Things that have interested me

Things that have interested me this week.

St Donard festival, Co Down.
Poets and photographers.
Theme: Elements - lots of scope for interpretation there.
Deadline: June 6, 2008.
Prizes: in each category £100, £50 or £25
Winners will be announced and work displayed at the launch of the St Donard Festival, Elements Exhibition on June 20, 2008 at 5.00 pm in Newcastle Library

Submit by email: elements@onlineni.net
Or, post disk to Newcastle Library Main Street, Newcastle, BT33 0AE
One photograph, or, poem to a maximum of 20 lines, will be accepted per person.

A few stories about Andrew Motion (me and Andy, we're like 'this') coming to the end of his decade as the poet laureate and maybe it's time to get a woman poet in there for the first time. He's done good job on increasing the profile of poetry, particularly concentrating on education and exposure to poetry in schools.

And another article about reading and writing blurbs.
Can you write your own for a well known book?
Commonly used vocabularly: 'learns/knows otherwise' 'rollercoaster of --------' (fill in the blank) 'wacky,' 'zany,' 'feisty' (always a girl. can boys be feisty?) 'action packed' 'hilarious/unforeseen consequences' 'heartfelt and life affirming' (like it needs affirming?) 'mesmerising' (hard to read if you're in a trance)

And lots of rhetorical questions:
But who is the mysterious stranger riding into town?
Will Tracy find out the truth before it's too late? (yes)
Why does Hans always wear leather pants?

New words recently added to the Oxford Dictionary. Twonk