This is a guest post by Mel Webster. She is studying at the University of Central Lancashire and blogs at What do you do in Preston? If you’d like to write a guest post for Preston Blog see how you can get involved.
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The Word Soup reading event at the New Continental was the first of its kind in Preston, according to organiser, Jenn Ashworth of Preston Writing Network. With writers ranging from international bestsellers to exciting new unpublished talents, it was a diverse and edgy night out for everyone who came.
The event held in the venue’s event space on Tuesday night got a great reaction from the audience who were treated to readings on the theme of risk.
Organiser and published writer, Jenn Ashworth read from her novel “A Kind of Intimacy” which has been getting rave reviews from the press. Her comic timing brought her dark novel about love and obesity to life.
Speaking afterwards she said: “Despite a few technical hitches and last minute panics, I think it went really well!”
Cult best-seller, Steven Hall (The Raw Shark Texts) impressed with his confident reading of a passage about conceptual information streams from his award winning novel whilst Manchester writer and award winning blogger, Chris Killen (The Bird Room) gave an effective nervous energy to his reading about a paranoid boyfriend hiding his girlfriend’s ex’s bushes.
Watch interviews with Chris Killen and Steven Hall from after the event
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTC4Wf7S3xM]
Cat Dunlop and Catherine Cable. new writers from the Continental Collective creative writing group, read their own original work and Sally Cook read a hilarious story about stealing apple juice.
Live music in between the readings came from singer/songwriter Ottersgear, who claimed to have named himself after a bridge he used to sometimes sleep under.
Check out the live tweets from the evening at #wordsoup.
See more images from the night.
The next event is on the 19th May and the theme is going to be skin.