Josephine Lay - Publications - Novels & Short Stories
Saffron Tones
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By Josephine Lay
Josephine Lay’s short stories focus on the human condition. This collection is all about people, their relationships and how they cope with loneliness and loss. Some of her stories are light and amusing, some darker and sadder, and some are frankly strange. They were written over a period of ten years, yet all have a thread that strings them together; a slim strand of colour… The many tones of Saffron.
The Short Story has, in the past, been less fashionable than the Novel, but it is gaining popularity in this frenetic, modern world, where people have less and less time to read. As Silas Marne says, ‘The world has accelerated; people, no longer have the time to read pages and pages of literary eloquence.
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Josephine Lay – Biography
The last two years of my life have been totally inspirational. I have been writing for over 20 years but I started focusing on poetry in 2018 after two consecutive accidents and periods of concussion. Unable to concentrate for extreme periods of time, I abandoned writing novels and found an outlet for expression in this more concise form of literature. I have two collections of poetry published by ‘Black Eyes’; ‘Inside Reality’ and ‘Unravelling’
I embrace both page and performance poetry; Anna Saunders, (CEO of the Cheltenham Poetry Festival) a good friend and mentor, says I straddle between the two; a bit ungainly but truthful. I live midway between Gloucester and Cheltenham and enjoy the differing qualities of both places, both cultures.
I thrive on diversity; I love to read page poetry but also, I enjoy listening to performance poets as well. Personally, I don't see a clear-cut boundary between the two arts. I feel it is more like a gradation of different skills; a spectrum ranging from spoken word, to the page poem. This wide range of poetic skill encompasses; flash fiction, prose poetry, confessional poetry on mental health issues and abuse, therapeutic rants, rap, slam poetry/spoken word, performance poets and, of course, the beautifully written words on the page.
Near perfection, for me, is a skilfully created page poem perfectly performed by the poet. Personally, all types of poetic skill can be considered worthy, provided that each creative writer/performer seeks to polish, improve and perfect their skills as much as possible.
It’s this reason that makes my second passion so rewarding; I love to host events; to run monthly poetry nights, I enjoy seeking out new talent and offering those poets the chance to perform before supportive and appreciative audiences. I run such a monthly event, ‘Squawkers’ at ‘The Sober Parrot’ Cheltenham, on the 3rd Friday of each month. I also enjoy promoting poetry in the community and I am, at present, ‘Poet in Residence at Cheltenham Library. I have worked in Libraries and enjoy connecting with the public especially children. While running workshops I have become heartened and amazed at the levels of talent in many young children.
My third love is helping out as Creative Adviser for ‘Black Eyes Publishing UK’. At Black Eyes we seek to help talented people get their words published at a reasonable cost to themselves. This is especially satisfying when the book we publish is the poet’s first collection.
At the start of 2020 I had the honour of being asked if I would take over the running of the Gloucestershire Poetry Society, by its then, director and founder Z.D. Dicks aka Ziggy The Poet. Naturally, I accepted.
Josephine Lay (February 2020)
