A Paranormal Performance at The Portico Library

Quite recently the Library collaborated with Faro Productions to host the premier of their new play Apparition. It was an absolute success. With the lights dimmed, the audience awaited the performer’s emergence to the shadowy platform in apprehension. The atmosphere was ghostly and the suspense ripe.  The team did a fantastic job with effect lighting, sound and costumes, and together with the surroundings of the library they managed to evoke an eerie ambience and transported the audience back in time to a grieving family sheltered by their country house during the Second World War. Their isolation soon breeds resentments, paranoia and something altogether much darker! With two performances a night the production team did a fantastic job and watching all four performances gave me an interesting perspective on how the different audiences perceived the performances in their own ways.  I enjoyed a superb two nights and the performances provided an altered angle at which newcomers and members alike could experience the library.  

Portico Prize Preparations

Entries for the Portico Prize have been flooding in from publishers over the past few weeks, and with two £10,000 prizes being awarded this year, the competition is already proving to be fierce in both the fiction and non-fiction categories.  

Titles entered for the prize must fit two main criteria: as the prize aims to celebrate the strong regional identity of the North, including its cultural, literary and historical heritage, they must be set largely or wholly in the North of England. They must also have been published between the 31st of August 2010 and the 31st of July 2012, so as to coincide with the biennial awarding of the prize. Being open to both established as well as new authors, entrants will be made up of an intriguing mix of both new and familiar names, including Ann Cleeves, Nicky Harlow, Lynn Knight and John Champness.

As the books come in, they will be boxed up and sent on to the judges, who will receive an array of titles for their delectation. From these books they will have to perform the daunting task of deciding on the winning title. This year, Adam O’Riordan, Sarah McLennon and Arthur Bostrom will be choosing the winner of the prize for fiction, whilst Stuart Maconie, Kay Easson and Mike Rose will decide on the winning entry for the non-fiction prize.   

Entries for the Portico Prize will also be made available for members of the library.

Portico Poetry Prizes.

The library is delighted to announce full details of our new poetry competition.

There will be two awards; The Portico Poetry Prize and The Portico Young Poetry Prize. Entry for the former is £4; the latter is free.

All poems entered must be linked in some way to the works of Charles Dickens.

The Portico Poetry Prize will be judged by Mandy Coe; The Portico Young Poetry Prize will be judged by Richy Campbell, Lisa Mansell and Krishan Coupland.

The closing date for both competitions are 31st July.

For more and entry forms head over to the page entitled The Portico Poetry Prizes.