|
Writers'
Centre Norwich 2014 Round-up.
What a year 2014 has been. We started with a spring full
of workshops and master-classes for writers, followed by a busy summer
including our tenth annual Worlds festival. We then plunged headlong
into an equally exciting autumn with a new festival of Noir and Crime,
aptly called "Noirwich" ; we started our series of
National Conversations about the literary world, and launched
our suite of Creative Writing courses - run
in collaboration with the UEA.
Meanwhile, we were also discussing the possible new home
of the National Centre for Writing, with Norwich City Council, and in
late autumn we announced our plans to move the centre to the city's
much loved Dragon Hall.
We are once again grateful for your continued support,
and look forward to sharing our promising, and very exciting 2015 with
you, along with welcoming you to our new home in Dragon Hall!
To find out more about our year, and all of our projects
throughout 2014, do please scroll down.
With best wishes for a happy Christmas and new
year,
Chris Gribble
Writers' Centre Norwich
|
|
New
Plans for National Centre for Writing
As you may already know, we have recently
announced some very big news about our plans to become a
National Centre For Writing.
Having spoken to Norwich City Council, we have been offered, and have
accepted, the use of the Grade I listed Dragon Hall.
Already converted to a high standard, financially and artistically this
is a fantastic option for WCN.
We will be looking to move in spring 2015, and intend to open as the
National Centre for Writing as planned in autumn 2016.
|
|
Our
Events in 2014
As always, spring and summer were busy times for WCN.
We developed a host of UNESCO City of Literature events for the Norfolk
and Norwich Festival in May, with Ray Davies, Karl Ove Knausgarrd and
Kate Mosse proving particular highlights.
Summer also saw our week long Worlds
Literature Festival return. In its tenth year, we chose the
theme of Nostalgia for debate. Over forty writers discussed this topic
in the Cathedral Hostry, over a week of salons - forming links,
fomenting ideas and leaving with new plans for future work and
collaboration.
Meanwhile, autumn saw the launch of the Crime and Noir
festival - "Noirwich"! Created
in conjunction with the UEA, the Crime Writers' Association and
Waterstones the festival
proved so popular that we are already making plans for next year's (10
- 13 Oct 2015).
|
|
|
J. M.
Coetzee at Worlds 2014.
|
|
Engaging
the UK in a National Conversation
This year we also launched our National
Conversation - a series of curated conversations exploring
the ever-changing literary landscape, posing hard-hitting questions
about the ways in which we produce and engage with writing and how we
treat writers.
We have had three events so far, taking the conversation to Edinburgh
International Book festival with Michael Rosen whose provocation
explored the point
of books. Followed by Cheltenham Literature Festival where
Will Self created a ruckus with his
provocation on literature and the digital age, generating a
great many discussions both at the event and online. The conversation then
went to the Southbank Centre, where Ali Smith
debated the value of literary translation.
With the conversation gaining momentum, we are now looking to 2015's
events, which will be held all over Britain, including Bath,
London Book Fair, Norfolk & Norwich Festival, Hay Wales, The
Bloomsbury Institute, Manchester Literature Festival and Cambridge
Literature Festival, with provocations by Binyavanga Wainana, Meg
Rosoff, Philip Gwyn Jones, Erica Wagner, Kamila Shamsie, Kerry Hudson
and others. We will even be taking the conversation across
the Atlantic to the Hay Cartagena Festival.
As a genuine discussion on topics of real import, we’d
like to hear your thoughts, so do join in the debate on our website, or
via twitter using #NatConv.
|
|
|
National
Conversation: On translation. Ali Smith and Margaret Jull Costa.
|
|
|
IdeasTap
Inspires Winners Chosen
|
|
In the
Autumn we announced our ten IdeasTap Inspires winners. This talent
development programme sees our young writers benefiting from
six months of mentoring from authors, a writing retreat, and a
showcase and launch to the industry with promotional materials.
Our winners are nearing the end of their six months, and
it is clear that they are a very talented lot. You can read extracts of
their work on
our website.
|
|
|
IdeasTap
Inspires Winners.
L-R Ed Cottrell, Lauren
Van Schaik Smith, Pooja Puri, Natasha Sutton-Williams, Stephanie Scott,
Michael Donkor, Alex Scarlett Mullen, Jonnie Bayfield and Lindsey
Fairweather.
|
|
Summer
Reads Programme gets East Anglia Reading!
As the weather warmed up we once again launched our Summer
Reads scheme. The programme has now been rolled out across
Cambridgeshire and Suffolk too, as well as spreading further into
Norfolk and over the summer we had over 6,000 books loaned through
participating libraries, and over 500 people attending events or
workshops.
Summer Reads was incredibly popular, and 65% of participants said that
they tried something new (from new foods, to joining a book group) as a
direct result of their involvement. Meanwhile, with the help of our
dedicated Readers' Circle, we are currently whittling down the
long-list of books to feature in next year's reading list.
|
|
UEA-WCN
International Writing Programme Launched
This autumn we also launched our Creative Writing
courses - UEA-WCN
International Writing Programme - which includes a
suite of online courses, as well as the opportunity to learn
face-to-face. With a beginner level, as well as a course for those more
advanced, the programme has proved popular with writers seeking to give
their writing a kick start.
Applications for the first round of courses have closed,
and we are already receiving them for our second round of courses in
April, with applicants from as far afield as India and Australia signed
up!
Led by Helen Ivory, Anjali Joseph and Ian Nettleton, these courses are
sure to prove popular and we are already programming more for Autumn
2015.
|
|
The
International Literature Network: Norwich Showcase 18-21 March.
Managed in partnership
with the British Council.
The array of featured authors includes Ali Smith, Jeanette Winterson,
Damian Barr, Patience Agbabi, Daljit Nagra, James Scudamore, Alex
Preston, Eimear McBride, Emma Healey and Helen Macdonald.
UEA Live: the buzzing Season 2,
which started this Autumn, continues in the new year with Dea Brøvig,
Will Boast, Eliza Robertson and other UEA fellows and graduates
featured alongside current Creative Writing students.
Norfolk & Norwich Festival 8-22 May.
Featuring a host of exciting writers including Alexander McCall Smith,
Rose Tremain, Neel Mukherjee, Caroline Lucas, Masha Gessen, Patrick
Barkham and Mark Cocker.
Worlds: 15-19
June.
2015's Worlds will focus on the theme of "Reputation", with
writers from as far afield as Singapore, Australia, Korea, Brazil,
Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria, Lithuania, Latvia and Germany unpicking
how literary reputations are made, manufactured and mechanised.
The new year will also see further development and expansion of our
schools, volunteering and participatory programmes with the arrival in
the spring of a new Programme Manager for Learning and Participation.
|
|
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment