New
Writing North news
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Durham Book Festival
programme revealed
 Booking is
now open for this year’s Durham Book Festival, which takes place from
6-18 October in venues around Durham. We’re thrilled with this year’s
line-up, which includes many household names from literature, politics
and broadcasting, including Kate Adie, John Carey, Laura Bates, Kirsty
Wark, Jung Chang, Sheila Hancock and Kate Tempest.
There are several new commissions for this year, including a new poem
from Festival Laureate, poet Paul Farley. We sent writer and broadcaster
Stuart Maconie to explore the Durham Dales and report back about his
experiences, while Economist
journalist Anne McElvoy has been visiting Easington Colliery,
where she met some of those photographed by Keith Pattison in his seminal
images of the Miners’ Strike.
We’re also celebrating North East writers, with events featuring
Debbie Taylor, Lauren Owen, Dan Vyleta, Carolyn Jess-Cooke, Bryan and
Mary Talbot, Andy Croft, Bill Herbert, Linda France and Ben Myers.
See the full programme of events and book online at the new festival
website at www.durhambookfestival.com. |
Durham Book Festival
for Schools
Teachers! Don’t forget to book your events at Durham Book Festival for
Schools, which takes place on 6 and 7 October. Join authors Meg Rosoff,
Mick Manning and Brita Granström, Helen Stephens, and Daljit Nagra for
two days of special events at Durham Johnston Comprehensive School. There
is also a special twilight session with Daljit Nagra, who will lead a
poetry writing workshop for teachers. To find out more go to www.durhambookfestival.com/schools. |
Gordon Burn Prize
shortlist announced
 We’re
delighted to announce the shortlist of the second Gordon Burn Prize,
which is run in partnership by New Writing North, Faber & Faber and
the Gordon Burn Trust, and was conceived to pay tribute to the legacy of
the late author.
The prize seeks to recognise writers whose work follows in the
fearless footsteps of Newcastle-born Burn. This year’s judges are the
comedian, actor and musician Julian Barratt, poet John Burnside, artist
Sarah Lucas, and novelist Benjamin Myers, winner of the inaugural Gordon
Burn Prize in 2013.
The winner will be announced on 10
October at a special event to open Durham Book Festival. Lee
Brackstone, Gordon Burn’s editor at Faber & Faber and one of the
prize’s founders said, ‘This year’s prize threw up a shortlist which is
embarrassingly rich and strong in literary qualities that Gordon, we
hope, would have found attractive. Gordon’s literary intelligence was quixotic,
egalitarian, and always questing for new experience to be presented in a
novel fashion… We hope you will feel compelled to read each of the books
on the shortlist and reach back into Gordon’s extensive backlist to see
thematically and stylistically these books correspond to the work of one
of the great English literary writers of the late 20th century.’
The shortlist
The Valley,
Richard Benson (Bloomsbury)
The Kills,
Richard House (Picador)
The Wake,
Paul Kingsnorth (Unbound)
The Trip to Echo Spring:
Why Writers Drink, Olivia Laing (Canongate)
American Interior, Gruff
Rhys (Hamish Hamilton)
The Free, Willy
Vlautin (Faber & Faber) |
The Worst Princess
 Following
the success of last year’s My
Granny is a Pirate, we’re hard at work on The Worst Princess,
our brand new children’s show for under 7s. Adapted by Carina Rodney from
the gorgeous picture book written by Anna Kemp and illustrated by
Newcastle-based Sara Ogilvie, the production will be touring 40 community
venues in County Durham, Tyne and Wear and Northumberland, as well as
festivals in Sheffield and Manchester this autumn.
With original live music, an amazing picture book-inspired set, and
North East actors alongside musicians from Sage Gateshead, the show
promises to be a wild and fun-filled adventure into a world of
princesses, princes and dragons, where characters defy expectations and
learn to be themselves. The show opens on 29 September at Gateshead Old
Town Hall and a list of all dates and venues is available at www.worstprincess.com.
Book soon because many dates sold out last year!
The Worst Princess
is produced by New Writing North in association with Sage Gateshead and
support from bait for Durham Book Festival. |
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NEW for September:
Cuckoo Young Writers groups in Sunderland, Newcastle and Cramlington
Cuckoo Young Writers are now recruiting young people aged 12-19 years
for our fortnightly Young Writers sessions starting from Saturday 13
September. Focusing on various styles of writing, sessions are drop in,
free and run from 11am-1pm. If you are an aspiring writer, or know
someone who is, drop Nick Malyan a line at cuckoo@newwritingnorth.com
or call him on 0191 204 8852 for more information. |
Cramlington Cuckoo
group leader wanted
We’re seeking a creative person with an interest in working with young
people to take on a new role as part of our Cuckoo Young Writers
programme. Working alongside a professional writer, the candidate would
run weekly sessions supporting young writers with creative projects. Sessions
take place on Saturday mornings from 11am-1pm in Cramlington and are paid
at a rate of £25p/h. Trained Arts Award Advisor preferred. For more
details download the job description here.
To express an interest in this opportunity please write to Nick Malyan
explaining why your experience and ambition would make you a good
candidate for this post. Email Nick at cuckoo@newwritingnorth.com
or for an informal discussion, call 0191 204 8852. |
Join the Moth
Publishing crime family
 Penned a
brilliant crime story? There is still time to dust off your manuscript
and enter our Northern Crime Competition, which is open to both novelists
and – for the first time – short story writers based in the North of
England. Winning short stories will be published in a crime fiction
anthology, while winning novels will be published in print and as ebooks.
Find out more at www.mothpublishing.com,
but don’t delay – the competition closes on 29 August. |
Opportunities
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Socially engaged
artist wanted for Leeds residency
Artist House 45 is a unique opportunity to be involved in a new
project pushing the boundaries of socially engaged practice and community
activity. East Street Arts is looking for an artist or collective of two,
who have an established, socially engaged practice. Artist House 45 will
create opportunities, encourage sustainable projects and house an artist.
Local residents will be encouraged to become co-producers of the artist’s
projects with an opportunity to unlock and share experiences, learning,
resources and relationships.
East Street Arts has secured a
traditional two-bedroom, back-to-back in the residential area of Beeston,
Leeds. The house is offered at Leeds City Council rates and a bursary of
£14,100 will be given to support the artist/s to work three days a week
responding to the local area and communities. Closing date: 28 August.
For more information, see http://eaststreetarts.org.uk/opportunities/. |
Competitions
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Homeless: the SASH
Writing Competition
Yorkshire homelessness prevention charity SASH is offering a new
competition to writers over 16 and based in the UK, to write on the theme
‘Homeless’. Entries may be in any genre and of a maximum of 3,000 words.
Award-winning author Ross Raisin (God’s
Own Country, Waterline) will judge the competition, the first
prize of which is a five-day residential writing course, courtesy of
Arvon. Closing date: 10 October. For more information, go to www.sash-uk.org.uk/how-can-i-help/events/sash-writing-competition/. |
Jobs
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The Cultural Spring:
Evaluator
The Cultural Spring is looking to appoint an experienced evaluator (or
team of evaluators) to undertake the evaluation of its Creative People
and Places project in Sunderland and South Tyneside from October
2014-January 2017. See www.theculturalspring.org.uk/news-and-updates/
for the evaluation brief. Deadline for proposals: 8 September, 5pm. |
Durham Cathedral:
Documentation officer and exhibition officer
Durham Cathedral has secured support from the Heritage Lottery Fund to
deliver Open Treasure, a £10 million project which aims to transform the
experience of visitors to the cathedral by creating high quality gallery
spaces in which to deliver a rolling programme of exhibitions, featuring
the cathedral’s own extensive collections and items on short-term loan
from other prestigious institutions. They are looking for a documentation
officer and an exhibition officer to help deliver the project. Closing
date: 27 August. Download an application pack at www.durhamcathedral.co.uk/beinvolved/employment. |
The
Listening Post
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North East Rising
Arts Centre
Washington: 4 September, 7.30pm
Rowan McCabe and Arts Centre Washington present a new one-person show,
North East Rising,
which blends performance poetry, theatre and stand-up, and in which Rowan
searches for the true heart of the region’s culture. Expect hallucinatory
tales, humorous satire and some pause for thought as Rowan meets
eccentric characters, writes a gangster rap about stotties and goes on a
journey that seeks to shake apart Northern stereotypes. Suitable for ages
14+. For more information, see www.artscentrewashington.co.uk. |
Chris Ryan:Hunter-Killer
Queen’s
Hall, Hexham: Saturday 13 September, 7.30pm
Former SAS officer and author of Strike
Back Chris Ryan returns to Hexham to talk about his new book,
Hunter-Killer,
which is described as ‘the law of the jungle, London style’. Book your tickets
online at www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk/programme/chris-ryan/
or call the box office on 01434 652477. |
Workshops
and classes
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Writing workshops in
Northumberland
Words Across Northumberland & Northumberland Arts Development are
offering new writers the opportunity to join two short courses in
Haltwhistle and Wooler libraries. Both courses cost £15 for all three
sessions. Places are limited so sign up early to avoid disappointment.
In Haltwhistle, Valerie Laws, author of The Operator and The Rotting Spot, is
leading a series of three workshops on aspects of crime writing to help
you plot your murder mystery (Saturdays 6, 13 and 20 September,
10.30am-12.30pm, tel. 01434 322809 to book). For more information, see www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk/crime-writing-workshops-with-valerie-laws/.
In Wooler, former BBC journalist Barbara Henderson, who writes as Bea
Davenport (In Too
Deep, This Little Piggy) will cover how to start a
piece of historical fiction in her three-day course, Imagining the Past
(Saturdays 8, 15, 22 November, 2pm-4pm, tel. 01668 282123 to book).
Details are at www.hexhambookfestival.co.uk/imagining-the-past-with-bea-davenport-writing-historical-fiction/.
For more information, telephone the libraries above or email info@hexhambookfestival.co.uk. |
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Deadline
for the next newsletter
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If you have news that you would like to submit
for inclusion in the newsletter please contact olivia@newwritingnorth.com.
The deadline for receipt of information for the next newsletter is 25
August. The next edition of The
Listening Post, covering September’s literature events, will
go out in late August. If you have events that you would like to submit
for inclusion for this you will need to send information by 21 August to olivia@newwritingnorth.com.
While
every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in
this newsletter is correct at the time of going to press, things do
change, frequently at the last minute and very often without our
knowledge.
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