The End of the Print Age?

In anticipation of our keynote speech ‘The End of the Print Age?‘ to be given by award winning novelist Graham Joyce at the Writing Industries Conference 2010 (6th March, Loughborough University), we take a look at some of the changes ushering in the new digital age in publishing.

• Apple launch the iPad in late March and will provide an ebook store with content from most major publishers. Will iBooks do for books what iTunes has done for music?
• Amazon, the worlds biggest book retailer and makers of the successful Kindle e-reader, announce 70% royalties for authors selling their books directly through the Kindle store. With most publishers paying royalties of 10%, what effect will this have on the industry?
• The Eurpoean Union launch a continent wide online library. Will Europeana replace the humble public lending library?
• Sony Ericson predict there will be 50 billion mobile phones in the world by 2020. With many of these having high resolution colour screens, will mobile phones be the reading device of the future?
• Head of Penguin books says he is not scared of the transition from print to ebooks.

But despite these changes, the paperback book is still loved by millions of readers around the world. Is this the end of the print age? If so how will publishers and writers adapt to changing times and make the most of the opportunities that come with the digital age? Let us know your thoughts, and don’t miss Graham Joyce at the Writing Industries Conference.

http://writingindustries.com

By the way…your laptop is your wife.

James K. Walker, editor for Left Lion at speaker at the upcoming Writing Industries Conference shares his Top Ten Tips for writers. Read more

Arvind Mehrotra Poetry Reading

Kala Kahani and Leicester Libraries are delighted to welcome Arvind Mehrotra , the first Indian poet to be nominated for a professorship by Oxford University, to Leicester on Thursday 4th March.

In his own words he will be ‘entertaining us with 2000 years of Indian poetry in 90 minutes! From early Prakrik love poems to Kabir (15th Century) to Arun Kolatkar (1931 – 2004)’.

As the author of four books including the Absent Traveller (Penguin Classics) he is also an essayist, editor and translator of numerous works. During his visit to the UK he will be speaking at the Goldsmith’s (University of London), and the English Faculty of Oxford University on Kabir and Kipling, reading poetry with Tom Paulin, Bernard O’Donoghue and others at St Hugh’s College, Oxford, and at the Avril Bruton Creative Writing Prize event, also at St Hugh’s.

We are pleased to welcome Arvind to the prestigious City Rooms on Hotel Street from 7pm. Places are limited but tickets are free and will need to be booked in advance via email bookdoctor@leicester.gov.uk or by calling 0116 299 5426

For more details please contact Rebecca Abrahams on 01509 821035 or rebecca.abrahams@charnwood-arts-org.uk

This event would not be possible without the support of the University of Northampton School of Arts and CCFN (Centre for Contemporary Fiction and Narrative)

From first chapters to published novel

Maria Allen writes about her debut novel Before the Earthquake, its roots in her italian heritage and the progress from early chapters to published novel. Read more

Debut Novel – Before the Earthquake

East Midlands based novelist Maria Allen publishes her debut novel Before the Earthquake with Tindal Street Press in February. Maria Allen is half Italian, half English and has lived in different parts of Italy and the USA. She has worked as a journalist, in TV research, publishing and most recently in teaching. She lives in Loughborough.

Find out more information about Before the Earthquake at: http://www.tindalstreet.co.uk/books/before-the-earthquake

Althorp Literary Festival – author announcements

This June, the Althorp Literary Festival will celebrate its seventh anniversary, presenting an exhilarating weekend of talks, readings and debates, in some of the most beautiful rooms of Althorp House.

Alan Davies will talk at the Althorp Literary Festival in June, about his latest book ‘My Favourite People and Me’, which is a childhood memoir about growing up in the late 70s and 80s. Alan Davies, currently appears as a resident panellist on the BBC’s popular QI quiz series and known for his starring role in mystery series Jonathan Creek.

Join much loved travel writer Bill Bryson as he discusses his latest release ‘At Home’, which stems from Bryson’s realisation that we devote a lot more time to the Wars of the Roses or the Normandy Landings than considering what most of history really consists of: centuries upon centuries of people quietly going about their daily business – eating, sleeping, having sex, endeavouring to be amused.

Join Jenni Murray at Althorp as she shares her remarkable story ‘Memoirs of a Not So Dutiful Daughter’, detailing her childhood, and most significantly, her relationship with her mother. As the regular presenter of Radio 4 Woman’s Hour since 1987, she has daily demonstrated her incredible range and depth and a unique ability to understand the feelings and complexities of those she interviews, talents she has also brought to BBC Newsnight and Everyman and BBC Radio Today and Thursday Call.

Award winning journalist, author and Newsnight presenter Gavin Esler will be joining us to discuss his new release, ‘Powerplay’. Join Gavin as he tells his story of the decline in the US – British ‘special relationship’, as seen through the eyes of Alex Price the British Ambassador to Washington, at a time of crisis. Gavin Esler has anchored the BBC News Channel since 1997 and reported for news and documentary programmes across Europe, Russia, China and North and South America. He joined the presenting team of BBC Two’s Newsnight in January 2003. Gavin is also the author of several novels.

John Julius Norwich, English historian and travel writer will be providing an insightful talk on his new release, The Great Cities in History. John Julius Norwich is the author of many varied publications, including The Normans in the South, The Architecture of Southern England, A History of Venice and Byzantium: The Early Centuries. He has written and presented some thirty historical documents for television and radio, and is a regular lecturer on his many travel subjects.

Tickets for the 2010 Althorp Literary Festival will go on sale mid April. Further details can be found at www.althorp.com or telephone 01604 770107. For media enquiries, please contact: mail@althorp.com.

Graham Joyce to give keynote speech at WIC 2010

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

We are very happy to announce that Graham Joyce will be making the keynote speech at the Writing Industries Conference 2010. The theme of this year’s keynote will be ‘The End of the Print Age’, reflecting WIC 2010’s focus on the many changes taking place across the writing industries. We are also pleased to confirm details of three specialist workshops for delegates attending the conference, and an additional speaker joining our programme.

Buy tickets for the Writing industries Conference 2010

WIC 2010 Keynote : The End Of The Print Age

This is the twilight of the printed book. As surely as we moved from the Stone Age to the Bronze Age we find ourselves in a transition from the Print Age to the Digital Age. What does this mean for the writer who “merely” wants to write? The complexities of publishing have suddenly been multiplied in a way that challenges every writer who ever had an ambition to publish or make a single penny from the business of writing. But far from being a calamity, the onslaught of digital technologies has opened up new opportunities for the industrious writer who is able to diversify.

Keynote speaker : Graham Joyce

Graham Joyce is the author of seventeen novels and numerous short stories, which have won five British Fantasy Awards, the World Fantasy Award in 2003 and the prestigious O Henry prize in 2009. He grew up in a small mining village just outside Coventry in a working class family and wrote his first novel Dreamside on the Greek island of Lesbos, where he lived for three years after leaving his job to concentrate on writing. After selling Dreamside to Pan Books in 1991, Graham moved back to England to pursue a career as a full-time writer.

Graham’s writing has been classified as fantasy, horror, science fiction and mainstream literature. His stories frequently return to themes of grief, loss, growth and change, the corrupting effects of power, the importance of self-awareness, and the fundamental need for order, meaning, and coherence in the face of a chaotic universe. While the literary quality of his writing has prompted comparisons with magical realism, Graham himself places it in the tradition of the English ‘weird tales’ and writers including Arthur Machen and Algernon Blackwood.

Graham recently collected his memoirs as a goalkeeper in the non-fiction Simple Goalkeeping Made Easy which was nominated for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year 2009. He has also diversified into new media with the announcement last year that he would be writing the story for the latest in the phenomenally popular series of Doom video games. Graham teaches fiction and creative writing at Nottingham Trent University, and is well known for his insightful creative writing workshops and seminars.

http://www.grahamjoyce.net/

Workshops

Writing for video games
Writer and game designer Steve Ince, author of ‘Writing for Video Games’, leads a workshop about the fundamentals of writing for video games.

Working with an audience
Performance skills are ever more important to writers of all kinds. Performance poet and comedian Rob Gee leads this workshop on working with an audience. Suitable for writers of all levels.

About the Writers Guild
Bernie Corbett, General Seceretary of the Writer’s Guild, talks about the union’s work representing writers in TV, radio, theatre, books, poetry, film, online and video games.

Places on workshops are limited. Delegates can register for workshops on the day on a first come first served basis.

Additional Speaker

Jacob Sam La Rose joins our panel on the spoken word arts. Jacob’s poetry has been described as “fresh, vivid and masterly” (Poetry Book Society). His publishing credits include City State (Penned in the Margins, 2009), Penguin’s Poems for Love (2009), and Identity Parade: New British and Irish Poets (Bloodaxe, 2010); his performance credits include festivals and venues such as the Queen Elizabeth Hall (London), the Arts House (Singapore), the Urb Festival (Finland), the Green Mill (Chicago) and the Aldeburgh Poetry Festival. Jacob is well known for his work with literature in education and programmes for emerging poets, and he serves as a poetry editor for flipped eye press.

Reading’s love affair with Indian writing

Ross Bradshaw takes a walk through the history of Indian writing in the United Kingdom. Read more

Naked Words

Fridays 10am – 3.30pm, May/June 2010.

A series of one day creative workshops, aimed at all amateur and professional writers including 6th form students who are studying literature and/or arts subjects. Each one day workshop is designed to enhance confidence, and develop originality in writing skills for personal development or coursework requirements. Inspired by the work of figurative artist Susie Mendelsson who is exhibiting at the jgallery in her solo exhibition 7th May to 27th June 2010.

Participants will experience the challenges of connections between visual art and the written word. During the day there will be a series of thought provoking exercises resulting in finished pieces of prose and poetry some of which, will be displayed in the gallery alongside Susie’s artwork.

Susie Mendelsson writes about her work: “The way people look, move and behave fascinates me. They are like unwritten books which reflect their life’s journey, their struggles, and the vulnerabilities which lie behind the mask. I can watch people for hours, inventing stories about them. Like made-up fairy tales, but with the real characters in front of me.”

Dates available: Fridays May 14th, 21st, 28th, & June 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th. Cost: £25 per person (a few subsidised places available subject to funder’s criteria).

Tutors: Yvonne Mitton/Marianne May/ Judith Allnatt/Maria Luisa Coelho/Andreas Petzoid/Sally Spedding (TBC). VENUE: jgallery, 25 West Street, Moulton, Northants, NN3 7SB.

For more information or to book contact 01604 492192 / info@jgallery.org.uk or click http://www.jgallery.org.uk/courses/course.asp?ID=18.

Do you have time to read?

With ever more activites competing for our free time, James Burt asks who has time to read anymore? Read more

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