Anna Meryt
Anna Meryt has been writing poetry all her life and had her first poem – about the Vietnam War – published in her convent school magazine in Wales. She has had many single poems published in anthologies, including The West In Her Eye, and Her Mind's Eye (ed. Rachel Lever 1995), Highgate Poet's anthology (Feb 2014) and The Book of Love and Loss ed. June Hall (Sept 2015) are the most recent. Various other poems have been published in poetry magazines most recent The Dawn Treader Dec 2015.
Featured Publication
Writing Memoir - how to write a story from your life
Writing​ Memoir
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In this book you’ll discover
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Whether you really want to write a memoir?
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Perhaps you’ve already begun? Where do you go from here? How do you plan to reach the end?
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Or you haven’t started yet, but something happened to you and you know it’ll make an interesting story?
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Or a series of things happened to you that are unusual, shocking, historical or unique?
You want some support and guidance to get you from start to finish? The chapters are comprehensive – all you’ll need to get started, plan your memoir and deal with any issues re memoir writing. Throughout the book I give short exercises to get you practicing the key points in the chapter you’ve just read.
Anna's Podcasts - want to know about writing memoir?
Anna has been a performance poet for many years and is a member of Highgate Poets, a very active poetry group in North London. In 2011 she won first prize in the Lupus International poetry competition for her poem Bulawayo – about her birth place. Her first poetry collection was published in 2013 - Heartbroke. Dolly Mix - her second collection was published in 2014.
She published her first book in Sept 2015 – a memoir set in South Africa in the 1970s, where she lived for a few years, titled A Hippopotamus at The Table - available on Amazon
Have a look at her blog and do leave comments: www.ameryt.com they will be read and replied to you by email.
Anna's Memoir - A Hippopotamus at the Table
This is a true story - a memoir set in Cape Town 1975. A young woman, with her husband and baby travelled to South Africa in 1975 at a time when apartheid was at its height.
Their journey took them from a high rise apartment in Johannesburg, to a chicken farm and then a thousand miles across the Karoo to Cape Town. There they lived for over two years at a time of growing social unrest against the rigid strictures of the apartheid system.
Her husband’s work as an actor took him touring from Cape Town to the townships and into major roles in innovative theatre.
Her journey became a spiritual quest to make sense of the world in which she found herself, a world where black and white mingled but were kept apart.
This is a story of a young family living in those times in South Africa. The effects of apartheid crept up on them until two tragedies drove them to realise that continuing to live there had become untenable.
The government of the time was clamping down, enforcing rigid censorship and the separation of people.
It was the children of the townships who fermented the riots of 1976, rebelling against the oppressive rules of a hateful system. The murders of these children resulted in a huge outcry across the world. Censorship kept that largely hidden from many of the people who lived there.
Book Launch @ The Big Green Book Shop
Excerpt from 'A Hippopotamus at the Table:
Waiting at the reception desk to check in, I saw the toilet signs for the first time, in both Afrikaans and English – Blanke Dames (White Ladies), Nie Blanke Vrou (Non-White Females)
… the first time I had to go, I stood outside, hesitating, feeling that by choosing one I was accepting their distinction.
Anna's Poetry - Dolly Mix & Heart Broke
Dolly Mix
A Take Your Pick Poetry Collection
Dolly Mix is Anna Meryt's second collection of poetry and as the title suggests it's a mixture of poems, written over the last 10-15 years.
They are all poems that have been performed at Spoken Word venues and found to be popular by audiences.
They are funny, sad and cover a range of topics - from shopping, to travel, to childhood - everyday topics that we can all relate to for entertainment.
Many of these poems have also been published in various anthologies and magazines.
Anna Meryt performing poetry from 'Dolly Mix' & 'Heart Broke' at the Finchley Literary Festival 2015
Heart Broke
If you have experienced loss or grief due to a relationship ending, no matter how it came about. This collection of poems is for you.
Review by Gold Dust Magazine
Who is there who hasn't at sometime heard words to the effect, 'There are no guide books for relationships'? Well, one may now exist in Heart Broke by Anna Meryt.
Stop right there if you are imagining another insipid volume of gut wrenching love poems. Rather imagine a strong woman who is undefeated by loss, a survivor... (cue Gloria Gaynor).
Read a copy of the full review here