Putting it about

Putting it aboutOctober 12th 2023 saw a revival performance of Putting It About as part of the Birmingham Reps Great Revival of our Women and Theatre plays”Set in an imagined high security NHS hotel, Putting It About explores the impact of HIV on women. Written in the 1980s and set in the 1990s, a group…

Friends of Enemies News

Friends of Enemies NewsPolly Wright, Artistic Director of Hearth is very proud to report that her short story Friends of Enemies is published in the anthology Thursday Nights. Friends of Enemies draws on the letters to Polly’s grandmother from Gualtiero Lenzi , an Italian Prisoner of War, who was placed on their farm in North…

My City My Home Podcast Launched

My City My HomeThe project My City My Home was a creative writing competition run by SAMPAD in Birmingham, UK open to women either from or with a connection to Birmingham, Pakistan or Bangladesh. The project was part of a groundbreaking three year programme to establish Birmingham as a global centre for contemporary arts from…

The Return of Poem in Your Pocket

The Return of Poem in Your Pocket for the 2021 Bedlam Arts and Mental Health Festival:On the 16th November 2022 the HEARTH Centre presented an evening of poetry and prose from their 2020 project ‘Tales of Lockdown’. The event featured Polly Wright, Laurence Inman, Liz Churchill, Rochi Rampal and Alison Belbin and was a celebration…

Poem in Your pocket at the Bedlam Festival: 16th November 2021

The Return of Poem in Your Pocket Does enjoyment of a good read and beautiful poetry improve your well being? Do you find that sharing the appreciation through reading  aloud increases your mental well being?Polly Wright and friends invite you to an evening of shared poetry and stories which will lift your spirits and reduce stress….

Reading for Well Being sessions and Writers Reading Group News

Reading for Well Being sessionsPolly Wright, artistic director of the Hearth Centre is running Reading for Well Being sessions at the MAC- starting on September 17th. Reading for well being is a shared reading approach in which short stories and poems are read aloud and the enjoyment is shared. Click here for detailsHurry, Hurry HurrySign…

Writers Reading Group Online at the MAC

Writers Reading Group Online at the MACSign up for our wonderful Writers’ Reading Group Online  this spring at the Midlands Arts Centre! As usual we meet fortnightly on Wednesdays , for a six week course, starting on April 21st.As it’s online- you can sign up from wherever you are in the country. Click here for full details of…

Booker Prize

Booker PrizeBreaking News! The Writers’ Reading Group has been selected to shadow the Booker Prize again for the third time!! We shadowed the International Booker and the Booker in 2018- and absolutely loved reading Vernon Subutex by Virginie Despentes and The Long Take by Robin Robertson- and now we can’t wait to rise to the…

Tales of Lockdown news

Tales of Lockdown news: Congratulations to everyone whose work has been posted on the Tales of Lockdown blog so far. Please check the three sections of Living in Times of National Emergency – Lockdown, Epidemics and War to see if we have already included your work.But to everyone who submitted pieces to the Hearth Centre’s Tales…