Literary fest is hailed as a big success

With 30 events over 10 days, the Shoreham WordFest attracted more than 1,000 visitors and covered a myriad of word associated events from author talks, workshops and dramatic performances to story telling, children’s days and poetry read to music. This year’s finale was the WordFest Slam competition and showcased readings of poems or short stories hosted by Atilla the Stockbroker.

The winners were Fiona Salter with her poem, Lingerie, and Gary Ledbetter for his short story, Minutes of a Meeting Never Held.

Throughout the festival there was ample opportunity to enjoy events on past and local poets. The W.B. Yeats workshop provided an illuminating insight into a great and quirky Irish poet and the readings of Martin Ward’s work reflected the WordFest theme of Only Connect and demonstrated the strong link between his life, work and Shoreham.

Author talks consisted of Sara Sheriden, Ivor Baddiel, Sue Eckstein, Meike Ziervogel, Robert Dickinson and Nina de la Mer.

Rosalind Turner, chairwoman of Shoreham WordFest, said: “We were thrilled with the response to this year’s WordFest. There are a number of popular events which we know will always sell out, including the plays and story telling on the Verda houseboat. This year, we tried some new events, and tested the boundaries, including the jazz rendition of Benjamin Britten’s music in his centenary year. We were really pleased with the reaction to the whole programme, and have learnt a great deal for future planning.

“Seeing and hearing the reaction of people who come to the events, and feedback from the authors and performers, makes all the effort worthwhile and we will be taking stock before starting to plan events for next year.

“We would be pleased to hear from anyone who attended any WordFest activities with comments and suggestions,”

Fiona Salter, winner of Slam, said: “I just wanted to say what a brilliant evening I had at the Slam on Sunday, the readings were moving and hilarious by turns. I had a lot of fun, winning a prize was an unexpected and wonderful bonus.”

Hannah Eaton, author of Naming Monsters, said: “It was really fun to do and wonderful to meet our very diverse group. It was brilliant to see people drawing who had probably never drawn in their adult lives thinking about making comics and to watch the children just get stuck in.”

Lastly, Ivor Baddiel, TV writer, said: “I enjoyed it very much, the audience were great and I really liked the way it opened out in to more of a discussion.”