Newport Writers - A Second Anthology of Poetry & Prose BLOG TOUR @NewportWriters @RandomTTours #BookReview

 

Where else would you find sinister metal detectorists sharing space with a woman who talks to herself? 

Newport Writers present their second anthology of short stories and poetry for your entertainment. 

Characters range from the newborn to the elderly – and a few cats.

 Take a bus ride with Death, fly in a Spitfire, visit ancient Egyptians, a manicurist, some fairies and a 21st Century witch. 

Learn why you should listen to your mother. 

Take a futuristic gym workout. 

All of this without leaving the comfort of your sofa…

Newport Writers : A Second Anthology of Poetry & Prose was published on 03 March 2024. My thanks to the group who sent my copy for review as part of this #RandomThingsTours Blog Tour 

I read and reviewed the Newport Writers first anthology back in November 2021, and was really looking forward to dipping into more works from this incredibly talented group of authors. 

There are eighteen contributors to this anthology, some of them have just one piece, others have many, but each and every one of them have their own individual unique style, and just like their first anthology, I have enjoyed dipping in and out of this book.  I didn't it from start to finish, I picked out what I thought I was in the mood for at the time, and for me, this is the beauty of an anthology written by a wide group of writers. 

I'm not a poetry expert by any means, and I can't really say exactly what the poems were meant to tell me, but I can say that I enjoyed them all. I so admire the ability of writers of poetry to create such a story with so few words, I especially loved the simplicity and tenderness of 'Listen Before You Go' by Carys Browning. 

Each of the writers has their own introduction, letting us know a little about themselves and their background and I honestly feel that this adds such a lot to their work. So often, we imagine an author and then when we actually see them, or read about them, they are nothing at all as we imagined! 

Once more, as with the first anthology, this is a collection to savour, to dip into and to discover. 

Newport Writers Group was formed by Tony Lawrence in 2017 and is still going strong. It would take more than a pandemic to put us out of action. During that time we met on Zoom, and on a few occasions congregated outdoors in Bellevue Park and braved the onslaught of small children on scooters. Then for a year or so courtesy of Tin Shed theatre group we met in a disused shop in Newport until another business claimed it.

Now we are back at the Riverfront Theatre, meeting every second Saturday morning. Members have come and gone, but we still number more than twenty. We share our work by reading aloud, offering each other constructive feedback. And when the tables are arranged in accordance with local ley lines we know it’s going to be a pretty random couple of hours.

Three years later, here we are with a second anthology which we trust you will find thought provoking and enjoyable. 

X (formerly Twitter): @NewportWriters