The Latest News From Catherine Chanter
A breathless resurrection
A breathless resurrection Almost at the top pause breathe on again. Fallen trees, narrow path, steep breathing hard. Sharp air. Snow still iced and white between the leaves. Breathtaking the view from the top. Here, the...
Birr Writers’ Residency Award
Thanks to the Birr Writers'Residency funded by Offaly Arts Office, I will have the opportunity in October to spend a week at Brendan House in the Centre of Birr, in Ireland. This Georgian Heritage Town has a remarkable history and a community with a thriving arts...
Reflections on the wonders of belonging to a Poetry Group
Twelve years ago, I moved house, leaving a lot behind, not least my book club. I decided to take the opportunity to try something new, partly because at that stage I did not want the commitment of reading a lengthy novel every month, but I did still want the chance...
On a recent visit to Ireland, I took the boat over Lough Corrib to the Isle of Inchagoill to see the remains of the chapel of St Patrick, said to date from the 6th Century. As is so often the case in Ireland, for every place there is a story and that of Tommie Levin,...
A Turkish Perspective
One of the greatest pleasures of writing and publishing The Well has been to see how it is read, received and interpreted differently in other countries. I remember arriving on a book tour in Italy shortly after there had been a referendum on the privatisation of...
Reading. Writing.
When I am fully immersed in writing – and this is perhaps particularly true of writing fiction – I find it hard to read anything with a serious level of attention. Sometimes it’s a case of self-confidence as almost nothing I write seems as good as someone else’s...
The launch for A Child in the Middle.
On Friday 8th July, 2022 A Child in the Middle was officially welcomed into the world. As well as fellow writers, family and old friends, a large number of colleagues from the world of mental health, adoption and education attended The Old Fire Station in Oxford for a...
Planning a launch for A Child in the Middle: a time to say thank you
To set in motion. To send something out into the world, such as a ship into the ocean, or a rocket into space. We don't talk about launching babies, but there are times in a child's life where it feels as though launch could be the right verb. When they start...
Poetry and A Child in the Middle
This is one of the many poems which appears in A Child in the Middle. I kept my own 'poetry diary' of my search for my birth parents, only to discover - when I finally met my mother - that she, too, was a poet and her work is included as well. Write about an...
Fear, hope, loss, birth
Last summer we spent a week in France with a couple who had spent a long time trying to get pregnant. It is something I come across on a professional basis all the time, reading how prospective adopters have had to come to terms with their multiple losses through...