A unique book about an everyday seaside town is about to be launched. A Fortnight in Seaton Carew is the result of a project bringing together poets, writers and designers to capture and represent their views of Seaton Carew, a small town near Hartlepool. Cleveland Arts, an arts development charity who make art happen on Teesside, developed the project and produced the book.
The launch, on the 2nd of July at the Staincliffe Hotel on the front at Seaton Carew, will celebrate the efforts of all those involved with this creative project. Writers and poets, both established voices and new talent, each spent a day in Seaton Carew taking photographs and recording their impressions of the town. Their writings were then given to design students at the University of Teesside who produced cutting edge graphic design to accompany the text. The end product is a book that dares to be different about a town that isn’t.
The project was managed by Bob Beagrie the Literature Programme Manager at Cleveland Arts. Bob, a talented poet who contributed to the writing said,
“ The project was a real learning curve due to the number of contributors but I am really pleased with the end result, it is a stunning piece of collaborative art work.”
Readings by contributing writers, digital projections with sound effects and music by Elaine Palmer at the launch will make this an exciting event. Dougy Pincott, organiser of the Verb Garden live poetry events and himself a local poet who wrote for A Fortnight in Seaton Carew said,
“The words inspiration and Seaton Carew don’t usually go together when describing creativity but I think this book will change that perception. For many people it will have been their first piece of commissioned work and the over all quality of the book suggests it won’t be their last.”