New
Writing North news
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Read Regional 2014
gets underway
 The annual
campaign to connect northern authors to northern readers is back,
bringing poets and authors to libraries across the North East and
Yorkshire from February until May. Authors taking part in Read Regional
2014 include Susan Elliot Wright (The
Things We Never Said), Gavin Extence (The Universe Versus Alex Woods),
and Carnegie Medal winner Melvin Burgess (The Hit) as well as Celia Bryce (Anthem for Jackson Dawes)
and Niel Bushnell (Sorrowline),
who have both just been longlisted for the Branford Boase Award,
celebrating debut children's authors and their editors. A free Read
Regional booklet is available to pick up in libraries across the region.
The booklet features author profiles, extracts from their work, and event
listings.
Also part of this year’s campaign is poet Mark Robinson, with his
collection, How I
Learned to Sing. Mark wrote about Read Regional in an
excellent piece for The
Bookseller which you can read at www.thebookseller.com/blogs/reading-regionally.html.
Find out about this year's Read Regional programme at www.readregional.com.
Read Regional
2015
Submissions are now open for the 2015 campaign. Publishers are invited to
submit new titles, which should be available by November 2014. Authors
must live in the north of England (including the North West as well as
the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside). Fiction, poetry, children’s books
and literary memoir will all be considered. See www.newwritingnorth.com
for full submission guidelines. |
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Local children mark Holocaust
Memorial Day
 On Monday
27 January Newcastle Central Station was the setting for a Holocaust
Memorial Day event remembering the Kindertransport. Working with pupils
from St John’s Primary, Atkinson Road Primary, and Excelsior Academy,
poet Bob Beagrie and New Writing North created a poetic performance
piece, with poems written by children from each school, imagining what
that forced exodus was like for the 10,000 Jewish children fleeing Nazi
Germany. There was also an installation by local artist Kate Eccles,
using suitcases and bedding to capture the forced flight of the transport
and the migratory nature of the safety it provided. |
People’s Play
reminder
Scriptwriters still have a few months left to enter The People’s Play
Award 2014. The competition, which aims to discover and develop new
writers for theatre, is open to writers who have not yet had a full
professional production of their work until 7 April. The judges are looking
for plays with small casts, a running time of around two hours and that
would be suitable for a simple production in a studio theatre. To find
out more about how to submit to The People’s Play Award 2014, see www.newwritingnorth.com/awards-the-people-s-play-award-2014-page-2488.html. |
People
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Angela Readman wins
2013 Costa Short Story Award
 Congratulations
to North East story writer and poet Angela Readman, who has won the 2013
Costa Short Story Award with her short story, The Keeper of the Jackalopes.
Angela, who won a Northern Promise Award at the 2007 Northern Writers’
Awards, is the second Northern Writers’ Award winner to catch the judges’
attention in as many years after last year’s inaugural award was won by
2003 Northern Writers’ Award winner Avril Joy with her short story, Millie and the Bird.
Angela is currently working on a short story collection, Don’t Try This at Home,
due to be published by & Other Stories in spring 2015. Click here
to watch an interview with Angela at the awards ceremony.
So who’s going to make it a North East hat-trick next year? |
Ben Myers moves into
new home on the web
Speaking of past Northern Writers’ Award winners, Ben Myers, who also
won the Gordon Burn Prize for his novel, Pig Iron, last year, has a new website.
2014 is looking to be a busy year for Ben, so if you’re a fan of his
writing keep an eye on www.benmyers.com. |
In the
North
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Northern Film and
Media script surgeries
Submissions are open for Northern Film and Media’s script and project
surgeries. The surgeries provide industry-led support to filmmakers and
writers, advising on project, script and company development as well as
providing guidance to writers and filmmakers working on a feature,
treatment or script. Deadline for submissions in 2014 are 5 February and
5 March. To find out more about applying go to http://northernmedia.org/talent-development/script-and-project-surgeries-. |
Seminar: How to apply
for Grants for the Arts
3MT, Oldham
Street, Manchester: Thursday 27 February, 11am-1pm
Join PANDA Arts and the Grants for the Arts theatre officers at Three
Minute Theatre in Manchester to find out tips and tricks of applying to
the Arts Council’s Grants for the Arts programme. This interactive
seminar is for people working in the arts, either individual artists or
organisations interested in applying for an Arts Council grant. Gain
insights into how to apply (and how not to apply) through presentation,
conversation and Q&A’s. Fees: £3 for PANDA members/£5 for PANDA
subscribers/£10 for non-members. For more information, see www.panda-arts.org.uk/training-events/training/grants-for-the-arts-interactive-seminar/. |
The Orangery,
Wakefield: Calling all creatives
Following the success of the Local Creatives’ Winter Warmer last year,
Beam is inviting talented Yorkshire creatives to submit samples of their
work for a special exhibition at The Orangery, Wakefield. They are
looking for a range of interesting cross-artform work, including
animations and poetry as well as musical performances and animation.
Anyone wishing to take part must read and respond to the artist’s
brief by Monday 17 February, 5pm. |
Opportunities
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Grants available for
Arvon residential creative writing courses
Arvon’s 2014 programme of residential creative writing courses is now
open for booking, with courses in poetry, fiction, playwriting,
non-fiction and songwriting, and starting to write for new writers.
Courses take place in four beautiful country houses, offering a mix of
group workshops, individual tutorials, and time and space to write. Weeks
are led by two published authors; tutors this year include Mark Haddon,
Malorie Blackman, Willy Russell and Sinéad Morrissey. Financial grants
are available if you cannot afford the full fee. Visit www.arvon.org
for full listings and grant information. |
RSL Brookleaze Grants
The RSL Brookleaze Grants are open for submissions from writers who want
to ‘buy time’ to write away from their normal jobs or lives – to take
sabbaticals or to travel for research, for example. There is a pot of
£5,000 available for the grants, to be awarded by the Council of the RSL
as two grants of £2,500 each or one grant of £5,000. Deadline for
applications: 30 April. To find out more go to www.rslit.org/brookleaze-grants. |
Bath Short Story
Award
After a successful first year, including the e-publication of an
anthology of short stories from the 2013
Award, the Bath Short Story Award is back. The award is an
international competition open to published and unpublished writers and
this year’s entries will be judged by literary agent Lucy Luck, of Lucy
Luck Associates Literary Agency. Deadline for submissions: 31 March.
Entry fee: £8. To enter go to http://bathshortstoryaward.co.uk. |
Bridport Prize opens
for submissions
The richest writing competition in the UK is now open for submissions.
With a stated mission to ‘encourage emerging writers and promote literary
excellence’, the Bridport Prize is an eagerly anticipated event on the
literary calendar. Writers can submit flash fiction (£7 entry fee), short
stories (£9 entry fee) or poems (£8 entry fee) either online or by post.
Deadline for entries: 31 May. For more information, see www.bridportprize.org.uk. |
Jobs
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Arts Centre
Washington: Programme co-ordinator
A programme co-ordinator is needed to oversee an exciting new
performance programme at the Arts Centre Washington: Sunderland Stages.
The successful candidate should have experience in venue programming,
marketing and operations. Deadline for applications: 17 February.
Download the job description from http://ow.ly/d/1QdB. |
The Forge: Programme
manager
The Forge is a thriving cultural organisation that works with artists,
educators and young people across County Durham and is looking for a
candidate with a proactive approach, project management experience,
experience of working with schools and the ability to build teams to meet
programme directives. For more information about the post go to www.intheforge.com/site/about/recruitment/. |
Miscellany
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