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New
Writing North news
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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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Cuckoo
Mega Survey
 Cuckoo
Young Writers, New Writing North’s young people’s programme, is looking
for Cuckoos past
and present to complete a survey on our work. Whether
you attended one workshop or one hundred, we’d love to hear from you.
The survey will help us reflect on the work we’ve done and shape the
work we do in the future, so if
you want to have an influence—plus, be in with the
chance to win £50 of book vouchers—find the short survey here.
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Read
Regional 2016 launches
 We’ve
kept in under wraps for long enough, so it was with great joy (and a
tiny bit of relief) that we finally announced the ten titles
selected for this
year’s Read Regional campaign.
From March to
June, ten writers will traverse the North of England
taking part in 80
events between them in libraries, schools, book groups
and literary festivals. Their books are now available in the libraries
of 22 local
authorities across the North. Do try to get to a local
event or borrow a book from your local library, and help us to continue
supporting libraries, writers and readers in the North of England.
Details of all events and reading guides are at www.readregional.com.
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New
board of trustees for New Writing North
We’re thrilled to have recruited several new members to
our board of
trustees. David
Roche, former CEO of Borders and Books etc., is the new
chair of the board, and is joined by Joanna Ellis, partner at The
Literary Platform; Lee
Mason, commissioning editor at Channel 4; theatre and
television director Sarah
Punshon; Jerome
de Groot, senior lecturer in English Literature at
Manchester University; and writers Ian McMillan, Michael Chaplin
and Niel
Bushnell. Read more about our new board members.
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Northern
Writers’ Awards close for entry
The Northern
Writers’ Awards closed for entry on Wednesday 3
February with 1,004 entries. Good luck to everyone who entered! We have
now begun the judging
process and will be in touch with winners in early June 2016.
The awards will be announced on 30
June 2016.
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Young
Writers’ City at Excelsior Academy
Our young writers were in the news again, as our Young Writers’ City
project at Excelsior
Academy in Newcastle culminated in a spoken word symphony
performed by students in years 8 and 9. Since September, pupils at the
academy have worked with writers Bob
Beagrie, Rowan
McCabe and Fred
Phethean to create the performance, which involved rap,
beat-boxing, spoken word and prose in some of the pupils’ many
languages including Slovakian, Spanish, Croatian, Arabic and Romanian. Read all about it at the Chronicle website.
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Man
on the Moon special offer package
Finally, to keep your little ones entertained over February half
term, we have launched a special
offer based on our 2015 children’s theatre commission
for Durham Book
Festival. If you came to the show last October, no
doubt you (like us) are still humming the tunes.
The Man on
the Moon Combo consists of children’s picture book Man on the Moon (A Day in the
Life of Bob) by Simon
Bartram (RRP: £6.99), as well as the Man on the Moon Resource Pack,
which contains an exclusive audio CD and fun activities for children
and their families
The package is available to buy for £5 from the New Writing North online shop.
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People
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Lisa Matthews,
lead poet in residence at the Northern
Poetry Library has devised the anchored terset,
a radically condensed form of poetry, using just three words. and
piloted it earlier this month for National Libraries Day. Her creation
garnered a lot of national attention, including an article on the Guardian website.
And congratulations to Debbie
Taylor, whose novel Herring
Girl, which is set in North Shields, was the most borrowed book
from Newcastle City Library in 2015. Debbie Taylor was part of last
year’s Read Regional campaign, which promotes
writers in the North of England through libraries. Read about Herring Girl in the Evening
Chronicle.
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Opportunities
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The State of the Arts
Online culture magazine The State of the Arts has
recently launched in Manchester
and is looking for volunteers
who would like to gain experience through writing articles
and editing the
various sections, which include arts, culture, and
politics features and reviews. If you are interested, contact Mattie
Roberts.
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Live
Theatre writer in residence
Live Theatre
and Northumbria
University Newcastle are seeking to appoint a playwright in residence
for twelve months, beginning in September 2016. The successful
applicant will receive a residency fee of £20,000 and
access to space, support, resources and equipment. The deadline for
applications is Monday
22 February. For more information see the Live Theatre website.
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Chorlton
Arts Festival theatre commission
Chortlton
Arts Festival is offering up to £500 (inc.
VAT) for the development and performance of a new piece of
theatre—either a one person show or a full cast production, to take
place on Wednesday
25
or Saturday 28
May at The Lloyds, Chorlton in Manchester. All
completed application forms should be submitted by Monday 29 February.
Submit at the Chorlton Arts Festival website.
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Competitions
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Dundee
International Book Prize
Submissions for the
2016 Dundee International Book Prize are invited until Friday 19 February.
The winner will receive £5,000,
a week’s protected writing time in Dundee and publication by Freight
Books. Visit the competition’s website for
all the information you should need to enter.
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National
competition for A-Level students
The 28
February deadline is looming for the Lancaster Writing Awards,
open to sixth form A-Level students across the UK. The top prize in
each of the three categories is £200
and the winning young writers will see their work on the pages of
prestigious literary journal Cake
Magazine. For more information, including word counts
please visit their website.
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The
Novella Award
Manchester
Metropolitan University has announced the opening of
its third annual
Novella Awards, with the deadline for
submissions being 29
April. This year’s competition will be judged by Lucy English,
author of Selfish
People and Children
of Light and prizes include £1000 and publication by
Sandstone Press. See www.thenovellaaward.com for
information on how to enter.
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Workshops
and networking
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North
East writers group
Writers in
the Evening is made up of writers in Newcastle and the
wider North East who get together in person and virtually to support and critique each
other’s writing. The group is free to join
and is run by volunteers; get in touch via http://www.meetup.com/Writers-In-the-Evening
to express your interest in joining.
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Writing
for Children at Haltwhistle
Author and illustrator Chloe
Daykin will lead a series of fun and stimulating
workshops at Haltwhistle
Library looking at exciting contemporary fiction, with
sessions taking place on Thursday
3, 10
and 17 March
(6-8.30pm). Workshops cost £6
each or £15
for all three; to book your place, telephone
Haltwhistle Library on 01434 321863.
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Alnwick
short stories
At three
weekly Saturday workshops (commencing Saturday 5 March,
10am-12) taking place at Alnwick
Library, prizewinning author Bea Davenport
will take you through plotting, pace and structure to help create
successful short fiction. Contact Alnwick Library via 01670 622154 to
secure your tickets (£6
each, or £15
for all three sessions).
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Jobs
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Free Word
is looking for a marketing
and communications manager to provide maternity cover
for 9-12 months in London beginning at the end of May (deadline: Monday
15 February). The post-holder will be responsible for an integrated
marketing, communications, audience development, branding and PR
strategy for Free Word, the only international centre for literature,
literacy and free expression in the world. Find out more at Free Word's website.
Theatre
Hullabaloo in Darlington is looking to recruit a marketing manager
to play a crucial role in the growth of the organisation, including the
development of The Hullaballoon; a new flagship venue specialising in
theatre for children and young people. Details of how to apply are available on their website.
Writing West
Midlands, the regional writing development agency based
in Birmingham is looking to recruit a PR & communications manager (maternity cover)
for a period of 10 months from May 2016. £22-22k pro rata for 3 days
per week. For full details and to apply, see their wesbite.
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The
Listening Post
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Fantasy
author event at Whitley Bay
Stephen Aryan,
who has written Battlemage,
the first book in the Age
of Darkness trilogy, will be presenting a talk about his
life and works at Whitley Bay Customer First Centre on Thursday 28 April
at 7pm. Tickets cost £1.50 and refreshments will be included. To book
contact the venue on 0191 643 5390
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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 22 February 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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