Look We Have Coming to Dover!

The bard of Dollis Hill

"[Daljit] Nagra is that rare thing: an unknown poet whose debut collection is being published by Faber, Britain's leading poetry house. [...] When he performs poems such as Singh Song!, he says he tends to read them with 'an Indian voice, black it up, minstrelise it'." (Guardian Books)

This opens a new world of possibilities for poetry. I wouldn't mind going into the poetry biz, myself. How does this grab you?: "The Willesden Poetry Minstrels". With a few high-kicking soubrettes and a troupe of lads done up in burnt cork, we could go touring the provinces, knocking people dead every night with a medley of "Four Quartets" and "Rockabye Your Baby to a Dixie Melody". It will be the new Riverdance. We'll close on an arrangement of Gray's "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" in an up-tempo, semi-rap style, segueing into Kipling's "If" and finally bring the house down with "The Swanee River". All for the price of a few banjoes.

Red Woodward

Dublin mural

(detail)



What need you, being come to sense

Harry Lemon

Pieta

Everywhere in Dublin

Harry Lemon

Abroad

Howth Harbour, Dublin

Harry Lemon

Willesden Herald "New Short Stories"

Appalachian tale wins UK prize

"An English teacher from Kentucky has won the 2007 Willesden short story prize, receiving high praise from judge Zadie Smith." (Guardian Books)

Ossian

Forget the Golden Globes

From today's Guardian Online Books:

Appalachian tale wins UK short story prize

Read Kid in a Well by Willie Davis

Newsdesk

Climate change? London lemons

Lemon tree with about 50 large lemons spotted in a garden near Highbury on new year's night

Picture courtesy of Harry Lemon

Shadows in Cafe Gigi, continued: Writers' ruin

I see an addlepated debauchee. I'm getting early promise not fulfilled. I'm sensing bloated flesh and pomposity. It's not Ken Russell, is it?

Mystic Mavis

And finally

Video (SkyNews)

Amazing scene as a lion hugs his rescuer. She rescued him from a travelling circus.

Suzi

Local report

"In an interview with the Nuneaton Telegraph in 1999, she said: 'I love my writing - like God, I start with nothing and create something."

Ossian

Willesden short story prize 2007: Result

Short list

"Born Again" by Shakti Bhatt
"Charles Magezi-Akiiki" by Olesya Mishechkina
"Felipe and the Sea" by Jonathan Attrill
"Jolt" by James Lawless
"Kid in a Well" by Willie Davis
"Mrs Nakamoto Takes a Vacation" by Steve Finbow
"Paradise" by Nicholas Hogg
"The Dead Don't Do That Kind of Thing" by Wes Lee
"Vaselino" by Lee Joans
"Words from a Glass Bubble" by Tobias Williams

Winner

And the winner of the Willesden short story prize 2007, as chosen by Zadie Smith, is "Kid in a Well" by Willie Davis.

Willie Davis is a native of Whitesburg, Kentucky who currently teaches English at The University of Maryland. "Kid in a Well" is a chapter from The Darktown Strut, his recently completed novel about contemporary Appalachian life.

Many thanks to everyone who took part and to formerly famous poet Rockwell "Rocky" Rollins and WH media correspondent Amanda Saxonheart for hazarding their eyesight over the strange fonts submitted. Thanks to Zadie Smith for adjudicating.

Judge's report

"Amongst many high concept competitors, 'Kid in a Well' stood out for me for its relative simplicity, neat characterisation, and laconic, relaxed structure. It's a story genuinely interested in its characters rather than fascinated with its own form, and offers the reader humour over authorial hubris. I really enjoyed it. Congratulations, Willie, and enjoy your mug! I have one and I love it." Zadie Smith

Anthology

The forthcoming anthology "New Short Stories 1" (Pretend Genius, 2007) will feature the winning story together with all but one of the short list and a selection of other stories commended by the editorial team, including (confirmed):

"Alternative Medicine" by Laura Solomon
"Atlantic Drift" by Arthur Allan
"Avoiding the Issue" by Laura Heggie

It will also feature more of the virtuosic series Microworld by 19-year-old Olesya Mishechkina, from which "Charles Magezi-Akiiki" is taken.

Update (Feb '07)

Also including "Dodie's Gift", last year's joint-winner by Vanessa Gebbie

Ed

Syndication: Wreuters / Sphagnum

• Guardian Online Books - report
• Read Kid in a Well by Willie Davis
• More about this year
• Previous year
• Competition home page for more links

Short story competition: "White smoke seen"

...breaking news...breaking news...

There are unconfirmed reports that white smoke has been seen coming from the special chimney above Willesden Herald house. More to follow.

Update

The short-listed writers have been notified by email. Full details to be announced.

Wreuters / Agence Sphagnum

Mirror mirror

whiskey river

Ask yourself: Who am I? Invariably the internal answer will be autobiographical - an identity based on the past. It will be a description of a continuity from childhood through adolescence to adulthood which is all past memories and no longer exists. Memory is the mirror and we live on the wrong side. Seldom will anyone answer the question of Who am I? with: I appear to be the process of reading this page. (Yatri)

Ossian

Fw: Poetry in Kilburn (Feb. 28)

Mail Dept.

Richard & Judy: "You Say, We Pay"

Squalid end of Bush's and Blair's schemes

BBC

"Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has described the circumstances of Saddam Hussein's execution as 'deplorable'."

A hole-and-corner judicial murder, indistinguishable from those committed by Saddam himself. It might just as well have been Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney and Blair in hoods and leather jackets, conducting this act of squalor and barbarity. Make your own cartoons.

Zoz

Short story competition update

Just a reminder that the Willesden short story competition has now closed and the short list and winner for 2007 will be announced here as soon as the results are in, at which time short-listed writers will be notified by email. Thanks to everyone who entered.

Ed

Saddam: Re-trial in the Hague?

Guardian comment: Iraq's shallow justice

"Trials conforming to international standards of fairness would have been more likely to ventilate and verify the historical facts, contribute to the public recognition of the experiences of victims, and set a more stable foundation for democratic accountability. Instead, unlike the Nuremberg trials, the proceedings have fallen far short of creating the reference point that could clarify for Iraqis what happened and why." (Richard Dicker)

Why not extradite Saddam Hussein to the Hague (some way can still be found), like Milosevic, and let's see what can be done to save this situation. Otherwise tomorrow those executing him will be reduced to his level.

Feargal Mooney

U2: Window in the Skies*

If the above video is no longer available, you should still be able to view it here.

A montage of brilliant clips from legendary performers, an outrageous rip-off that makes it look like they are performing the new U2 track. It must have taken a massive bit of admin and considerable expense to get all the permissions. Weak point: using a picture of an atom bomb test to lend a bit of oomph at one point. Altogether very entertaining though.

Not sure about the pictures of African urchins near the end, another crime of sincerity. Wasn't it Bono at a concert in Ireland, who was telling the audience that every time he clicked his fingers another child died in Africa. Click, click, click. Then with a fine example of the Irish sense of humour, somebody in the audience shouted out "Well stop clicking your fingers then!"

Feargal Mooney

* Official YouTube release

Hazel Blears

She never answers a question, all she does is to blear the issue and defend the status quo. (Ref. interview on Radio 4, The World at One today). This is a terminal political illness, as seen in the last days of the old Tory regime.

Zoz

Anthea Turner prize winner 2006

Christmas inside Rachel Whitebread

The prize was presented by Chief Grayson Bighat (Ms) of the Surbiton Commanche nation.

Image of the year 2006

Business as usual (Warning: disturbing image)

A civilian convoy bombed in the Lebanon

West Bank carol

O little town of Bethlehem,
How still we see thee lie!
Above your empty ruined streets
The tracer fire goes by;
Your refugees in basements wait
Indefinitely in flight
From where they fled for many years
By curfew here tonight.

For Jibril born of Mariam,
And gathered up in love,
While people slept, the soldiers kept
Their watch from hills above.
A heavy shell projected sent
From far to mark the birth
Blasted all to bits and rent
A short life from this earth.

How silently, how silently,
The wondrous gift inspired!
No kamikaze, neo-Nazi -
Professionally fired.
No ear may hear its coming,
But in this world of sin,
Where meek souls will receive it, still
It blasts their shelters in.

Where children pure and happy
Both hate and are reviled,
Where misery cries out to thee,
Son of the mother mild;
Where charity stands watching
And faith holds wide the door,
The dark night wakes, the glory breaks,
And Herod comes once more.

--
Stephen Moran

<< Previous | Next >>

School lunch program for the entire world

Fighting World Hunger

A talk by George McGovern, who has served as the United Nations' Global Ambassador on World Hunger since 2001. After his advertised address, he goes on to speak with authority on the parallels between the Vietnam war and the present Iraq war, and argues with ineluctible logic for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq.

Download Audio only

Streaming Video (length 59:29)

(Mar 22, 2006 at the University of Virginia, Miller Center of Public Affairs)

Fighting hunger through school dinners for every school in the world: a brilliant idea, much more interesting and useful than fighting wars.

Happy holidays

The solstice has passed, the days are growing longer. From all the staff here at Willesden Herald house, Happy Hannukah, Merry Christmas, Eid Mubarak and whatever you're having yourself.