New Writing North Introduction to Book Publishing webinars, 18 and 19 November 2020

 With details of the FREE webinars and more:

Would you like to work in publishing? Join our free webinars this November for expert advice and insight   On 18 and 19 November (2-5pm) we will be hosting two afternoon webinars for aspiring publishing professionals. Join us to find out how publishing works and the roles you could work in, as well as to gain invaluable advice on how to break into the industry. The free webinars are open to everyone, including young people, students and graduates. You may be actively pursuing a career in publishing or just interested to find out more about this exciting industry. As people working across publishing share their knowledge and insights, you will benefit from hearing about a wide range of experiences, from established professionals to more junior staff who have recently entered the industry.  The Introduction to Book Publishing webinars are free to attend and will take place on Zoom.   Find the full programme and reserve your free space now      Introduction to Book Publishing is produced by New Writing North and publishing professional Heather O’Connell, and sponsored by The Printing Charity.   New Writing North PO Box 1277, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 5BP Tel: 0191 204 8850 office@newwritingnorth.com     Share     Tweet     Forward

News from New Writing North: 30 October 2020   Durham Book Festival – don’t miss out! We have just about caught our breath from our first ever digital Durham Book Festival. Thank you to everyone who joined us over the 10 days of the festival. If you missed any events, they are all still available to watch for free on Crowdcast until 1 November. Find all the events here. This year we also commissioned a huge range of essays, podcasts and videos by incredible writers both connected with the North East and working internationally, including Fatima Bhutto, DBC Pierre, David Almond and many more. Find the 2020 commissions here and our extensive New Narratives for the North East series here.    Introduction to Book Publishing – Free webinars Are you interested in a career in publishing? This 18 and 19 November we will be hosting two free afternoon webinars for aspiring publishing professionals, students, and graduates. Drawing on expertise from across publishing, the sessions will give you an introduction to the industry, the roles you could work in, and advice on how to break into publishing. Find out more and reserve your free space.    High Street Tales: opportunity for a writer-in-residence in North Shields We’re looking for a writer-in-residence to tell the stories of the high street in a national project with Historic England. As New Writing North’s writer in residence you will create a story about North Shields. We are seeking a socially-conscious writer who either lives in North Shields, is from there, or who has a connection to the town that would inform and make richer this commission. Find out more about this opportunity and apply by 10am on Monday 2 November   Six freelance roles to work on Sky Writes We are excited to be working with Sky Studios on Sky Writes, a new talent development programme which seeks to identify and nurture television writers from under-represented groups who are based in the North of England. The programme has been created to help diversify the pool of television writers in the UK. From Spring 2021 will be working in three areas – Gateshead, Rotherham and Blackpool – and we’re looking for a Sky Writes Coordinator and Writer in Residence for each area. Find out more about the roles and apply by 12 noon on 6 November.   We're excited to be a partner in the Being Human Festival, where we host the Forty Winks Café on 19 November, 7-8.30pm.  Trouble sleeping? Worried about coronavirus? Want to find out more about representations of sleep, health, and illness in contemporary culture, as well as sleep health? Brew your favourite relaxing tea and get cosy at our virtual café! Chaired by Claire Malcolm, we will be hearing from Northumbria University academics, Professor Katy Shaw, Dr Diletta De Cristofaro and Professor Jason Ellis, as they discuss sleep health and contemporary culture. This is a free online event, book your place here.   NWN Young Writers update We’re really proud of our fantastic Reviewers in Residence who have reviewed events from this year’s online Durham Book Festival. Check out their reviews here!   Young Writers also held an exciting Introduction to Publishing Day in partnership with Faber and Faber on Friday 16 October. Aspiring publishers aged 18-25 were able to learn about the industry first-hand from professionals across Faber (via Zoom), as well as participate in a Q&A with writer Ingrid Persaud. As one attendee put it: “As a graduate and being from the North of England, sometimes it can be difficult to gain a real insight into the London publishing industry. All the staff from Faber were so enthusiastic and inspiring - I absolutely loved it”. Thanks again to Faber and Ingrid for this amazing opportunity. Finally, our Young Writers groups continue to meet weekly online via Zoom, most recently in our Halloween ‘Zoom of Doom’ last night with horror writer Matt Wesolowski! If you know a young northern writer aged 12-19 who would like to join in our fun, accessible workshops please email youngwriters@newwritingnorth.com for further details.   People and publishers   The Emma Press have released The Emma Press Anthology of Illness, a new collection edited by  Amy Mackelden and Dr Dylan Jaggard, with illustrations by Emma Dai’an Wright. The anthology explores what we wish people knew about being ill, and whether finding that 'new normal' is ever possible. Congratulations to Bishop Auckland writer Avril Joy whose poem Skomm, which won The York Prize, has been highly commended in the Forward Prize single poem and appears in the Faber Forward Prize Anthology 2021. Faber Children’s has relaunched the FAB website to showcase the exceptional work of writers, illustrators and publishing professionals from underrepresented backgrounds. This new platform will share a range of features, interviews and conversations on a weekly basis, launching with a Q+A from award-winning illustrator Dapo Adeola. Phoebe Walker's debut poetry pamphlet, Animal Noises, is now available from Green Bottle Press. Green Bottle will be hosting a Zoom launch for its three 2020 pamphlet debuts on 31 October. Free tickets available via Eventbrite. Liverpool based author Patrick Graham has published his first novel, The Three Little Jamaicans. Suitable for all ages, the book tells the story of three siblings and their lives between Jamaica and England. The book is also available from the News from Nowhere Book Shop in Liverpool. Green Spaces, a new book published jointly by North Tyneside Council and Northern Voices Community Projects, is out now. Compiled and edited by Keith Armstrong and Peter Dixon, the collection is a celebration of the importance of books and green spaces in North Tyneside, particularly in these times of social crisis. Poet Penny Boxall has released the collection In Praise of Hands in collaboration with woodcut artist Naoko Matsubara through Ashmolean Museum Publications. Congratulations to Anna Woodford, who was the winner of the English language Wigtown Prize with her work Portrait of My Grandparents as Souvenirs. The winner of Scots language version of the prize was won by Newcastle based Robert Duncan, with his story A Drystane Dyke. Local indie press InkyLab's latest anthology of short stories and poetry, Tears O'er A Tin Box, a special edition collaboration with veterans' charity The Poppy Factory, is due out shortly to commemorate Remembrance Day. It will be available on their website along with previous anthologies and details of upcoming projects, as well as how to submit your own writing. Congratulations to Mari Hannah, winner of Capital Crime's 'Crime Book of the Year' award for 2020 with her novel Without a Trace, a crime thriller that mixes international disaster with personal tragedy. Ian Dawson's new novella Rain God tells the story of rain and death in a city where madness is winning: it infects the sewers, lives in pipes, has a hook for a hand, no eyes and filed teeth. Find out more and buy your copy here.   Competitions, awards and prizes   TLC are now open for submissions for the BESEA Free Reads. With a generous donation from Indonesian writer Jessica Ginting, they are calling for submissions from British East and South East Asian Writers of fiction. One writer will be awarded a FREE manuscript assessment and follow-up one-to-one session (worth £790) thereafter with a professional editor who specialises in their genre. Deadline 13 November. Harper Collins have opened applications to their new free Author Academy 2021 for writers from underrepresented ethnic backgrounds. If you want to find out more, follow this link to apply. Sunspot Literary Journal have launched a new competition, accepting all types of prose from flash fiction and poetry to stories and essays, including scripts and screenplays. Entry fee $5, winning prize £500 along with publication. Submit here. Deadline 31 December.   Opportunities and jobs   Arts Council England's fund Developing your Creative Practice (DYCP) is open again for new applications. The fund is for individuals who are cultural and creative practitioners who want to take time to focus on their creative development. Deadline 5 November. Doncaster Creates are looking for Doncaster based writers to read a passage of their work (max. 3 minutes) in a livestreamed Open Mic event in collaboration with the Booker Prize. To apply, email booker@doncastercreates.org with a written copy or video recording of your reading. Writers of all ages, styles and abilities welcome. Please note before applying, you will need to be in attendance on Thursday 26th November. Doncaster Creates also invite Doncaster residents to join their campaign ‘The Books That Made Us’. Send a short video introducing yourself and naming a book that has inspired or changed you in some way to booker@doncastercreates.org. Participants automatically get the chance to win a copy of one of the shortlisted books. The National Centre for Writing is offering three one-week residencies to UK-based Black and Brown literary translators working from any language into English, as part of the Visible Communities programme. The residencies will take place in the cottage at Dragon Hall, Norwich UNESCO City of Literature, with appropriate COVID-19 measures in place. They will offer one week of time to translate, a Zoom meeting with a mentor and an appearance on their Writing Life Podcast. Deadline Monday 9 November. The National Centre for Writing is also collaborating with Passa Porta and Flanders Literature to offer a one-month writing residency in Brussels in spring 2021. This residency will offer a writer from England a quiet place to write. There will also be the opportunity to take part in public events and to meet and collaborate with fellow authors and translators. Deadline Monday 16 November.   Digital workshops, events and podcasts   The Twisting Ducks Theatre Company are running Perspectives, a series of live creative writing, poetry and spoken word performance nights run by Spectrum, Newcastle artists with autism. Catch the last of the shows on Thursday 26 November. Spectrum are also running free creative writing, poetry and spoken word workshops for people with learning disabilities and autism as part of Perspectives. Take part in an online workshop and create your own piece of original work at the last workshop on Wednesday 18 November. Find out more here. Book your place for From Irish Fever to Chinese Flu, The Racialisation of Epidemics: Two Academics and Four Poets Respond, an evening of contextualised poetic consideration of the way nations are stigmatised by disease. Featuring poets Ian Duhig, Jennifer Lee Tsai, Anna Chen and Kit Fan, along with academics Professor Don MacRaild and Professor Louise Ryan.  Poet Claire Lynn runs inspiring and friendly creative writing workshops online, suitable for all levels of experience. For more information contact her via email at claire@claire276.plus.com Everwitch Theatre is releasing Bomb Happy, a play that recreates the real experiences of five D-Day Normandy Veterans, as a audio play to commemorate the 75th anniversary of VE Day. The play will be available in three parts on Everwitch Theatre's Youtube channel from Friday 6 November. Explore York are running Zoom workshops with writers Penny Boxall and Janey Dean to help people create poems around the experience of living through Covid-19 as part of their World Turned Upside Down project. Sign up to workshops here. The Northern Writers Studio is a new project aimed at bringing writers together. All the workshops, groups and sessions are online and led by Northern writers. Join in with their Gather Writing Group, a month-long development group to plan and work on your writing project and their Friday Write-In, a set of free weekly writing sessions via Zoom starting Friday 6 November.       If you have news that you would like to be considered for inclusion in the newsletter please contact victoria@newwritingnorth.com. The deadline for receipt of information for the next newsletter is 23 November 2020. 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.   New Writing North PO Box 1277, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 5BP Tel: 0191 204 8850 office@newwritingnorth.com     Share     Tweet     Share     Forward

New Narratives for the North East  In order to thrive we need strong narratives and stories, which help shape our collective imagination.  In late 2019, we launched the call-out for New Narratives for the North East, a major commissioning strand for new work across genres. We felt the region needed new narratives to tell its story and to help shape its future. Brexit; the 2019 General Election; a pandemic in which areas of the North East have been amongst the worst hit in Britain. The pieces may have been commissioned and written during a period of massive change for the region. Yet, the 15 writers were asked to look beyond the flux and rhetoric of the current moment to capture something deeper and more lasting about the contemporary North East and its people. We're delighted to share with you this new work now, published as part of Durham Book Festival.    Tynedale by Bullet Train is Alex Niven's creative non-fiction work examines the political and human aspects of travel and movement in the North East. Read it here A Dream Come True is Andrew Hankinson's creative non-fiction piece about the North East’s enthusiasm for shopping and how the Metrocentre filled the transitional period for the region after heavy industry had gone. Read it here In Welcome to the West End, Year 11 student Bethan Curley evokes the spirit of Benwell in the West End of Newcastle, in a poem inspired by its diverse community and sense of a neighbourhood teeming with life. Read it here   Telling the unsettling tale of Regina and Barates in a work of creative non-fiction, Bronwen Riley  explores the relationship between a Syrian migrant and a southern British slave living on Hadrian’s Wall under the Roman occupation. Read it here In a collection of micro-fictions, Finfolk, Carmen Marcus tells mythic stories about the North, its people and their relationship with the sea. The sea offers a powerful new narrative to explore as it occupies absences, roars over silences and remembers what was lost. Read it here The North is a wild place. For centuries it lay at the furthest edge of civilisation. Now, all of us need to be rewilded if our damaged earth is to survive. In David Almond's Sing the North, he shows that the North is both ancient and forever new. Read it here   Year 13 student India Hunter works weekends in a Chinese takeaway in Teesside. This is the setting for her poem Winged Docs, inspired by a typical night at work and the people she meets there. Read it here JA Mensah's The Real Bernicians, or How to Create a Country is a short story set in a world that is similar to our own. On 31st January 2020, the UK leaves the EU and Scotland leaves the UK. On this day, a forgotten area of land between England and Scotland, once fiercely contested, suddenly belongs to no one. Read it here “If God had intended Geordies to surf, some would say, he wouldn’t have invented football”. In Immersion, a creative non-fiction piece, Lauren Davies  explores the little-known surf culture of the North East coast, spanning Tynemouth’s Longsands to Seaton Sluice and Blyth. Read it here   Using reportage, poetry, verbatim speech and found poetry Lisette Auton's Writing the Missing explores a new narrative for disabled culture in the North East. Read it here  You can also watch a playback of Lisette's film, inspired by this piece here Lyndsey Ayre has been exploring the city of Newcastle upon Tyne since she was thirteen. In Street Life she walks the city to explore the changing profile and experience of the city and to investigate how it has changed. Read it here In DH1: A Tale of Two Cities, Melissa Tutesigensi charts her time in Durham as a student and explores the dualistic experience of the city and the multi-layered textures of identity that exist there. Read it here   Taking as her starting point the stories of the community of the REfUSE café in Chester le Street, Mim Skinner's Camaraderie and Chaos tells a story of how North East communities come together in response to challenges and express unity in the face of adversity. Read it here In, Making Work for Ourselves, Richard Benson has written a narrative non-fiction documenting the relationships between work, innovation and self-image in today’s North East. Read it here In A Wicked Issue – The case of Dominic Cummings, and who speaks for the North-East, Richard Kelly investigates how  Durham-born Cummings shaped his unique philosophy and whether he is more on the side of the North East than people might think. Read it here   New Narratives for the North East Podcast "They tell us that we live on a tiny crowded island. They try to tell us that we are tiny within ourselves. Tell them to come up here with the skylark, to forget what they think they know, and to look down upon the vastness of the North." David Almond, from Sing the North. Hear from many of the writers involved in the project about the ideas that inspired their work and also their relationship with the region and regional identity. Through interview and extracts of their work as well as the varied sounds of the North East, many of the themes of the work come to the fore. Here we discuss what makes this part of England distinct and what its future might look like. The characters that emerge are not just those of the writers, but also that of the sea, or the Wall, or indeed the multi-faceted region itself. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent. Episode One: Sing the North David Almond’s commission, ‘Sing the North’, takes centre stage, interwoven with the voices of other writers as we take a journey upon birdwing across the North East. Listen here Episode Two: This Edge Here we explore the North-East’s relationship with its borders, of land and sea, and how being on this edge informs its character, communities and perspectives. Listen here   Episode Three: The City is a Language Join us to explore the North East’s distinctive urban spaces and explore how those on the inside read and think about our cities and towns. Listen here Episode Four: About the Future This episode looks forwards, refiguring the North East’s heritage, opening new ideas and exploring potential future narratives for the region as we look to the future.  Listen here   New Narratives for the North East is created by New Writing North for the North East Culture Partnership and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, Durham Book Festival, and Arts Council England.   New Writing North PO Box 1277, Newcastle upon Tyne NE99 5BP Tel: 0191 204 8850 office@newwritingnorth.com     Share     Tweet     Forward