Season's Greetings

 Season's Greetings and best wishes to you for 2023.

                                                                              J.S.

Did You Miss It?

J.S. talked to the award winning Leigh Chambers, on Leigh's Cambridge 105 Radio morning show, about
her new poetry collection Underword. She even read two of the poems from the collection: It Is Like Breathing and Bartlow Hills. The programme was broadcast live last Friday. Did you miss it?

Don't worry, you can listen to the broadcast by clicking below and hear J.S. reading the two poems in question, as well as talking to Leigh.

Leigh Chambers: J.S.Watts

Other December News

The Royston Crow has published a brief article to celebrate the publication of J.S.Watts' new poetry collection, Underword.

Meanwhile, The High Window has published two reviews by J.S. One is of Hubert Moore's twelfth poetry collection, Country of Arrival. The other considers Across a Sheet of Paper, a selection of German poems translated by Christine McNeill.

Click on the above links to read the article or the two reviews.

Full Stop At The End Of The World

J.S. Watts' dark, new story, Full Stop At The End Of The World, is available to read for free at Idle Ink. Described by the online magazine as "Horror", "Surreal" and "Weird Fiction" you can find it here if you feel strong enough.

The Word is "Underword"

Underword, J.S. Watts' third full poetry collection (and fifth poetry book) is now out in the big, wide world.

You can buy a copy from this website, via Amazon or from the book's publisher, Lapwing Publications.

Want to know more?

In an age where we can talk about anything, we remain reticent about death. It is an integral, complex, unavoidable part of life, the one guaranteed thing all of us will experience, but it remains our final taboo. Underword is a poetry collection that is not afraid to examine death from many angles and viewpoints. Loosely following the narrative flow of the story of Orpheus, the poems of Underword explore life, dying, death, mourning, moving on, hell and the afterlife, hope, disintegration and despair, and endings. Death is as limitless and as limiting as life. Its stories are many.

A Winter's Tale

J.S. will be one of the authors reading new writing inspired by lines from The Winter's Tale. Come and listen to them at St. John's College, Cambridge or via Zoom. See bit.ly/futurekaraoke for attendance information.

London Buses

 It seems published poems come along like London buses, which is appropriate as J.S.'s poem Urban Pulse can be found in issue 67 of The Journal.

In The Hundreds

J.S, is really pleased to have a new poem in celebratory issue 100 of Obsessed With Pipework and, Stateside, to have a new poem in issue 122 of Dreams and Nightmares.

Illumen Autumn 2022

 Including poetry by J.S.Watts.

                                

Celebrating National Poetry Day

Poetry reading at Baldock Library on National Poetry Day, Thursday 6th October from 3.30pm

Underword

Underword, J.S.Watts' third full poetry collection and fifth poetry publication, is due to be published by Lapwing Publications in Winter 2022.

In an age where we can talk about anything, we remain reticent about death. It is an integral, complex, unavoidable part of life, the one guaranteed thing all of us will experience, but it remains our final taboo. Underword is a poetry collection that is not afraid to examine death from many angles and viewpoints. Loosely following the narrative flow of the story of Orpheus, the poems of Underword explore life, dying, death, mourning, moving on, hell and the afterlife, hope, disintegration and despair, and endings. Death is as limitless and as limiting as life. Its stories are many.

Please keep an eye on this website for further details as the publication date gets closer.

Monkey Night at the Circus

J.S. is exceedingly pleased that Monkey Night at the Circus (first published in issue 103 of Acumen) has been chosen as a guest poem on the Acumen website.

You can read it, for a little while at least, by clicking here.

Where The Owls Blossom

"Where the Owls Blossom" is dark, short story by J.S.Watts. It was published by Pressfuls Digipress last year as part of their Wild Genus anthology, but for some reason didn't seem to get much of an announcement. 

So, to make amends, here is "Where The Owls Blossom". You can read it online by clicking here 

Interviewed With a Fountain Pen

J.S. Watts has recently been interviewed by West Country based, award winning writer, Annalisa Crawford.

If you want know how J.S. approaches a new writing project, what she has to have with her in order to write and why her most recent novel, "Elderlight" had a very unfortunate launch, you should pop over to Annalisa's blog, "Blogging With My Fountain Pen", to read the interview.

Oundle Fringe Festival

 

J. S. Watts – My Writing Life

Saturday 9 July 2022

As part of Oundle Fringe Festival, poet and novelist J.S.Watts talks candidly about her journey to becoming a published author, with lessons learned and pointers for would-be writers, along with readings from her poetry and novels.

Oundle Library, 12:00 midday.

Oundle Library is in Glapthorn Road, Oundle, Northamptonshire, PE8 4JA.

Royston Arts Festival - Poetry Competition 2022

J.S. Watts and fellow Cambridgeshire-based poet, Jude Simpson are co-judging the 2022 Royston Arts Festival Poetry Competition. The competition is free to enter and is open to residents of Royston and the surrounding villages in North Hertfordshire and South Cambridgeshire.

Full details, rules and entry forms can be found on the Festival website. Check them out. The deadline for entries is Sunday 14th August.

Strawberry Fair 2022

STOP PRESS - J.S. will be performing some of her poems at Strawberry Fair, Cambridge on Saturday 11th June. She will be appearing on the Wild Strawberries Stage at approximately 3.30pm.

This is My Monkey

J.S. is very pleased to have a brand new poem in the May 2022 edition of Acumen, issue 103. The poem is called Monkey Night at the Circus. You will need to buy Acumen to read the poem, but here's a photo of J.S. with the magazine.

Elderlight Sight and Sound - Part II

 

Here is J.S. reading the concluding excerpt from Chapter 1 of her novel Elderlight, the third and final book in her urban fantasy Witchlight Series.  For further details check out the Books Section of this website.

Elderlight - Sight and Sound

Here's an opportunity to hear J.S. read an excerpt from Chapter 1 of her novel Elderlight, the third and final book in her Witchlight Series. Keep an eye open for the concluding video on this website or head over to YouTube if you can't wait.

Herts Book Festival 7th - 8th May 2022

J.S. will be in conversation with John Tarrow (the creative mind behind Talliston House and Gardens) talking about myth and magic in their work at the Hertford event on Saturday, 7th May at 2.30pm. J.S. will also be present at the author market in Hertford Castle from approximately 11am to 4pm on the same day. Signed copies of her books will be available. For more details visit http://hertsbookfestival.org 

Changes in Spring

 

J.S has a brand new story out in the Spring issue of The Lorelei Signal. The story is called Changes and it's a story with bite. You can read it for free by clicking on the link below or you can check out all the stories in the April - June 22 issue of The Lorelei Signal by going here

Changes by J.S.Watts

An isolated, snow-bound colony of scientists has become used to living with and studying the changes brought about by the First Great Cataclysm, but the changes are about to make a dramatic change of their own and things are going to become horrifically personal, especially for one young scientist in particular.

The accompanying stunning Artwork is by Marge Simon.

Looking for a Little Witchery?

For those of you intent on seeking out witchery, J.S. has recommended five favourite books that deal with witches and witchcraft in very different ways. You can find her recommendations over on the Shepherd site, where you will also find a wide range of intriguing book recommendations from a broad variety of authors. 

J.S.'s own Witchlight, the first novel in her praised Witchlight series (Witchlight, Old Light, Elderlight), also gets a mention.

Lothlorien Poetry Journal Volume 7 in Paperback

Volume 7 is now out in print format: a 250 page feast of over 60 brilliant poets and fiction writers, including five poems by J.S Watts first published online by Lothlorien.

For further details go to Lulu 

An Eventful February II

 This is the first of the February events:

An Eventful February

 J.S. has a couple of events coming up in February. This is one of them:

Welcome 2022

As we edge tentatively and a tad nervously into 2022, J.S. is gradually accumulating a variety of events for the year (COVID permitting, of course). If you want know where J.S. will be performing or reading, or if you want check her availability for your own event, please just pop over to the Events page of this website.