Crossroads

There was a very apt quote in the  pamphlet of winning entries for this year's Gloucestershire Writers Network competition - Flannery O'Connor's words "The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location."

The overall theme of the Literature Festival here this year was "Defining Moments" and on Sunday evening at the "locally sourced" event it was fascinating to see how different competition entrants had responded to the challenge of writing about "Crossroads" in their poetry and prose. Short stories spanned everything from the unexpected outcome of a driving test to the horror of lynchings in the American Deep South; poems encompassed villanelles and blank verse sonnets. A very good evening - and it was lovely to be a participant in it.