Wordsmithery*
Finalist (Publishing) Kent Creative Awards 2016
Winner (Literature) Medway Culture, design and tourism awards 2015
WELCOME TO CLOISTERHAM
4-5 June 2022
... a 2-day-long literary festival; doing Dickens with a twenty-first century twist
Wordsmithery has been commissioned by Medway Council to create and produce a two-day literary festival in Rochester Castle Moat to accompany the Jubilee Celebrations taking place in the castle. See some of our writers and performers below!
'Please sir, we want some more'
Building on the success of our one-day Dickens fringe festival 'Welcome to Cloisterham' last year; this year, we are programming an exciting line-up of prize-winning writers and musicians to perform for the Medway audience over the two days, in a relaxed literary fringe festival, some of our writers will be taking a good dollop of inspiration from Charles Dickens and the Victorian era, and we will be joined by Steampunk group Great Kentspectations, so feel free to wear your bonnet and bustle!
Our festival will have a relaxed fringe festival theme, with two main performance tents, the 'Raven' and 'Empty Chair' stages, plus activity tents in the moat. There will also be a bandstand outside of the Boley Hill carpark, and in the Kings Head carpark, we will have a steampunk market area.
Saturday's line-up (see programme for performer biographies):
-
11am ‘Be a Dickens Detective’: spot the missing object with Dr Jeremy Clarke of the Guildhall Museum (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
11.30am Gerald Dickens (RAVEN)
-
12 noon 2A-LTY (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
12.30pm Thee Droods (RAVEN)
-
1pm Bridget Nolan (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
1.30pm Sascha Aurora Akhtar (RAVEN)
-
2pm Sarah Hehir (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
2.30pm Barry Fentiman Hall (RAVEN)
-
3pm Spacegirl (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
3.30pm John McCullough (RAVEN)
Sunday's line-up (see programme for performer biographies):
-
11am Wordsmithery poets: Jon Terranova, Setareh Ebrahimi, SM Jenkin, and Rosemary McLeish Poetry Prize announcement (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
11.30am Zack Davies (RAVEN)
-
12 noon Pauline Holmes (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
12.30pm Orlando (RAVEN)
-
1pm Helen Seymour (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
1.30pm Jessica Mookherjee (RAVEN)
-
2pm Nina Telegina (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
2.30pm Jah-Mir Early (RAVEN)
-
3pm Gerald Dickens (EMPTY CHAIR)
-
3.30pm Vanessa Kisuule (RAVEN)
Plus pop-up activities for the young (and the young at heart) including: story walks, steampunk games, book swap (bring a book and exchange it for another), temporary tattoos, printing and dreamcatcher making workshops.
(Our lovely raven, 'Grip IV' was created by Heather Haythornthwaite / The Hazelnut Press.)

