#HumansOfCov !!!

I have been as busy as ever. This month I've done a poetry Pecha Kucha - I really enjoyed listening to the other presentations and it was kind of a rollercoaster - although I was terrified beforehand - afterwards I was planning my next one. Hopefully my bit will be available to view on the Pecha Kucha website, (Coventry Number 36) sometime soon.

I've also had a poem published on the subject of knife-crime:

https://iamnotasilentpoet.wordpress.com/2019/03/05/smoke-knife-by-andrea-mbarushimana/

Thanks to Reuben Wooley who runs the site and Anthony Owen who suggested that Coventry writers respond to the theme.

The poem was based on a conversation I had working out of Coventry Central Library as a writer in residence, with a guy who just stopped by my desk to chat. I love working from the library. It's something I'm clinging to - it being the first time I've ever had a scheduled period of time to be 'a writer' in any sense: A state I have in common with many writers - women in particular - as I've been reading in the latest Mslexia magazine (Issue 81 'The Tests of Time').

More news, I'm chufffed to bits this month to have been awarded a #HumansOfCov commission. This is the first creative writing project funded by Coventry '21 City of Culture team and celebrates the 70th anniversary of the UN Declaration of Human Rights. I am creating a poetry film with local film-maker Brian Harley, to celebrate Article 29 - social responsibility. It's a tight deadline, which I like. I'm always better with a tight deadline.

The cherry on top is a spring publication in The Curlew magazine - my poem 'Signage'. It's never the poems I expect that are being shortlisted and published at the moment - when I get time (lol) I'll be reassessing my choices for the illusive pamphlet / second collection I am looking for (Ambition is a great quality in a woman don't you know).

Finally, however you assign your gender, I wish you a Happy Women's Day!