October’s Monthly Stories and Poems

October is brimming with lots of things to see and do, and so we are turning the month’s selection of Monthly Stories and Poems over to showcasing what’s available as part of our Autumn programme at The Reader. Find out What’s Happening here.

The Reader Bookshelf continues to be a key part of the year, with this month being no different. This month, we mark Black History Month in the UK by featuring an extract from The Fat Lady Sings by Jacqueline Roy and a poem by British-born Nigerian Jamaican poet Ruth Awolola from Wonder: The Natural History Museum Poetry Book. We also look forward to the start of a Deep Read from another text from the Wonder Bookshelf, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and celebrate the first International Shared Reading Conference to be held at Calderstones with a poem from Polish poet Bronislaw Maj, taken from A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology.

This month’s story choices take us on a variety of different journeys, going far into the past and also to a range of places around the world, including contemporary London, Nigeria and medieval Wales. Though the characters we meet are from distinct walks of life, with their own unique experiences and challenges, they each seek in some form or another getting closer to their hopes, dreams and ambitions, which are perhaps not quite as separate as it first seems.

October’s stories and extracts are:

Happiness in moderation (extract from The Fat Lady Sings) by Jacqueline Roy

The secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn (extract from Frankenstein) by Mary Shelley

True Happiness by Efua Traoré

Afterward by Edith Wharton

The Third Branch of The Mabinogi (extract from The Mabinogion), unknown (translated by Sioned Davies)

This time of year is one where nature, and in particular trees, capture attention, and October’s poetry selections celebrate the power of nature to bring a sense of calm meditation, as well as achievement, fruitfulness and contemplation into our lives. Maybe they’ll inspire you take notice of a singular leaf as it falls, plant some seeds of your own or simply take notice of the world around.

In hours of weariness, sensations sweet (extract from Tintern Abbey) by William Wordsworth

On Forgetting That I Am a Tree by Ruth Awolola – from Wonder: The National History Museum Poetry Book

A Leaf by Bronislaw Maj (translated by Czeslaw Milosz and Robert Hass) – from A Book of Luminous Things: An International Anthology

Labor by Baron Wormser

Putting in the Seed by Robert Frost

If you're a Reader Leader head to the Online Community Hub to download this month's selection.