Here’s the link to the festival page on the website, with all info and booking links: https://beyondthespectrum.uk/bts-writing-festival/ 

Full price tickets are £15, but there’s a £10 concession rate, and we have a bursary for anyone who can’t afford to pay – we just need people to give us a few words about why they need a bursary, and we’ll happily give them a place for free. No one has to sign up to spend all day on Zoom on Saturday either. We’re recording everything except the closing keynote (which we’re not allowed to record), and will send the links to everyone who is registered – they’ll stay live for two months after the festival, to give everyone chance to catch up. But we’ll only be able to share with registered attendees. 

Clearing

by Aoife Mannix 

When the forest fell 

to the two up two down 

China tea boxes of splintered rooms, 

we were building staircases 

from spiralling suitcases. 

The windows at first were wild 

with red kites till they boarded 

them over with feather masks 

till we could only hear 

the screech of traffic, 

the sorrow of wolves evicted 

from fairy stories as the children 

walked the new paths to school. 

Their hands clutching pencil drawings 

of sunflowers breaking through 

concrete towards the light. 

If a suitcase could talk – think of a nonhuman pov and give them  

an age/gender  

an accent/background  

a political/philosophical view point  

a catch phrase – 

Write as a monologue in the voice of the suitcase. 

How does it feel about being lost and found? 

How does it feel about being opened? 

• From this lady saw me fiddling about. 

Get them to describe a fight between other two characters – as a monologue in the voice of the suitcase.  who is fighting? What are they fighting about? 

Who steals the suitcase and why? 

How is the suitcase returned to its rightful owner?