Writing Speculative Fiction

Writer Damien G. Walter leads two linked courses exploring the the weird world of speculative fiction. An introduction for fans of the genre and a first step to breaking into the industry for advanced students.

Writing Speculative Fiction (1)
(fantasy, science fiction and horror)
Speculative fiction is one of the most popular genres in commercial publishing, with millions of readers worldwide and a massive influence over films, television and video games. This course will introduce the history and development of the genre from its early days in pulp magazines to its future on the internet. Teaching and exercises will introduce key elements of speculative fiction writing including the skills of originating ideas and world-building. Students will be introduced to workshopping and given constructive feedback on their own writing.
5 sessions from 22nd April – £50

Writing Speculative Fiction (2)
(breaking into the industry)
This course will give more advanced students the skills and knowledge they need to break into the speculative fiction industry. Teaching and workshop sessions will guide students through the process of completing a finished short story or novel proposal and submitting it to agents and publishers. The course will cover advanced ideas in speculative fiction, and give students a knowledge of the industry including details on leading editors and strategies for developing a reputation in the field.
5 sessions from 3rd June – £50

For full details please see the Writing School Leicester website

Will Self speaks in Oundle

Will Self’s latest novel, The Butt, is an uncomfortable and disturbing allegory of the liberal West in the post-9/11 era. When Tom Brodzinski finally decides to give up smoking during a family holiday in a weird, unnamed land, a moment’s inattention becomes his undoing. Flipping the butt of his last cigarette off the balcony of the holiday apartment, it lands on the head of the elderly Reggie Lincoln, and burns him. Despite Brodzinski’s liberal attitudes and good intentions, the local authorities treat his action as an assault. Soon the full weight of the courts and tribal custom is brought to bear. What follows is a journey through a fantastically distorted world, a country that is part Australia, part Iraq and entirely the heart of distinctively modern darkness.

Will Self will be speaking at St Peter’s Church, Oundle as part of the Oundle Festival of Literature’s extended programme.

Tickets are priced at £8 (£7 concessions) and are available from Oundle Tourist Information Centre (Tel: 01832 274333).

Sponsored by Julie Buck from Mater

Kate Adie speaks in Oundle

Kate Adie, who has undoubtedly found herself in some uncomfortably tight spots, has long been fascinated by those who live in these tight spots with relative comfort and ease.  Her book Into Danger is the fascinating result of her worldwide research into these individuals and explores their motives in choosing jobs that could put them directly into danger or even jeopardise their lives. From missionaries to gangsters, all Kate’s subjects are striking individuals with an inner strength and conviction that makes them inherently interesting. Grippingly told and with the wit, insatiable curiosity and sharp insight which are the hallmarks of Kate Adie’s writing, Into Danger is a fearless exploration of the furthest reaches of human capability.

Kate Adie will be speaking at the Oundle School Chapel as part of the Oundle Festival of Literature’s extended programme.

Tickets are priced at £10 and are available from Oundle Tourist Information Centre (Tel: 01832 274333).

My Place or Yours

Apples & Snakes launches online poets’ residency MyPlaceorYours.org.uk

Apples & Snakes, the UK’s leading organisation for performance poetry, has launched an innovative blog that connects poets directly with an online audience as they write new work – http://www.myplaceoryours.org.uk

Four young and emerging poets, each taking a writer in residence post in different parts of England, are posting their work-in-progress on to the blog. Online users are invited to comment on the work and suggest further ideas that could be explored. For each poet this will culminate in the creation of a 20 minute commission.

Hip-hop artist Rukus in Derby is investigating youth, territory and identity – and what happens when our physical and mental locations fail to correspond.

London poet Jay Bernard is following the seasons on allotments in London and Oxford, charting the mood and movement of a rural microcosm in an urban environment.

In Bristol, Byron Vincent is writing about the contrasting environments of the ethnically diverse area of St Pauls and the wealth on display at the new shopping centre Cabots Circus

Emma McGordon is writing about the experience of homelessness on the Cumbrian coast.

Each writer is also being mentored and receiving critical feedback online from a team of experienced literature professionals – including an editor, producer, writer and festival artistic director.

Geraldine Collinge, director of Apples & Snakes: “Just as in a performance poetry event, the audience are the essential ingredient alongside the artists. This is an opportunity to stretch the writers involved to create their very best work and to set a challenge for the future of performance poetry.”

BBC Poetry Season

Spring 2009 sees the launch of a landmark commitment to literature with a pan-BBC season dedicated to poetry.

Some of the nation’s best loved poets and celebrities will take part in a season of content across television, radio and online exploring the far-reaching and compelling world of poetry.

Griff Rhys Jones launches the Poetry Season on BBC Two with a passionate plea about Why Poetry Matters – how verse has the power to move and why everybody needs it.

Also on BBC Two, Lifelines explores the rich terrain of British poetry from Milton to Shakespeare through the eyes of Malorie Blackman, Shelia Hancock, Cerys Mathews and Robert Webb; and Off By Heart follows primary school children across the country as they take part in a nationwide recitation competition, culminating in a grand final, compered by Jeremy Paxman.

BBC Four will feature a groundbreaking series A Poet’s Guide To Britain presented by Owen Sheers, in which he explores six great works of poetry about the British landscape; and Ian Hislop welcomes the new Poet Laureate with an entertaining history of one of the oldest and, he argues, oddest offices in the British establishment.

BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of Alfred Lord Tennyson, while The Essay – A Laureate’s Life, also on Radio 3, offers five personal takes on the role of Poet Laureate from around the world and Radio 4 will showcase its second Poetry Slam competition, following on from its hit 2007 contest.

Online activity will include a competition to elect the Nation’s Favourite Poet which will be announced on National Poetry Day in early October; plus the Poetry Season’s dedicated website will feature a poetry search engine to find poems for any occasion or mood.

George Entwistle, Controller, Knowledge Commissioning, BBC Vision, says: “The Poetry Season offers viewers an accessible and fascinating insight into verse; there really is something for everyone.

“The UK has a fine poetic tradition. We hope this season, the BBC’s fantastic accompanying online offering, and the other initiatives with the likes of the Poetry Society will inspire and motivate people to reacquaint themselves with the poetry greats. In addition it may also inspire them to discover their own poetic voice.”

The BBC is working closely with external partners on the season including the Poetry Society, the Poetry Archive and National Poetry Day.

Red Shed Readings Open Poetry Competition

Deadline: 30 Apr 2009 – international
Michael Yates, Poet and Playwright will be the sole adjudicator for this competition. Prizes 1st – £100 2nd – £50 3rd – £25 read more…

Leicester Casuals – April Fools

For anyone who wishes to take part in April Fools, we’re going to have weekly meetings on Sundays except on Easter Day, the second Sunday, which is when we’d normally have the meeting. As such, anyone who doesn’t want to come every week, but does want to come to the monthly meeting, we’ll have it on April 19th.

Sunday April 5th (April Fools meeting)
Sunday April 19th (Main meeting)
Sunday April 26th (April Fools meeting)

All at 2pm – 3:30pm

Coffee Republic
20-22 Granby Street
Leicester LE1 1DE
(upstairs round on the left)

The month’s challenge for April is this: There is an encounter between two people of different religions, or between someone who is religious and someone who is not. Write what happens, and their attitudes to each other. What do they say to each other? What to they keep to themselves?

If you’ve written something for the challenge, please feel free to bring it along and read it out, though of course you don’t have to if you don’t want to.

Short Story Competition – Making a New Home

The old battered suitcase was tucked way under the bed, as I dragged it out the dust tickled my nostrils. The latches were rusted and stiff but my patience paid off when they suddenly sprang open to reveal treasures I had long forgotten about. I picked up the brightly coloured parcels that were wrapped in pieces of torn sari, already a tusk poked through the bright greens and reds. As I unwrapped the treasure, childhood memories came flooding back of playing with these beautifully carved wooden animals.

Does this sound familiar? Are you Asian and of East African descent? Were you expelled from Uganda? Did you flee Kenya in search of a new life?  Where are you living now, how has your life changed? What did you bring with you, what makes those memories come flooding back? You can tell us about your journey or just a snippet. We would like to hear your story in 2000 words or less.

The prizes are as follows;
1st Prize  £300
2nd Prize  £150
3rd Prize £50

Your story must be 2000 words or less, typed in English in a Word.doc format, double spaced and in a 11pt font size as an attachment to an email or can be posted to the address below.

Only original work is acceptable and must be previously unpublished.

Include your name, address and contact phone number as well as your email address.

Entrance is open to anyone worldwide aged 16 and above.

Entry to the competition and acceptance of any prize constitutes permission to use the winning entries in future Kala Kahani or Charnwood Arts publications or online.

The closing date for entries is 31st May 2009

Email entries to info@kalakahani.co.uk

Postal entries to Rebecca Abrahams, Kala Kahani Project, Charnwood Arts, 31 Granby Street, Loughborough, Leicestershire. LE11 3DU

5th Derbyshire Readers Day

The  5th Derbyshire Readers Day organised by Derbyshire  County Council  Library Service offers  a mix of author sessions, writing workshops and discussion groups. Featured authors are Tibor Fischer, Gaynor Arnold, Kate Colquhoun, Lydia Syson and Derbyshire’s Poet Laureate, River Wolton.   Games, quizzes, book stall, book swop. Bring a packed lunch and join us.  A day for everybody who loves books , writing   and reading.
Brochure and booking form available  to  download
Tickets still available!

Date: Saturday 4th April ,  2009

Venue :  County Hall, Matlock, DE4 3AG

Time:  9.30am – 4 pm.

Cost: £10  (includes tea and  coffee, but not lunch)

Contact details: Claire Bosworth, Derbyshire County Council Arts Team, 01773 831385, arts.team@derbyshire.gov.uk

Finding Words for the Forest

From tree to word to memory:

o A day of short walks, with readings of John Clare’s poetry
o Quiet time, to explore personal responses to the forest
o An opportunity to write, and to share thoughts

Patrick Bond, ex-forest worker and published poet, will lead the day:

“We will take inspiration from John Clare’s sonnets, written in the 1830′s for his collection The Midsummer Cushion, not published till the 1970′s. Clare still speaks to us of how we relate to the land and to special places like Fineshade Wood, how memories give us meaning, and how the beauty of nature is in the detail, and in our ability to see it clearly.”

Saturday 28th March 2009, 11.00 a.m. to 5.00 p.m.  Forestry Commission, Top Lodge, Fineshade Wood, near Stamford.   Cost £12 (conc. £8), £18 couples.  For further details and to book a place, please phone Patrick Bond 07932-141918.  Email: patrickgpbond@yahoo.co.uk.

Future dates: Saturday 30th May and Saturday 25th July at Fineshade Wood, and at Salcey Forest on 18th April, 18th July and 26th September. Contact Patrick for further details.

The Forestry Commission protects Britain’s forests and woodlands, conserving and improving the biodiversity of this important national resource. The Commission aims to improve landscape and the cultural heritage of our forests, actively working to promote community involvement and recreation.

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