Shortlist announced

11 authors have been included in the shortlist for our walk · listen · create annual writing competition, now in its third year. This year's theme of Walking A/way was chosen by Cheryl Markosky and Tony Horitz, our writers-in-residence. On the final Sunday of Sound Walk September, their successors will be chosen from these 11 authors, at our Write About Walking showcase of new writing to be compered by R.M.Francis.

Why 11? Rosaleen Lynch has two flash stories included in the shortlist, that appear alongside four other stories and six poems, in a beautifully illustrated anthology, that goes on sale in our shop from today. Artist and publisher, Alban Low has created several wonderful images in response to the stories and poems within the 28 page anthology - you can buy it from our online shop. So who would be your poet or prose writer-in-residence?

Authors shortlisted and their pieces (to read their pieces click on their name):

• Ricky Abbott - Nomad Possessions
• Kevin Cheeseman - Chiltern Walks No.13: Aston Rowant Reserve
• Shani Cadwallender - stump speech
• Chris Cuninghame - East of Woolwich
• Lorraine Collins - Clear Line of Sight
• Amelia Hodsdon - I Could, You Know, I Could
• Rosaleen Lynch - Turtle Houses & In the Time it Takes
• Jan Martin - Anna in the Ashes
• Isabella Mead - Carn Ingli, Mountain of Angel
• Eilín de Paor - Serenade
• Richard Westcott - The Return of the Green Man

On this sweltering weekend, with the World Cup rugby lighting up Paris in more ways than one, we have in London, the Greenwich & Dockland International Festival of Street Performance as well as Open House, in which hundreds of buildings normally closed to the public, swing open their doors for sneak views inside. We are hoping to capture some of these stories to add to the growing number of Placecloud Viewpoints - have you contributed your own as yet? We are inviting our community (that's you) to add an audio story (a Viewpoint), describing where you live or work, or perhaps your childhood home.

Since the last newsletter I wrote, several of our community have posted events for Sound Walk September, including a return of Nathania Hartley's Tapping the City, in which she glues pennies to the soles of your shoes.. Helen Ottoway’s much-anticipated Saeflod:Walking Requiem features in the Dorset Inside Out festival and Ralph Hoyte’s Colston's Last Journey, that we encountered last year in beta, launches in Bristol. Ralph acted as a poetry judge in this year’s writing competition, and he has also been busy ‘herding 17 local poets’ to contribute work for a poetry trail in the Quantocks.

We have also uncovered several sound walk events taking place during the month, but do remember if you have an event, that events are no longer eligible in the Sound Walk September Awards, only walking pieces.

A round of applause to our Sound Walk September Awards winners from last year, who met online and gave intriguing presentations of their winning sound walks at our most recent Cafe - Babak has edited the video and it's available on our Youtube channel should you have missed the live event. While we are mentioning Youtube, as registered member of our community, you can revisit all our video recorded events for free. A recent addition to the channel is a recording of Geoff Nicholson reading a chapter on Walking Away from his most recent book “Walking on Thin Air- A Life’s Journey in 99 Steps” - enjoy herehttps://youtu.be/rygZVsL8D20.

Last but not least, congratulations to Molly Wagner for hosting the first, in what we hope will be many meet-ups for Australian walking artists.

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