Our popular Cafe Crawl takes place on Sunday, October 2 from 12-3pm. It’s a great excuse to indulge in hot milky drinks and cake, while our writers and performers entertain you with their wonderful stories.

CANTERBURY YARNERS

Bruno’s Bakes 12 noon / The Quills 1pm / Cafe@172 2pm.

Canterbury Yarners are delighted to be appearing at Rochester LitFest on Sunday 2nd October and will be reading their poems, short stories and sketches, most of which have been specially commissioned for the festival.  You’ll see them in Bruno’s Bakes at noon, The Quills at 1pm and Cafe @172 at 2pm, with a different programme to entertain you at each venue.

THE WRITERS (from bottom left, clockwise)

John O’Connor lives in the heart of rural Kent with his wife, teenage daughter and numerous animals, including a Border Collie called Whisper.  He likes to write short stories and sketches with a humorous slant and also tries his hand at crime fiction.  Last year, John was shortlisted in a national crime flash fiction competition, and is published in the CCCU anthologies.

Carole Lynch taught Psychology and worked in the NHS before writing full time. Her work has been highly commended and her short stories can be found in numerous publications. She regularly reads her work at literary festivals and has read on local radio. Carole is currently finishing a short story collection and writing a novel.

Erika Issitt grew up and was educated in Cambridge.  She moved to London and studied at St Martin’s School of Art, then later worked in advertising as a TV commercials producer. She now lives in the lovely city of Canterbury and continues to enjoy her writing as part of the Yarners.

Caroline Cannons has gained recognition in several competitions and is published online and in over a dozen anthologies, including Joe Stepped Off the Train (1889books), and most recently The Wisdom of Canute (CCCU publications).   She is a regional judge for the BBC 500 words competition and writes a monthly blog as her deluded alter-ego, Sylvia (Penscratch8309.wordpress.com).  

Emma Collins is a London girl at heart but for the last ten years she has run a pub in wonderful Whitstable.  As a flash fiction writer she has made the short list of several national competitions.  Her master plan is to give this all up when her blockbuster novel (as yet unwritten) is made into a blockbuster film.

MYTH AND MEMORY – Nancy Charley and Fiona Sinclair

The Quills, 12pm /  Cafe @172 1pm / Bruno’s Bakes 2pm 

Fiona Sinclair (right) is the editor of the online poetry magazine Message in a Bottle. Her work has been widely published. Her sixth collection, How to milk a snake, will be published this June by Lapwing Press.

Her poems deal with childhood memories, inextricably linked to specific places. As an adult, such childhood memories take on mythical status both good and bad. The poems deal with these events with frankness laced with black humour.

Nancy Charley (left) works as an archivist at the Royal Asiatic Society, London, which gives her plenty of source material. Her pamphlet, This Woman, was published in 2011 by Conversation Paperpress.

Nancy’s poems stem from her time as writer-in-residence in the Little Blue Hut, a beach hut on Tankerton Slopes. We discover the shore’s mysteries through the eyes of the Water-Watcher, a sentinel for that stretch of coast.

JOHANNA COULSON AND MAGGIE BUTT

Cafe @172 12pm / Bruno’s Bakes 1pm / The Quills 2pm

Johanna Coulson has been writing original songs for a decade and has performed at various venues across London and Kent. She is currently recording a collection of songs to be released later in the year under the name Origami Grey. A library assistant in a former life, both modern and classic literature have a huge influence on her songwriting.

Dr Maggie Butt is an ex-journalist and BBC television producer, turned poet and novelist. Her publications include five poetry collections and one novel, House of Dreams (published under the name Maggie Brookes).  A strong interest in history and war runs through her writing, with themes of human rights and the resilience of women, relieved by a healthy smattering of humour. House of Dreams (Endeavour Press 2015) is a magic-realist, time-shift romance set in 1945 and 1998.

The three groups will rotate around the cafes on the hour from 12noon, 1pm and 2pm, with Canterbury Yarners starting in Bruno’s Bakes, Myth and Memory in The Quills and Johanna and Maggie at Cafe@172.