New Writing North newsletter

Here is the latest New Writing North newsletter, including competitions and opportunities, that I thought my followers would be interested in:

November 2014 News from New Writing North

New Writing North news The best Worst Princess tour comes to an end We had the last performance of The Worst Princess on Friday, after over a month of touring the show for over 3,600 children and their families across County Durham, South East Northumberland, Newcastle, Gateshead, and North Tyneside, Manchester and Sheffield. It's been brilliant – fantastic audiences in schools, community centres, libraries and festival venues, great feedback, and wonderful performances from the cast and crew. (We had this lovely review last week.) Many venues have taken the story beyond the performance and really got behind the project. One outstanding example would be at Sedgefield Hardwick Primary School where we were greeted by a gorgeous display created by pupils across all years at the school, with literacy work around the story as well as 3D reproductions of each character along the corridor that they'd all contributed to in their lessons. Alongside the performances, we ran four writer's residencies in County Durham communities and 18 craft and music workshops across County Durham and South East Northumberland. Many attending those sessions came along to the performance dressed in their hand-made coloured crowns and dragon tails and sang and danced along with the songs. Click here to see some photos of the show on our Flickr feed. Thanks to all of you who came out to see it for making it such fun for all involved. Verb New Voices heard in Stockton We were at ARC in Stockton last night to see Verb New Voices writers Louise Fazackerley, Matt Miller and John Hamilton May perform the works in progress that they have been working on with mentors Peader Kirk and Matt Fenton, artistic director of Contact Theatre. They have produced some really exciting spoken word performances, excerpts of which you can hear on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb on the following day: John Hamilton May on Friday 19 December Verb New Voices is a spoken word development programme run by the BBC and Arts Council in association with New Writing North, ARC, Contact Theatre, Arvon and Writing Squad. People Chloe Daykin signs for BIA 2014 Northern Writers’ Award winner Chloe Daykin has just secured an agent for her first YA novel, Fish Boy. She’ll be represented by Ben Illis at BIA. Huge congratulations to Chloe and we look forward to more good news soon! Opportunities First Story National Writing Competition Deadline: Friday 5 December First Story’s National Writing Competition is now open to all state secondary schools. Students can submit a story or poem based on the idea of ‘home’ to have a chance of winning a place on an Arvon creative writing residential and being published professionally in a collected anthology. For more information, visit www.firststory.org.uk. Competitions Red Squirrel Press Annual James Kirkup Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2014 Deadline: 31 December 2014 Submissions are being accepted for the Red Squirrel Press Annual James Kirkup Poetry Pamphlet Competition 2014. Judged by Bob Beagrie and Stevie Ronnie, the entry fee for 10 poems is £10. For full rules visit www.redsquirrelpress.com/SquirrelKIRKUPRULES.html. Red Squirrel Press Annual Sara Park Short Story Pamphlet Competition 2014 Deadline: 31 December 2014 Submissions are being accepted for the Red Squirrel Press Annual Sara Park Short Story Pamphlet Competition 2014. Judged by Kathleen Kenny and Ellen Phethean, the entry fee for two stories of a maximum 2,000 words is £10. For full rules visit www.redsquirrelpress.com/SquirrelSARAPARKRULES.html. The TS Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme The TS Eliot Prize Shadowing Scheme introduces secondary school students to new contemporary poetry by shadowing the judges of the TS Eliot Prize. There is also a competition for an individual A level student to write the best 500 word rationale for their choice of poet, which will be judged by this year’s chair of the judges, Helen Dunmore. For more information, see www.emagazine.org.uk. The Writing Platform Bursary 2015 Deadline: 4 December 2014 The Writing Platform Bursary 2015 is an opportunity for writers and technologists to collaborate. Two bursaries of £4,000 are available for those successful. Writers and technologists may apply individually or in pairs. For full details and application forms see www.thewritingplatform.com/bursary2015/. Jobs New posts at Mslexia Publications Following a major award from the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, and a generous grant from Arts Council England, the company that produces Mslexia, the magazine for women writers, is expanding – with a new programme of events and online initiatives, and a range of new publications. They are recruiting for two completely new full-time posts: a development manager to co-ordinate and steer new and existing activities (deadline 5 December); and an editorial associate to help with new and existing publications (deadline 1 December). For full details visit www.mslexia.co.uk/whatson/latest.php. The Listening Post Salon North: Wealth Masonic Hall, Harrogate: Thursday 27 November, 7.30pm Focused around the idea of wealth, a discussion will be held between Vicky Pryce, Margaret Heffernan and Dr Sandrine Thuret about the ways in which to achieve a wealthy life, and how what we eat affects our ability to work. Tickets: £18. For more information, see http://harrogateinternationalfestivals.com/salon-north/salon-north-wealth/. Workshops and courses Books in the City HQ 222 Grays Inn Rd, London: Saturday 15 November Books and the City, part of Simon & Schuster UK publishers, have launched a commercial women’s fiction-focused creative writing masterclass, which will take place on Saturday 15 November. The day will include a range of one-to-one sessions and discussion panels by Lizzy Kremer, Milly Johnson, Jo Dickinson and Clare Hey. For more information visit http://booksandthecity.supadu.com/creativewritingmasterclass. Miscellany Creative Industry Finance Creative Industry Finance is an Arts Council England initiative, delivered by Creative Unit. The programme is designed to assist creative and cultural enterprises in securing the finance and investment that they need to successfully develop and grow into sustainable businesses. For more information, go to www.creativeindustryfinance.org.uk. Deadline for the next newsletter 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 17 November. The next edition of The Listening Post, covering December’s literature events, will go out in late November. If you have events that you would like to submit for inclusion for this you will need to send information by 21 November 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.