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Few magazines are able to offer payment or feedback, but Orbis helps alleviate suffering for Arts’ sake: Readers’ Award: £50; plus £50 between 4 runners-up
Editor Carole Baldock has also provided proofs with editorial suggestions for every contributor for the past 20 years…

Available for readings and workshops: The A to Y of Getting into Print

Anything at Any level to help Your success:

magazines; collections/books; competitions etc

Everyone said they’d come again which is, of course, the best feedback

(Cheshire County Council workshop)

Mentoring and Critique Service

Your editorial expertise was invaluable for improving my work (New York)

Wow – I thought it was finished. You made it so much better (New Zealand)

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Information is posted at regular intervals, regardless
of what the date counter says,
because I keep forgetting to update it, unless –
Still busy wondering how come
your twilight years have turned
into the Twilight Zone…

Subs: £20/4 pa. Single issue: £6.50, all including p+p

Overseas:  £42/€50/$60. Single issue: £11.50/€14/$16

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Orbis 203, Spring 2023

Orbis 200: ‘All the best to you, and to Orbis!’
(Glyn Maxwell; shortlisted for Best Collection in the Forward Prize)

‘Best wishes for the journal – and congratulations on such a successful magazine over the years’ (Joy Harjo, United States Poet Laureate)

 

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Single issue: £6.50 (Overseas: £11.50/€14/$16); Subs: £20/4 pa (Overseas: £42/€50/$60)

Associate Editor (Book Reviews): Maria Isakova-Bennett

Reviews by Philip Dunkerley; David Harmer; Jenny Hockey;
D.A.Prince; Pauline Rowe; Theresa Sowerby


Please note with new collections, press release in first instance – not review copies.

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Front cover artwork: ‘I got caught in the rain’ by Ira Whittaker

back cover, detail from image:   https://www.instagram.com/art_irawhittaker_artist/

Pouring down indeed to create an issue overflowing with incredible,
inspiring writing, in Spectacular Fashion, you might say, as
Chris Scriven does, so you can see what Sparks fly
from the pen of Philip Burton. And how lucky is Andria J. Cooke,
enjoying the Aurora – and how curious are you, to find out about
Marie Papier’s Portrait of my grandmother as a wardrobe?
And there’s more, much more, for example, Pat Marum’s tale
of a Concubine, Beijing 1421, or Arun Gaur’s description of a
Cenotaph plus Terrapins from John Gilham. Indeed, as Ruth Arnison
says, Knowing he’s the one, or rather, its: what a splendid title
from Michael Martin: One time me and the dog swam
with the dolphins, they let you get so close you can touch a fin
.
And ok, you may feel it’s a step too far – or an issue too late,
but how about Frank X. Christmas’s Tribute from a three-year-old.

Because there’s certainly plenty here to encourage a response from all readers.

 

Featured Poet

Ros Woolner: Shouting at the sky; The unwrapping; Trucks; Permission

Poems from Courtney Brach: Lead Line; Richard Hawtree:
I’ll Just Leave This Here; Anthony Head: Malá Strana;
Peggy McCarthy: Pantoum For My Childhood Home;
Vic Pickup: What she saw in the washing up bowl;
John Smelcer: Churros With Death

Prose from Annie Newcomer: Gilbert Williams;
Michael Swan: Anti-Boredom Procedure Type B;
Nicky Winder: Crop Stories

Translation: Terese Coe: Homecoming, LXI, Book of Songs
Epitaphe De Jaques Mernable, Joueur de Farces


Past Master
Richard Lister on Bibi Hayati

Orbis 203 Contributors also include
John Arnold; Steve Barton; Martin Bennett; Courtney Brach;
Patricia Brody;  Vuyelwa Carlin; Andrew Curtis; Lori Drummond-Mundal;
L.B. Jørgensen;  Dave Medd; John McOwat; Pat Murgatroyd; Louis Nthenda;
Doug Sandle; Carla Scarano; Dr. Roger G. Singer; Andrea Spurling

Single issue: £6.50 (Overseas: £11.50/€14/$16); Subs: £20/4 pa (Overseas: £42/€50/$60)

Associate Editor (Book Reviews): Maria Isakova-Bennett

Reviews by Philip Dunkerley; David Harmer; Jenny Hockey;
Maria Isakova-Bennett; Jennifer McGowan; D.A. Prince;
Pauline Rowe; Theresa Sowerby; Pam Thompson


Please note with new collections, press release in first instance – not review copies.

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Front cover artwork: ‘Miyajima 09‘ by Niels Nielsen
back cover, detail from image: www.petrifiedclouds.com

Oh come, all ye faithful: readers, subscribers, contributors –

something to warm your heart in this bitter Winter.
Let us whisk you away to somewhere exotic, and join 
Jackie Wills
when Cruella de Ville visits Brighton, or Charles Wilkinson, looking at
The House in the Forest. No? Well, how about Alexandra Corrin-Tachibana…
At the Fishmonger’s with my sonThen you could be transported by Tim Houghton – |
and T-Rex, unless you’ve reached a Watershed; that’s you
and Nathanael O’Reilly both. But if you’re wondering what Martin Worster
means by 
The Let-Down, or Carolyn Oulton, asking What am I supposed to call this?
Catherine O’Brien may have the answer in A Lexicon Of You,
unless Rob McCarthy will translate From The Greek,
or George Moore,  using the Rosetta Stone. All the same, it’s no mystery
because reading Orbis. can help bring joy to the world.

Featured Poet, David Callin:
Fowmart; In Upper Sulby Glen; Preservation; Abney Park; The island; Elan

Poems from Claire Booker, The Horse In My Bedroom;
Roy Duffield A dream where procrastination works both ways;
Martin Elster De-Extinction; Cathy Grindrod, Aunt Margaret;
John Lanyon, Honorine Jobert; Jo Slade, O little root

Prose from Charlotte Gringras, Midnight Memoir ; Phil Knight, Crosshairs;
Marie L’Ecrivain, Ugly: A Post Dystopian Tale

Translation: Stephen Capus, Desanka Maksimović: Za Zveri Oklevetane

Past Master: Mary Earnshaw on Anonymous

Orbis 202 Contributors also include

Jane Blanchard; Mark Carson; Alastair Clarke; Tina Cole;
Mark Czanik; Robin Ford; Peter French; Richard George;
Jill Jones; Judith Pollinger; David Punter; Michael Spinks;
Julia Stothard; Katherine Swett; Anne Symons;  Carolyn Waudby;
Isobel Williams; Susan Wismer; Marjory Woodfield

 


 

April 26, Liverpool Playhouse

Reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/

 

8/10

A magical and meaningful production which draws out so many parallels with life today, 80 years on, there are nearly as many lines as those spoken by the excellent cast. In other words, so many lessons to be learned in this iconic tale of animals taking over. Near as damnit, the lunatics running the asylum, with their delusional ideas and grandiose so-called victories.

Read the rest of this entry »

Fascinating Aîda

Floral Pavilion, New Brighton

February 1, reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/

 

4*

Who says women of a certain age are invisible? Three cheers for the ever glamorous, and indeed, downright sexy (not sure I’m permitted to say that, but damn sure they wouldn’t object) Fascinating Aîda, who not only make their presence felt but are so in your face you can see the whites of their eyes as the sweetest of harmonies deliver vitriol in the sharpest of points; a fabled, and fabulous, iron fist in a velvet glove. And you needn’t think the audience is full of, shall we say, women in their prime either because

Read the rest of this entry »

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French House Party

Creative Writing Course, Carcassonne, Southern France

June 20-26

Pen &Think: Tutored Retreat

www.frenchhouseparty.eu/creative-arts/writing/

Read the rest of this entry »

October 19-23

War of the Worlds

https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on/the-war-of-the-worlds


Reviewed for North West End: www.northwestend.co.uk

 

4*

What a tangled web we weave, especially these days when the Internet ensures all kinds of information reach the parts that other sources can’t get to. Fake news can make people belligerent or else scare them out of their wits, just as it did with the broadcast of ‘War of the Worlds’ years ago. Read the rest of this entry »

October 12-16

Dracula: The Untold Story
imitating the dog and Leeds Playhouse

Adapted and directed by Andrew Quick and Pete Brooks


https://www.everymanplayhouse.com/whats-on/dracula-the-untold-story

 

Reviewed for North West End: www.northwestend.co.uk

3*

The road to Hell is paved with good intentions, and here we are on Route 66 (or should that be 666?), since that’s their year (read on…), and a young lady has just walked into a police station to confess to murder. But she says her name is Mina Harker…

Read the rest of this entry »

 

July 17- August 30

Pride And Prejudice

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

https://www.grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk/

Reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/

 

4*

It is a truth universally acknowledged – that you absolutely do not need to open with such a well known quote, or variations thereof, even if it establishes that most people know what you are talking about, and a plot summary is not required. Nor that such a familiar tale couldn’t prove damn’d tricky to be given enough of a spin to sprinkle it with stardust and make it fresh and original. It succeeds wonderfully.

Read the rest of this entry »

August 19-30

Jungle Book

Grosvenor Park Open Air Theatre

https://www.grosvenorparkopenairtheatre.co.uk/

Reviewed for Writebase: https://writebase.co.uk/

 

 

3*

They say the sun shines on the righteous, so here, only right that the forecast of rain was incorrect – though it became a biblical outpouring almost as soon as this swinging performance finished. Read the rest of this entry »

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January 26
Ó Bhéal Five Words Competition

Weekly closing date each Tuesday at noon
Must feature the five words given for the week

www.obheal.ie/blog/five-words-poetry-competition

 

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Write your way out of it with Dawn Gorman

Please email me
for details of this, and/or
my full critiquing service:

dawn@dawngorman.co.uk      www.dawngorman.co.uk

 

Read the rest of this entry »

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