The rise and rise of creative writing courses

Ross Bradshaw asks if creative writing courses give their students an advantage in becoming published.
Read more

Writing Industries Conference 2010

Saturday 6th March 2010, Loughborough University
A Literature Network, Writing East Midlands
and Loughborough University project.

http://writingindustries.com

Twitter #wic2010

The second Writing Industries Conference will be held on Saturday 6th March at Loughborough University. The conference will bring together writers from across the East Midlands with professionals from the writing industries to share knowledge, develop skills and forge new contacts. 200 writers from the region will have the opportunity to hear from and meet with professionals from the writing industries in a variety of settings:

• Agents and editors in one-to-one sessions with selected writers, giving advice and support in their area of expertise.
• Panel discussions exploring specific areas of writing, from breaking into commercial publishing to working in the community.
• Writing industries fair featuring stalls from local publishers, funders and other organisations involved with the writing industries.
• And of course there will be plenty of opportunity to meet and talk with other writers over a coffee.

The full programme including details of how to apply for agent one-to-ones will be announced soon.

EARLY BIRD TICKET OFFER
The first Writing Industries Conference sold out soon after tickets went on sale. This year we are have increased the number of tickets available and are offering an early bird price of £34 (Full price £42) – availability limited.

***UPDATE***

Early bird tickets have now sold out! Full price tickets now available.

Buy tickets online here

If you have any questions regarding WIC 2010 or would like further information please contact:

Catherine Rogers
catherine@writingeastmidlands.co.uk

The Six Perils of Writing Workshops

Writing workshops help make writers. But are they always constructive? Read more

Comedy Writing Workshop

Develop your comedy writing skills with acclaimed comic and performance poet Rob Gee.  Monday, 30th November 2009 Nottingham Central Library, 10am – 4pm.

This FREE workshop will give writers of all levels the chance to explore comedy writing in depth. Participants will be guided through the process of developing their own comedy ideas, learn tips for developing plot lines and characters, and receive feedback on any work currently in progress.

Rob Gee is a performance poet, comic, workshop leader and reformed psychiatric nurse., combining comedy and literature in his live act. Fast, furious and very funny, Rob uses inventive wordplay, whiplash couplets and motored rhythm to tap into the world of chaos and adventure that lurks behind the veneer of everyday life!

Book early to avoid disappointment! This is a FREE event and places are limited. To book your place visit the Ground Floor Helpdesk of Nottingham Central Library or call 0115 915 2824. For further information contact Kate Wilkinson on 0115 915 1170 or email kate.wilkinson@nottinghamcity.gov.uk (Wed and Thurs).

Poetry Workshop

The Study, Nottingham Contemporary
5:30 pm – 7:00 pm
Three Thursdays, December
Nottingham Contemporary presents a poetry workshop to accompany the exhibition of the work of David Hockney and Frances Stark. Over three 1.5-hour meetings, writers will create new poems; explore readings of texts by writers whose work influences Hockney and Stark; read work by Frances Stark and other writers who blur genres and boundaries in their writing; and discuss such topics as ekphrasis, collage, hybridity, fragmentation, form, line, and pastiche. We will spend time in the galleries talking about the Hockney and Stark exhibitions and responding to the work of each artist.

Each workshop will begin with a writing exercise, include a short lecture, and incorporate peer critique, revision strategies, and discussion of the texts (visual and literary).

Instructor: Éireann Lorsung. Enrolment is capped at 8. Three 1.5-hour workshops, £25/£15 concessions.

The Kidnapped Carrots of Cambridge

A review of Carrot Knappers, a play by Keith Large read at the ADC Theatre

by Daniel Ribot

Sunday, November 8th: It was a clash of the leviathans. Chelsea and Manchester United, the only two teams who can now reasonably win the league, met for a kickabout. They are two of the only four teams that ever win anything in the English Premier League. The top four have the most money, the best players, the greatest clout with referees. Just occasionally, however, smaller teams are cute and smart enough to beat them. Rarer still are the minnows who grab some silverware from under the noses of the four-team establishment.

As with football, the arts are similarly divided by rank, influence and wealth. On Sunday the 8th, however, Leicestershire outsiders travelled to an away fixture in Cambridge. Keith Large, top Loughborough writer, had won the rare accolade of having his 45 minute play, Carrot Nappers, read by professional actors at the legendary ADC theatre (erstwhile lair of the Cambridge Mafia). Keith took his team –including my good self– down to the performance. He even brought cake for everyone!

Carrot Nappers is that rare thing in modern British theatre: a no-holds-barred, unapologetic ‘Carry-On’ style farce. The plot involves the theft of a 17-foot prize-winning carrot from an allotment. Vegilante Vinnie, the security guard who failed to protect the lengthy vegetable, plots to get it back. With the help of his third-best girlfriend Lisa and the allures of the allotment’s “love-shed”, they set a honey-trap for the main suspect; the devious and amorous Onionhead. Acted with gusto, the vegetable-themed puns and snappy one-liners just kept on coming.

In the end, Onionhead (Steve Kantor) lost his trousers and the play’s director (Francesca Brown) making an appearance as the carrot itself, returned to Vinny (Gary Mooney), Lisa (Genevieve Cleghorn) and his pal Albert (Tim Waterfield) — who gets the girl in the end. Fabulous stuff.

The readings were organized by the Write On! Cambridge scriptwriting forum. An annual  competition selects the best script submissions and performs them in front of an audience. This year, Naked Stage 09 held 14 readings, selected from a huge number of submissions. The deal is that two or three play readings (per event) are performed and then the audience is invited to comment and critique. It is an opportunity for the writer to receive feedback and engage with a live audience.

In the case of Carrot Nappers, however, it was the actors who spoke –rather enthused– about the play. They loved it, explaining that it was a rare opportunity for them to play larger-than-life characters and to really have fun. All the actors involved in Naked Stage 09 had wanted to perform this play. Those that did, really did it justice. I was amazed to learn that they had reached their high level of performance after only three rehearsals. The craft and expertise shown by these actors was awe-inspiring.

Memories of the day? The sightseeing with fellow Carrot-heads Keith Morley, Maria Smith (great driver and photographer) and the playwright himself, Mr Large. The carrying of the carrot cakes back and forth from car to theatre to storage area and back. Meeting a bunch of talented actors and directors happy to help bring new authors to the stage. Most of all, it was knowing that we can win away from home. Keith Large in Theatre, Mehul Desai in Film and Graham Joyce in novel-writing: all from Leicestershire, all prize winners in 2009, all proving that minnows can have their day. Get in!

EMIT November 2009

Connecting the literature community
A Literature Network publication
http://literaturenetwork.org

November brings new publications from Weathervane Press, and new novels and a poetry collection from Sue Moorcroft and Cathy Grindrod respectively. Ross Bradshaw share his diary of a literary holiday, and we discuss what it is we really want from our bookshops. And Derbyshire County Council are looking for a Reading Champion. Are you the one to take up their gauntlet!?

For all this and more, read on!

Damien Walter, Literature Network Coordinator

ARTICLES and NEWS

• The Sky, Head On by Cathy Grindrod

• Weathervane Press

• New books from Sue Moorcroft

Read more News

BLOGGERS

Bookshops are not churches. But.

Earlier this week the Guardian book website unleashed a tumult of anger and frustration against the UK’s largest bookseller, Waterstones. The thrust of Stuart Jeffries article was that with its increasing commercialisation (3-4-2 sales, celebrity biogs etc etc) Waterstones had gone from saviour to destroyer of bookselling in just over a decade.

• What I did on my holidays. Part One.

• What I did on my holidays. Part Two.

• Will you take part with NaNoWriMo?

Read more blogs

EVENTS

• The Entrepreneurial Writer

• Short Fuse presents Beautiful Game

• The Storytelling Cafe

• Flying Goose Readings

Find more events near you.

OPPORTUNITIES

Derbyshire Reading Champion

Derbyshire County Council is looking to appoint a Reading Champion to work with library staff, staff from other Departments and other organisations to encourage a love of books and reading in children and young people.

• Freelance Project Coordinator

• Brightsparks Comedy Workshops

• Submit your poetry to Popshot magazine

Many more opportunities for writers.

*****

You are receiving this mail as a subscriber to the EMIT newsletter, a publication of the Literature Network.

To UNSUBSCRIBE please send an email with Unsubscribe in the title to: emit@literaturenetwork.org

Derbyshire Reading Champion

Derbyshire County Council is looking to appoint a Reading Champion to work with library staff, staff from other Departments and other organisations to encourage a love of books and reading in children and young people.

The appointment is for two years, running from March 2010 to March 2012.  The brief will include a series of at least ten appearances, workshops and events over the two years, though it is expected that the honorary title will lead to further appearances during the tenure.

The Reading Champion will be featured as part of the Derbyshire Literature Festival and other major County Council events, including the Big Book Bash for children in care, the Hooked On Reading young people’s reading conference and family reading days.

The Derbyshire Reading Champion not only needs to be an established, published writer with links to Derbyshire, but will also need to demonstrate an ability to inspire children and young people to read, enjoy books and broaden their reading experience.  We expect this appointment to bring a high profile to reading as a vibrant and creative activity.

Applications are welcome from writers living, working or studying in Derbyshire, or with strong Derbyshire connections.

For further information and details of how to apply, visit www.artsderbyshire.org.uk/readingchampion or contact Julie Potton, Principal Librarian (Reader Development) at julie.potton@derbyshire.gov.uk or telephone 07824 – 626902.

Closing date for applications:   12 noon on Saturday, 12th December 2009.

Interviews will be held on Tuesday, 19th January 2010.

Writer in Residence at Deanhanger Library, Northamptonshire

We are delighted that writer Leo McNeir has agreed to do a short stint as Writer in Residence at Deanshanger Library, the small library that is closest to his home. He will be ‘in residence’ on Wednesday Dec 16th, Thursday Dec 17th and Friday Dec 18th from 2 – 5 pm each day.

Leo McNeir is the author of the series of crime novels with a waterways setting featuring Marnie Walker, her lover Ralph Lombard, her close friend Anne Price and several others. That is until one or other of them gets bumped off! Look out for such titles as No Secrets, Kiss and Tell, Sally Ann’s Summer and, the latest, Smoke and Mirrors. Leo’s books are easy to spot as the covers all feature beautiful artist’s pictures of canals and canal boats.

When not writing novels, Leo is a linguist and lexicographer. He has compiled and edited ten dictionaries in fifteen languages since the first one was published by Cassell in 1993.

Leo will be working on his new novel and welcomes anyone who wants to come and watch him working or talk about the intricacies of plotting and character development.  For further information contact: JMDavies@northamptonshire.gov.uk.  Deanshanger Library location: http://www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/Leisure/Libraries/publib/Pages/Deanlib.aspx.

Freelance Project Coordinator & Programmer

January 2010 – October 2010

Fee – £7,500

The Lyric Lounge – part of the Igniting Ambition programme

The Lyric Lounge project (www.lyriclounge.co.uk) is the creation of temporary, transformed venues for spoken word and poetry events. It delivers programmes of activity including performance and workshops, open-mike and poetry slam. The project creates a platform for local and emerging talent and established performers. It engages a diverse range of young people, including Black and Minority Ethnic groups, and involves intergenerational activities.

The Leicester Lyric Lounge was hosted at the Y Theatre as part of the cultural programme for the Special Olympics in July 2009. The second stage involves extending the concept across the East Midlands in 2010 starting with venues in Nottingham, Derby and Leicestershire.

To deliver the project Writing East Midlands, on behalf of MLA East Midlands, Renaissance, Arts Council England and Igniting Ambition, seeks the following:

Project Coordinator & Programmer

The Project Coordinator & Programmer will work with Writing East Midlands on a freelance basis to deliver the Lyric Lounge between January and October 2010. The Project Coordinator & Programmer will offer excellent organisational skills, experience of live literature or arts programming in the East Midlands, and an ability to work with young people from diverse backgrounds. A fee of £7,500 is available for the contract. There will be approximately 50 days work.

Contact Antonia Bell at antonia@writingeastmidlands.co.uk for a project brief and application pack. To discuss the position contact Henderson Mullin on 0115 9597929.

Closing date 30 November 2009

Interviews w/c 14 December 2009

Next Page »