Dark Angels Note 145

Dearest Friends

Welcome back to our weekly Friday Note.

 

Observing

This week marks the birthday of American novelist Harper Lee (28 April 1926 – 19 February 2016).

She was given a whole year off work to focus on her writing career when her two friends gifted her a year’s salary as a Christmas present.

The result, her most notable work, To Kill A Mockingbird, was released in 1960 and won the Pulitzer Prize in 1961.

The follow-up novel, Go Set a Watchman, though written before Mockingbird, wasn’t released until 2015 amidst much controversy about her consent to its publication.

 

Listening

Notoriously shy from public life, Lee tried her best to stay out of the spotlight following the release of To Kill a Mockingbird.

Listen to a rare interview that she granted four years after the book’s release.

 

Writing

Lee referred to Watchman as the “parent of Mockingbird”. Try revisiting a previous piece of your own writing. Can you create a prelude or a sequel to it? Could you take it back in time to before the event or approach it from a different viewpoint entirely?

 

Sharing

Keep sending us your poems, writings, links and writerly whatnots that you’d like to share with the wider Dark Angels family.

 

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Diary

Words Are Seeds, 19-23 June 2023

Five days of writing, rituals and nature connection at Bore Place over the summer solstice. We’re expecting a lively, stimulating and playful experience, with plenty of time for individual pondering, wondering and wandering – and writing.

Find out more here.

 

Hearts, Inspired, 16-21 June 2023

Join us for a 5-day writing retreat on Whidbey Island, in the US Pacific Northwest. We’ll explore writing, creativity and inspiration through guided writing, personal projects and time in nature.

Find out more here.

 

Starter Day, 17 May 2023

This one-day course in central London will introduce you to some of the core ideas and practices that underpin the Dark Angels approach to writing – whether that’s writing for work or for your own creative expression.

Find out more here.

 

Weekly Tuesday Gatherings

Join us for a reflective hour of reading, writing and communing led by Neil Baker. Everyone is welcome; in fact, invite a friend along. We meet at 7pm UK time. To join us, click here on the night. There’s no need to register in advance and we’ll be using the same link every week from now on.

 

Be well, keep reading, keep writing and know that we’re always here.

From everyone at Dark Angels