So sad...

It's not very often I feel truly sad at a celebrity death, but for many many girls out there I think the death of Jonathan Crombie will make them feel a little strange - I still think Gilbert Blythe is my favourite fictional boy, from what is definitely my favourite book and as discussed in the New Yorker here Jonathan Crombie gave him a kindness that is the key to why Gilbert is so great and by far the most feminist of fictional boys for young girls to admire: he loved Anne because she was clever, he never laughed at her quirkiness when she was deadly serious - he liked her precisely because of who she was yet still challenged her, he wasn't wet or dim or preening - just natural and clever and decent without being boring... Fictional teen heroes of today's overloaded YA romance genre don't have a patch on him with their silly manipulative needy ways (read good Guardian article here ). I was going to upload an Anne of Green Gables video but they all seem to have cheesy theme tunes on you tube, so here is a photo instead... So sad... My eight year old self's heart is broken!

Auropolis New Website

Me and Ana's lovely publishers Auropolis have a new website! Click here to see http://auropolisarts.blogspot.co.uk

Tree (tea) houses of the day!

Haven't done this for a while - I feel posts have all been work, which is great and important, but sometimes a few treehouses is what one needs, so...

Firstly this one that I really hardly believe is real, but if it's not I don't really care as it looks like a living monster and I am all for tree creatures taking over cities whilst providing snacks and caffeine. It's the Gajumaru Treehouse Diner in Okinawa. 

But if I had to pick a tree tea house to live in I have to say I'd be keener on this one - the Teahouse Tetsu, built by the architect Terunobu Fujimori in Hokuto, Japan. I've always shared Anne of Green Gables' thought that if a bed couldn't be provided one really couldn't beat a cherry tree full of blossom:

Momentum open call - The Car Boot Museum

I am thrilled to announce that my project The Car Boot Museum has been chosen as one of three site-specific commissions for this years Momentum open call for Somerset Art Weeks. I will be travelling round Somerset with an evolving museum of objects and text in the back of my car. Ana will be joining me for some of it and members of the public are welcome to add to it. I will also be taking the museum to school and community settings across the county, before it culminates in an installation of text, images, film, sounds and objects during the art weeks (location to be announced). More details can be seen here: http://somersetartworks.org.uk/2015/03/artists-announced-for-momentum-open-call-commission/

Very very exciting! Do let me know if you are in Somerset and you would like me to visit!

The City - available to purchase online!

As well as in various small bookshops and galleries and on Amazon, The City is now available to buy online in limited numbers direct from us. Published by Auropolis Association of Multimedia Artists with a fab design by Nevena Vasiljevic I hope it is worth a tenner! Click here to buy a copy.

Interview with Arts Award Voice

I was recently lucky to be asked by the lovely people at Arts Award Voice to give an interview about my somewhat random but interesting career and why I love working with literature and young people. It can be read here : http://www.artsawardvoice.com/magazine/articles/interviews/want-my-jobwith-alice-maddicott

Do look at this website for upcoming articles written by the lovely members of my young writers lab I run with Bath Festivals - they are super kind, clever and interesting young people so I for one am certainly looking forward to what they have to say...

Bath Chronicle Interview

There's an interview with me about The Chancery of Lost and Found in the Bath Chronicle - the online version can be seen here. The project was a great success - so weird it's over! Thanks to the Bath Festivals team, especially Hazel Plowman their fantastic Learning and Participation Coordinator and to all my young writers - Milo and Yves Morris, Rory Haresnape, Benjamin Stephenson, Hal Bennett and Jazmine Vale.

http://www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Working-way-seeing-Bath-mixes-fact-fantasy/story-26083803-detail/story.html

The Chancery of Lost and Found - opens this weekend!

After lots and lots of hard work I am thrilled to say that The Chancery of Lost and Found will be open to the public from this Saturday 28th at 10 am. It is closed weekday mornings and Monday and Wednesday afternoons for workshops, but other than that it is open until the end of the Bath International Literature Festival on March 8th. Do come by - read and/or contribute!

The City has arrived!

Look look! Most exciting. Details of how to purchase soon.

Cafes of Europe - Spa Towns and Utopia Day

I will participating in this on the 5th March at Komedia in Bath. The writing lab I run will be giving a performance plus I will be chairing a discussion on fictional versions of Bath and young people's ideas of "ideal" cities and how this often blurs the line between dystopia and utopia. There's a nice article with more details herehttp://www.sources-of-culture.com/en/cafes-of-europe-bath-63.php and here http://virtualmuseumofbath.com/2015/01/25/ . People are invited to pop down to The Chancery of Lost and Found afternwards to contribute there own ideal cities to my collaborative installation as part of the Bath Literature Festival. I'm really excited that this could give an interesting international and spa-specific element to the work created. I believe this also coincides with World Book Day, so there should be lots of literary things to celebrate all round. 

The Chancery of Lost and Found

Information is now up for my installation at this March's Bath Literature Festival. It is free and running throughout the festival, so do spread the word. Info can be found here http://bathfestivals.org.uk/literature/the-chancery/

I am very excited - me and the Young Writers Lab have been working and plotting very hard and some amazing ideas are developing...

Christmas at Eden 2015

This year I was lucky to work at Treverbyn school for My Tree, My Community at the Eden Project - I can't believe it's the 5th year I've done this! The theme we chose after a lovely tea party was Treverbyn brings Christmas to the farm. We were inspired by one child's great grandfather who said Christmas wasn't a day off - we thought we should change this! We also were excited to learn about farming traditions such as wassailing and also Christmas farm myths, such as the idea that animals can speak on Christmas eve! Each child made their own barn to show a Christmas farm scene - some animals even got Christmas jumpers - we wanted to mix in the things we'd learned with what the children experience at Christmas today. The children also made some apples filled with snow - another tradition we heard about from one family. Look closely at the photos for hidden stories too...

Secret City Review

Lovely review here for Secret City - thank you!

http://www.intermissionbristol.co.uk/2014/10/26/review-dirty-confetti-the-edwardian-cloakroom/

Secret City, Bristol

Me and Ana are somewhat tired after what was almost a writing endurance performance at The Edwardian Cloakroom in Bristol it was so cold and wet! However it went well and by the end of the week the space was full and bustling with people. Photos can be seen at http://dirtyconfetti.com/2014/10/24/secret-city-bristol-gallery/

Secret City - The Edwardian Cloakroom, Bristol - 13th-19th October.

Me and my friend Ana are very excited as it is nearly time for our residency at The Edwardian Cloakroom in Bristol. Here is a blurb I wrote about it and the flyer. Also please contact me if you would be interested in bringing any school or community groups in for a free workshop. Please also note there will be a performance at 7pm on Saturday 18th October. Please drop by!

Secret City is a collaborative, evolving, drop-in writing installation that will be created over the week of the 13th of October in the Edwardian Cloakroom (Woodland Road/Park Row) by the writers Alice Maddicott and Ana Seferovic with help from members of the Bristol public. Alice and Ana will be resident in the cloakroom, spending the whole week creating work inspired by the setting, its atmosphere, history and the surrounding area, as well as old photos and objects, playing with the conventions of found notes, lists, graffiti and anonymous messages to create an immersive archive of writing that will transform the cloakroom as the week progresses. Members of the public, as well as any school or community groups who are interested, are invited to drop by and contribute to the installation, leaving their own stories, memories, creative interpretations to help build this evolving body of site-specific work. The residency will culminate in a performance on Saturday 18th (7pm - time to be confirmed) where people are invited to come back and read their work from the installation, as well as listen to Alice, Ana and local musicians. The installation will also be documented to form an archive of imagination and interpretation - of thought rather than fact - that will hopefully allow the project to continue to evolve after its physical completion.

Dirty Confetti

The new website for me and Ana's small press/collaborations forum is now (tentatively) up and running. Still v much a work in progress as I'm doing it myself. But do check it out: www.dirtyconfetti.com

The lovely Alice Stevenson has done us a logo too!

Trading Tales - The Story Republic at The Exchange, Penzance.

I will be reading at this. I will also be in residence for drop in writing workshops on the 5th and the 7th August. Others will be in residence the other days. Do pop by!

I own a sea cat

Young Writers' Lab this Saturday

There are still places this Saturday for the last of the Young Writers' Labs I run for Bath Festivals for this summer. Do contact them or me if you are 13-18 and would like to come. We will be up and running again from September for lots of exciting projects - publications and performances connected to the literary festivals - it should be fun and is an amazing opportunity for young writers. Here's the flyer.

The Story Republic - Truro Installation this weekend.

I am very happy to be the writer in residence at The Story Republic at 109 Kenwyn Street in Truro tomorrow and Saturday from 11-3 (though it's open 10-4 I think). It's been in existence as an art/writing pop up in an old shop for the last two weeks that has been totally transformed. Do drop in for story and poetry games and free on the spot writing help. There is a story trail to follow round local shops. You can also set me story and poetry challenges... Hmmm! Read more here: http://thestoryrepublic.co.uk/events/

Photos of reading last Saturday.

Here are some photos of me and Ana's reading at The Cockpit Theatre last Saturday - twas a really lovely day. Thanks to Will for playing violin for us - he even managed to keep a straight face for most of it...

And the aftershow...