Restless Minds is an anthology my classmates and I put together as part of our MA in Creative Writing. We launched on 9th October 2014 at Antenna in Nottingham, and sold out on opening night. I compered the launch and also read out a couple of my pieces: a poem called ‘Portrait of my Nan as an Armchair’ and a short story called ‘The Illusion of Parenting’.
‘Portrait of my Nan as an Armchair’ is a short poem comparing my nan to an armchair. I don’t really want to say anymore than that—the poem speaks for itself!
‘The Illusion of Parenting’ is about a couple with four children. The children have nits, scabies, and are generally left to fend for themselves whilst their parents use the child benefits that they receive to find their drinking. When social services pay them a visit, they struggle to mask their issues.
Below is the playlist from launch night, including screenwriter William Ivory introducing us; Clare Stevens reading from ‘The Last Taboo’ and Sarah Jackson reading her poem ‘Host’. My poem and short story are second 🙂
And here are three of my favourite photos:
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- Me, Kristian Elliott and Silvia M. Lopez.
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- Boyfriend and me with a copy of Restless Minds.
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- Me, pulling a funny face when I speak.
Launch night went better than any of us could’ve imagined. We’re now in our second print run and selling it at local events such as Jazz & Poetry and Totally Wired Poetry. If you’d like to pop along to any of our future events, you can find details of them on our website. There’s also LOADS of photos from our launch night on there. Thanks to Mark James for taking them.
You can watch more videos from Restless Minds events here and here, and if you enjoy them, don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel!
The latest Restless Minds news is available on our Facebook and Twitter pages, and you can find upcoming events on our website.
