuring the seagull from our logo, and free books hidden around the area by ‘Book Fairies’ for people to find. We upped our social media presence and increased our number of followers. And with more offer of author talks than we had slots to fit them, we were able to direct them to our local bookshop for pop-up events during the week instead, as well as to liaise with Looe Library for the National Year of Reading in 2026.
The town continued to be an amazing support. But this year, they stepped forward in new ways. And entertainment business new to the area sponsored the Seagull Trail. And several companies donated prizes for our Book Quiz.
We learned, listened, and laughed – sometimes all at once! We edited and quizzed and stepped back in time. We read and we sang. We zined and we walked. We protagonised (and antagonised). We created poetry, characters, collage and craft. We met all sorts of experts: editors and authors, poets, playwrights, and publishers, scriptwriters and historians, conservationists and ghost hunters. We met old friends and made new ones.
And, although we recruited a group of volunteers to help with distributing leaflets and posters, and to man the events, this was all done by an organising group of just five people.
September 2025: ‘SOMETHING TO SAY’ EXHIBITION AT THEATRABILIA
“Something To Say” exhibition at Theatrabilia.
We all have something to say. We all deserve to be heard. A gathering of poetry, plays and prose, the “Something to Say” display quietly celebrates the changing seasons and uplifts the strong creative community in the town and surrounding areas.
Featuring work from: Anna Chorlton, Clare Dwyer, Clare Owen, George Zacal, Graeme Sandford, Holly Gaynor, Jane Sandford, Judith Cassidy, Liz Manning, Lucia Clark, Neil Bebber, Penny Norman, Rachel Bancroft, Rhianwen Mills, Ryan Hooper, Simon Parker, Timothy Norman, and Zachary Leon from Friday 12th September, with pieces from more writers added throughout the autumn.
In this exhibition, my poem The Change uses the biological language of what happens to leaves in autumn to explore the process of change and growth, particularly from a female point of view.
You can see a video of the exhibition here: https://www.facebook.com/reel/2037476720359965
November 2024
It was a joy and an honour to be a guest reader at my friend, Benjamin Brake’s campfire Poetry Night to launch his debut anthology, Ugly Hedgehog. Ben combines horror and the mundane with the intricacy and beauty of life, holding a tension between depression and the hope love brings. He was kind enough to say this about my work:
Liz extends her poetry around the crowd like a warm embrace – using her background as an occupational therapist and her love for her family to invite you in. Her poetry holds such a kind and tender feeling, with a healthy dose of cynicism and a drop of I’m-not-angry-just-disappointed. It was an honour to hear her read at my event, but Liz’s written poetry is just the tip of the iceberg. From cushions to mannequins, the imagination, awe, and brilliance which can be found in her other work combining art and poetry cannot be overstated.
Also sharing the microphone were some other talented friends, Paul Cook (@fuzzboxed on IG) and Elena Brake (@elenabrake on IG). Poems of Plymouth and the 80s, angry and beautiful, from the former; poems found in the elegance of engineering and scientific language from the latter.
It was a fantastic evening at Blindman’s Scout Centre.
You can find out more about Ben’s book (including where to buy it) at https://shoalsofstarlings.com/shoalsofstarlingspress/books/ugly-hedgehog/
Photos by Dom Moore @ddoommmmoorree
October 2024: LOOE FESTIVAL OF WORDS
The intention of the inaugural Looe Festival of Words was not to run a Literary Fest, focusing on books alone and aiming to attract ‘big name’ authors, but to offer something by the community, for the community, to make connections, and establish a base from which future activity could grow.
With that in mind, over a six day period, we delivered 6 creative workshops, 10 author talks and literary walks, a Poetry Extravaganza evening (with 2 local poetry groups), a Bookfair /meet the writer all-day event, with MAZED tales street pop-ups and shows in a local care home and museum, a family rockpool ramble and writing session (with a local conservation group), with Devon & Cornwall Rail Partnership 2 creative literacy days in a local primary school and a train takeover, and a final community celebration.
All activities were free of charge to participants. And all organisation was done by volunteers.
Workshops were attended by people with a wide range of previous writing experience with many attendees new to creative writing. The top three words selected by participants to describe the events were ‘inspiring’, ‘exciting’ and ‘fun’.
Jenny Alexander, writer and facilitator said: “I think you’ve nailed the contributor experience – all your communication was clear and friendly from first idea to final delivery, and you just feel like a thoroughly safe pair of hands. I’m soooo impressed, it’s hard to believe this was the first ever Looe Festival of Words.”
One workshop participant said: “The festival was fabulous and inspired me to get that children’s book done and find an illustrator – which I have – so thank you!!!”
The offer for non-writers: our talks and walk programme was extremely popular and we received lots of comments that it was ‘nice to see the Lit Fest back’.
Helen Chaloner, CEO Literature Works, the regional literature development agency for South West England and Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation (who helped fund the Festival) said: “Thank you for hosting me on Saturday. It was great to meet you and lovely to see Looe Festival of Words in action. Great to be at a festival that seems to completely embedded in its community. It is a tribute to all your hard work.”
Looe Marine Conservation Group said: “Poetry on the Rocks was a delightful event…Participants were really inspired to reach deep into their creative minds with wonderful poetry as the outcome. We’d love to collaborate on future events of this kind.”
Our all-day book fair and talks programme offered the opportunity for local writers to connect with readers and promote themselves and their books, as well as networking with each other. Out of our workshops and celebration event, new groups and connections have been forged. It was always our aspiration that new creative partnerships and collaborations would be seeded, and creative networks in the area strengthened as a result of the Festival’s work. We are delighted to see that happening, knowing how productive and valuable the relationships formed during projects such as this can be. We will be feeding our experience into the Creative Looe initiative led by Looe Town Council.
We have learned a lot, and we have a lot of feedback to process. But support for the Festival has been incredible, feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, we’ve established a brand, and we have people lining up to help out in the future.
September 2023
I am happy to share that three of my visual poetry pieces have been published in Inkfish Magazine
Two of my pieces have been featured in the spring edition of Harpy Hybrid Review
A direct link to the article can be found here: THIEF and JIGSAW – Harpy Hybrid Review