Spoken Label

Latest up from Spoken Label features a old friend of Spoken Label making her debut, Krystal Gypsey Orellano.

Krystal is described as "A Tampa, Florida native, Krystal “Gypsy” Orellano Weldon is a spoken word poet, writer and educator. Krystal is slowly transpiring as a creative nonfiction writer, being published in St. Petersburg College’s newspaper The Sandbox, Saint Leo University’s book the Sandhill Review and University of Westminster runner-up winner for the 2017 Mental Health Poetry competition"

Poems read out in this session include:

1. Immortal 

2. Murder

3. Point of view

4. Freestyle Melody

5. Miles

6. Aunt Stacey

Krystal's two books can be easily be found on Amazon but for our UK readers, they are:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evolution-Poetry-Krystal-Gypsy-Orellano-ebook/dp/B07M6Q6CFD

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0977KN87Q/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_taft_p1_i0

Latest Spoken Label (Poetry, Author and Artist Chat) features the wonderful Chris Campbell talking about his second collection "White Eye of the Needle".

Some praise about the author include:

Stunning, sensual and subtle. In White Eye of the Needle, we see a clear love of language with a deft alertness to the power of sound and what it can create. Combined with stunning images, this is a book to give those you love.' – Katherine Lockton, co-editor of South Bank Poetry  

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'These poems are sparkling with affection. Campbell finds beauty in the everyday, in the connections to each other and to the land. In a world when we are feeling cut off, these poems are like a bridge back to some sense of balance. They are celebrations of relationships, places and of being alive. Some of them feel like a home I’ve never been to.' – Poet and performer David Linklater, author of Black Box  

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'Chris Campbell's poems are accessible, enjoyable, and formally and stylistically thoughtful and dextrous – as in 'Yellow dress', which empathetically slips into and out of ballad metre, or the well-pitched epigram 'Time doesn’t slow', or the subtle uses of slant-rhyme and couplets in 'Last night of our honeymoon', in which 'We eat side by side, the candle facing us, / The taps of shoes are circling // But beside us, a restaurant sits empty, / Laid out cutlery and glass'. A lot of the explorations in these poems are personal, but this is no solipsist's diary: he is constantly conscious of the power a poet can have to touch someone's heart by revealing his own.' – Poet Rory Waterman, senior lecturer in English and Creative Writing, Nottingham Trent University

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'At a time when the world feels a little darker, White Eye of the Needle invites the reader to gaze upon a world where "houses rub shoulders", "the taps of shoes are circling" and dawn spreads its welcome light "like the oranges brightening Seville". In this tender, wistful collection, Campbell observes humanity with a sharp eye – where the lockdown poems offer a relatable and searingly honest depiction of our days transfixed on blinking screens, there is always the human touch to offer relief in a lemon dress, the notes of 'Für Elise', tumbling hedgerows and the tender simplicity of a shared meal with a loved one. Like the flowers that push through its city gardens, this is a collection that reminds us that it's the human connection and the power of the natural world that keep hope alive in a world gone dark.' – Natalie Ann Holborow, award-winning poet and former versifier in residence at Dylan Thomas Birthplace

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More about Chris can be found at his website which is: https://www.chriscampbellpoetry.co.uk/

Poems read out in this session include:  

1) Chimney Snorkels 

2) St Ives Cafe 

3) Last night of our honeymoon 

4) Mister Painter 

5) Yellow Dress

Latest Spoken Label features our returning friend, Helen Kay.  

Her collection "This Lexia & Other Languages" is published by V Press and can be bought here http://vpresspoetry.blogspot.com/2020/07/ or  Helen directly.   

Her Dyslexia Poetry project is here: http://www.dyslexiapoetry.co.uk/  

Helen can be found on facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/helen.kay2 

She is also on twitter: https://twitter.com/HelenKay166  Poems read out in this session were: 

1. The day Joe found out 

2. Short Term Memory Loss 

3. The Student's Essay Blues 

4. Tocking Back

Latest up from Spoken Label is a chat with the awesome Nick Lovell, co-host of the excellent spoken word night Ooh beehive and a excellent writer in his own right.   

Ooh Beehive can be found on both facebook and youtube.  

Nick Lovell is also on facebook.  

Poems read out included:   

1. The Race of his life  

2. Market Garden 

3. Take stork between teeth pull stork from blossom throw blossom over arm towards enemy lay flat await explosion (cover of poem by Adrian Mitchell) 

4. The Jinx effect   

#SpokenWord #Oohbeehive #SpokenWord #Poetry #PoetryPodcast #SpokenwordPodcast

Today's session from Spoken Label (Author / Artist Chat Podcast) is a special session featuring Mina Manchester.  

Mina Manchester is the Fiction Editor of Five South and former Assistant Editor for Narrative Magazine. She is currently an MFA candidate at the Sewanee School of Letters.   

Her work has appeared in HuffPost, Columbia Journal, The Normal School, Inscape, and elsewhere. She is a Pinch Literary Award Finalist, Cutthroat Journal Rick DeMarinis Short Story Award Finalist, and UCLA James Kirkwood Price in Creative Writing nominee.   

Mina is a workshop recipient at Kenyon Review Writing Workshop, The Writer's Hotel  where she was a TA in 2020 and 2021, and Narrative Magazine's The Art of the Story.   

In this special Spoken Label session, we talk to Mina about her journey as a writer but also her journey as a publicist from which her client Carol Orange who I chatted to just before this session with editing and publicity among many other topics.  Her website is: https://www.minamanchester.com/

Latest Spoken Label Podcast features currently from Chicago, the wonderful Carol Orange author off "A Discerning Eye".

A Discerning Eye is described as "Portia Malatesta, an art dealer and a docent at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, is devastated by the robbery of thirteen paintings. Vermeer’s Concert had been her artist brother’s favorite, and its loss intensifies her grief over his recent death. As the days drift by, and the police can’t find any leads, Portia analyzes the stolen art and discovers that the thief did not remove the most valuable work, but has instead chosen moody paintings.

Driven to share her insights, Portia meets Julian Henderson, an Oxford–educated maverick heading the FBI’s Art Crime Unit. The FBI searches their database to see if they can match her profile of the thief. Within 24 hours they confirm rumors about a Colombian suspect with a hidden room. The FBI hires Portia to join their team, and she travels with them to drug-riddled Medellin. Her role is to befriend the drug lord’s wife and gain entry into the villa."

More about Carol can be found at her website which is: https://www.carolorange.com/

Latest Spoken Label session features the wonderful Queen Dee.  

Queen Dee as described on her bandcamp page is described as "QUEEN DEE began her career performing spoken word, but has branched out into music and visual design over the last few years. She is now producing her own music, as well as collaborating with other artists. Her style is eclectic; a mix of poetry and loosely structured pop music"  Her links can be found at: 

https://linktr.ee/Queendeesheen

#Podcast #QueenDee #SpokenLabel

Today's Spoken Label session features the wonderful L Bordetsky Williams, author of Forgot Russia.  

You can read more about L Bordetsky Williams or Lisa to me at:   

forgotrussia.com 

https://twitter.com/BordetskyL https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20647578.L_Bordetsky_Williams https://www.facebook.com/ForgetRussia/ https://www.letterstovirginiawoolf.com/ https://wordmothers.com/2021/01/17/what-to-do-when-youre-struggling-to-finish-a-manuscript-guest-post-by-l-bordetsky-williams/ 

Forgot Russia can be purchased at Amazon, Bookshelf and Barnes & Noble and all the usual places.

Latest up for Spoken Label is the wonderful Ciara Shuttleworth originally from San Fransico but now East Washington.

Ciara Shuttleworth was born in San Francisco and grew up in Nebraska, Nevada, and Washington state. Her poetry has been published in journals and anthologies, including The New Yorker, The Norton Introduction to Literature, Ploughshares, and The Southern Review. Shuttleworth received an MFA in poetry from University of Idaho. Rabbit Heart (SFA Press), is her first full collection of poetry. Shuttleworth's books also include the poetry chapbook, Night Holds Its Own (Blue Horse Press), and gonzo prose book, 4,500 Miles: Taking Jack Back on the Road (Humanitas Media Publishing).

Latest up for Spoken Label (Author/Artist/Poet chat Podcast) features the lovely Pam Munter, author of Fading Fame.

Fading frame in the words of Kirbus Reviews is “Munter probes the lives of Hollywood women after the lights have gone down in this debut collection of fiction and drama.…Munter writes purposefully about the systemic misogyny that has dominated Hollywood throughout its history, from predatory producers on casting couches to women being considered too old before they were out of their 30s. A common theme is the exploitation perpetrated by the various husbands who only continue the damage started by other men… A thought-provoking, well-crafted collection of Hollywood survival stories.”

More about Pam can be found at her website which is:

https://www.pammunter.com/