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New
Writing North news
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Read Regional begins!
 If you want
to support writers
in the North and your
local library service, look no further than our Read Regional programme, which sees 10 authors
taking part in events from March
to June 2016. Borrow their books; come to their events
(and if you fancy taking take part yourself, see the news item below).
In the next few weeks you can catch:
Carys Davies at Leeds Beckett University, 1 March
Hazel Osmond at Edgeley Library, 3 March
Kim Moore at South Shields Central Library, 4 March
Hazel Osmond and Carys Davies at Gosforth Library, 7 March
Ian Clayton at Headingley Library, 8 March
Chris Killen at Spennymoor Library, 10 March
Crista Ermiya and Carys
Davies at York Explore Library and Archive, 10 March
Caroline Roberts at Ponteland Library, 10 March
Carys Davies at Cottingham Library, 11 March
Ian Clayton at Keighley Library, 12 March
Chris Killen and Caroline
Roberts at Cockerton Library, 15 March
Carys Davies at Doncaster Central Library, 16 March
Kim Moore at South Elmsall Library, 18 March
Also on the campaign are Helen
Cadbury, Andrew
Forster and Rachel
McIntyre, whose public events take place later in the
spring.
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Read Regional 2017:
submit new books by writers in the North of England
Deadline for submissions: Monday
22 April 2016
We are delighted to open the call for submissions for books to be
considered for the 2017
Read Regional campaign.
Read Regional is run by New Writing North in conjunction with 22 library authorities in
Yorkshire, North East England and North West England.
Each year we select 10-15
new books by Northern authors and promote them widely
through libraries and festivals. All participating libraries purchase
bulk book orders and receive supporting marketing campaign materials. The
authors visit
libraries to give readings and to meet book groups.
A comprehensive media and social media campaign supports the project. Read more.
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Looking for a book
group?
New Writing North has 8 book groups across the North East, which meet monthly to chat
about books in a friendly
and informal setting. The New Parents book group encourages
parents to come along with or without their small children to discuss the
latest read, and there are groups in Berwick, Durham, Hexham, Newcastle, Sunderland, Tees Valley and Whitley Bay.
The groups are free to join, just drop Peter Cumiskey an email peter@newwritingnorth.com
so he can add you to our book group mailing list.
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Crime Story: Portrait
of a Criminal
 Two
award-winning writers explore
the minds of two of the most notorious criminals of
recent times.
Dan Davies
spent more than a decade writing the highly-acclaimed biography, In Plain Sight: The Life and
Lies of Jimmy Savile, which presents an uncompromising
portrait of Savile, compiled from years of interviews and dogged
research, as well an enquiry into the society that enabled him for so
long.
The event also launches Northern Writers’ Awards winner Andrew Hankinson’s You Could Do Something Amazing
with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]. The book covers the
last days of the fugitive gunman Raoul Moat, who shot three people before
going on the run in rural Northumberland. Written in Moat’s own words,
pieced together from letters and recordings, the book offers a compelling
insight into his paranoid state.
Book now for Crime Story: Portrait of a Criminal at
Live Theatre, Newcastle on Thursday 10 March.
Ticket holders will receive £8/£10
off their Crime Story festival ticket, the programme of
which will be launched on the same night.
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Opportunities
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The Carrot: Issue #4 is looking for
your work
Cumbrian online writing magazine The
Carrot is seeking
quality writing of any kind, centring on the topic of ‘Twisted Love’.
The deadline is Wednesday
23 March, and submissions are open to anyone from or living in Cumbria.
Visit www.thecarrot.org.uk or email enquiries@newwritingcumbria.org.uk
to find out more.
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RSL Brookleaze Grants
The Royal
Society of Literature has opened submissions for its Brookleaze Grants programme—open
to novelists, playwrights, poets and short story writers who would
benefit time away from their normal lives to write. A total of £5,000 is
available annually, and this may be awarded either as two grants of £2,500
or one grant of
£5,000. Deadline for the first round of submissions is Monday 11 April;
apply via www.rsliterature.org/award/the-rsl-brookleaze-grants.
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Filigree Black poetry anthology
Inscribe editor Kadija
Sesay and internationally renowned poet Nii Ayikwei Parkes
are looking for submissions for a new anthology of contemporary Black British
poetry. Applicants may submit up to three new and
previously unpublished poems. More information can be found on the Peepal Tree Press website (deadline: Wednesday 20 April).
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Competitions
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Poetry & Politics
competition
Writers have until Tuesday
1 March to submit poems—either about international politics
or political
issues closer to home—to Holland Park Press. The prize is £200 and winning
entries will also be published in the Holland Park Press online magazine;
see their website for further
information.
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Margery Allingham
short story competition
The Crime
Writers’ Association (CWA)’s short story competition is
open until Tuesday
1 March for writers inspired by the works of the
celebrated writer, Margery
Allingham. The winner will receive £1,000 and full
passes to CrimeFest
2017, taking place in Bristol. See www.thecwa.co.uk/debuts/short-story-competition
for full T&Cs.
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Mslexia seeking Short
Story Competition entries
The deadline is fast approaching for Mslexia Women's Short Story Competition 2016,
which closes on Monday
14 March. Women writers are encouraged to submit their previously unpublished short
stories of up to 2,200 words, for the chance of winning £2,000 and
optional extras. Entry costs £10. Find more details at www.mslexia.co.uk/shortstory
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Liverpool Hope
Playwriting Prize
Aspiring and established playwrights can now enter their comedy scripts
for the second Liverpool
Hope Playwriting Prize. One comedy writer could walk away
with £10,000
and the opportunity to have their play considered for production by Liverpool’s Royal Court,
while up to two Highly Commended awards of £1,500 are also
on offer. Entry costs £20 and closes on Tuesday 31 May. Find more details
at www.playwritingprize.com.
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Bridport Prize for
various disciplines
The Bridport
Prize 2016 is open for submissions to poets, short story
and flash fiction writers, as well as first-time novelists. The winning poems,
stories and flash fiction will be published in their winners’ anthology
in October. Entry costs between £8 and £20, depending on category, and
the closing date is Tuesday
31 May. Find more details at www.bridportprize.org.uk.
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Workshops
and networking
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Writers’ Retreats in
the North East
Writer Rachel Cochrane is
running two
writers’ retreats where you can bring along your own
writing and work on it for the day work in inspirational surroundings. Be
marooned on an
island at St Mary’s Island, Whitley Bay on Saturday
19 March or have your own cosy room or spot in
the pleasure gardens at The
Garden Cottage, Gibside on Sunday
3rd April. Tickets, costing between £28 and
£35, can be booked via the above links.
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Writing for Wellbeing
in York
Laura Napran’s Writing
for Wellbeing workshops offer to lead you through guided
writing activities to foster personal growth, increased mindfulness, and
emotional wellbeing. Upcoming sessions include York Yoga Studio, Acomb, York
on Sunday 20 March,
from 1pm-4pm (£25). For information on workshops and to book, go to www.writingforwellbeing.co.uk.
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Seasonal Space to
Write in Darlington
Following the success of the winter event, Seasonal Space to Write
will return to Hall
Garth Hotel and Country Club near Darlington on Saturday 9 April,
10am-5pm. Facilitated by North East poet and tutor Natalie Scott,
the session will bring together writers, regardless of age, ability or
discipline, and a buffet lunch is included. Places, which cost £35, are
limited. To register your interest, email nataliescott.poet@yahoo.co.uk.
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Jobs
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The Durham
BRASS Festival is seeking an artistic director
to re-visit the vision of the festival, ensuring a successful and vibrant
annual event for the future (fee: £20,000, with, preferably, an immediate
start. Deadline: Friday 4 March). For more information, and application
details, please see the job spec here.
The Royal
Society of Literature has opened applications for a
talented fundraiser
to play a leading role in the organisation, working from its offices at
Somerset House in London (£35,000-£40,000 per annum,
full-time/permanent).
View the job application here, and apply using the application form by Tuesday 8 March. If
you need any other information before applying, please contact tim.robertson@rsliterature.org.
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The
Listening Post
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Opera Helps across
the North
Wunderbar has launched the UK premiere of Opera Helps,
created by artist Joshua
Sofaer, taking place across the North of England.
Between March and May, a professional opera singer will be visiting applicants’ homes,
listening to their problems, and singing an aria to make them feel
better. If you’d like to harness
the power of opera to help view your troubles in a new
light, see www.operahelps.com to submit an
application.
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Newcastle talk about
fairy tales
Brian Alderson,
a pioneer of children’s literature studies in Britain, will be presenting
a free talk entitled Looking
at Children’s Books: Fairy tales? on Wednesday 9 March
(5.30-6.30pm) at Newcastle University’s Robinson Library,
in association with Seven Stories: National Centre for Children's Books.
The talk will be illustrated by material from Brian's collections of
books by the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Andersen, whose work he
has also translated.
No booking required.
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High Rise film &
book discussion
J.G Ballard’s
classic dystopian novel High
Rise has been adapted for the screen, starring Tom Hiddleston
and directed by British maestro Ben Wheatley. Join Tyneside Cinema
for a special Book Club screening of the film on Sunday 20 March,
which will be followed by an informal post-film chat, which is open to
anyone. If you would like to attend just come along, buy a ticket and
sign up as a free Book Club member on the day.
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Free as a Bard at Jam
Jar Cinema
Poets Jeff
Price, Colette
Bryce plus singer songwriter, Steve Daggett
will be performing in Whitley
Bay as part of Jam Jar Cinema’s Free as a Bard night on Sunday 20 March.
This is the first of the regular performance nights taking place in 2016
and tickets can be booked for £5 via the Jam Jar website.
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Manchester gets
Verbose
The next Verbose
live literature night at Manchester’s Fallow Café takes place on Monday 28 March (Easter
Monday) and will feature readings by members of the Manchester Left Writers group,
who recently appeared at Manchester Literature Festival with their
multimedia site-specific Precarious Passages project. Verbose is free
entry and doors are at 7.30pm. Keep up-to-date via: www.verbosemcr.wordpress.com.
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Haiku Workshop in
Whitley Bay
Poet Elaine
Cusack’s next haiku writing workshop is taking place in BooBoo & Ted,
Whitley Bay on Thursday
12 April from 7pm to 9pm. Come and learn about haiku and
have a go at writing some of your own. Participation costs £15 and
requires a £5 deposit to secure your place. Contact gail@happyplanetcreativearts.org.uk for more
information or visit www.happyplanetcreativearts.org.uk.
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T-junction Festival
returns to Teesside
T-junction Festival, which first took place in 2014, is returning 14-17 April, in
celebration of Middlesbrough
and the surrounding area’s vibrant poetry scene. Organised by publishers
Smokestack Books, Ek Zuban, Mudfog and Vane Women, the second festival
promises to be even better, with poets visiting from Jamaica, Latvia,
Pakistan, Bosnia, Finland, Palestine and Syria. Find more details at www.tjunctionfestival.co.uk
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Hexham Book Festival
line-up
The packed programme of events for the annual literary festival, which
takes over the Northumberland town every spring, has just been announced
for Friday 22
April–Wednesday 4 May. Former Governor of the Bank
of England Mervyn
King will headline, plus there’ll be appearances from Guardian journalist Luke Harding,
former Today
programme presenter James
Naughtie and comedian and writer Susan Calman,
amongst many others.
The 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death will be commemorated on Saturday 23 April
with some special workshops for children aged 7+, allowing them to
stretch their acting skills and indulge in some witty word play. Find the
full programme online at www.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 laurafraine@newwritingnorth.com.
The deadline for receipt of information for the next newsletter is 7 March 2016.
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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