News and views
Escalator Fiction: Meet our Ten Winning Writers
Posted By: Richard White, 03 February 2012
At last we have our ten winning writers!
Before I introduce you, let’s begin with a quick rundown on how they got here, and what they have to look forward to.
In October 2011 we once again put the call out to talented, unpublished novelists from the East of England, asking them to submit their writing for the Escalator Fiction Competition. Rather than the usual cash prize normally associated with literary competitions, the winners enjoy a year’s worth of development from professional writers including one-to-one mentoring and professional development workshops, culminating in a showcase event in London in September 2012. Not bad, eh?
It’s a unique offer, so we were absolutely delighted to receive the highest number of Escalator applications yet, and not only that, the quality across the board was outstanding.
Escalator winners have a satisfying habit of impressing agents and publishers (previous winners include Guy Saville, Helen Ivory, Ruth Dugdall, Susan Sellers and Nicola Upson) and our judges/mentors and all here at WCN have no doubt this year’s winners will follow in their tracks.
Enough of the context, let’s meet our winners.
Our Ten 2011/12 Escalator Literature Novel Writing Competition Winners Are:
Rebecca Atkinson
Elaine Bishop
Armando Celayo
Guinevere Glasfurd-Brown
BTI Larsson
K J Packer
Teresa Rogers
Erin Soros
Shereen Tadros
Kate Worsley
View biogs and read extracts of their writing.
Commended Writers Are:
Paul Davenport-Randell
Mary Jane Riley
Simon Coard.
We’ll be keeping you up-to-date with their progress throughout the year and beyond. If you have any questions about our winners or the Escalator scheme, email:
info@writerscentrenorwich.org.uk
What's Going On? The Norwich Showcase
Posted By: Katy Carr, 02 February 2012
Hopefully you’ve seen the news about The Norwich Showcase – where Writers’ Centre Norwich and the British Council will be bringing three groups of people together over five days in Norwich from 09th-13th March: international delegates from the world of literature; British literature organisations and 40 of the best writers writing in Britain today.
So what, I wondered, does our CEO Chris Gribble think is exciting about this project?
After thinking about it a few moments he replied:
“The Norwich Showcase is the first time we’ve tried promoting the best in literature and literature development from the UK to the rest of the world.
It’s also the first time we’ve been able to invite so many exciting literary festival programmers, publishers, cultural activists and development workers to the UK to share their experiences and tell us about programmes across the globe that we might not have heard of. I’m hugely excited by the chance both to share Norwich’s love for and experience of writing and reading, and to learn from our colleagues from as far away as Pakistan, Uganda and Brazil.
As home to UEA, the British Centre for Literary Translation and Writers’ Centre Norwich, we are really fortunate to be at the heart the UK literary scene and we hope that as a result of this first Norwich Showcase, we are able to inspire new partnerships, ideas and work within the UK and internationally.”
Indeed.
We’re also aware that many more people will want to take part than can participate, so we’re pleased to be live streaming a poetry reading with Lavinia Greenlaw, Hannah Lowe and Don Paterson on Friday 09th and a full day’s events on Monday 12th March featuring sessions on new fiction, a historical panel, a translation slam and another poetry panel.
We’re sure all the technicalities will work out perfectly.
If you’re around in Norwich in March you can also take part in the Showcase by coming along to our very exciting Literary Death Match, taking place at Norwich Arts Centre on March 12th and featuring lots of talented people spouting away for seven minutes each in a literary duel to the literary death. Find out more about our
Literary Death Match here.
As well as this there will be podcasts, films and blogs galore, and plenty of post event work will be finding its way online too.
Do keep an eye on our latest news page where we’ll be updating you about all of this, and if you have a few moments why not engage in some happy surfing from
The Norwich Showcase project page.
Events and Opportunities at the UEA
Posted By: Richard White, 11 January 2012
The UEA kicks-off its Spring Literary Festival and, as usual, it features a fantastic line-up of writers, starting with poet John Burnside (see below). They also have two Fellowships for writers of fictional or non-fictional prose. Closing dates are fast approaching so for all those interested, get cracking!
Don’t miss the start of the Spring Literary Festival Poet John Burnside will be appearing at UEA to mark the start of the festival. He will be reading from his latest collection
Black Cat Bone, for which he won the Forward Poetry Prize 2011. Tuesday 17 January, Lecture Theatre 1, 7pm.
Read More
David Wong Writing Fellowship
The David T. K. Wong Fellowship is a unique and generous annual award of £26,000 to enable a fiction writer who wants to write in English about the Far East to spend a year in the UK, at the University of East Anglia in Norwich. The Fellowship is for nine months, starting on 1 October.
Closing date for applications: Monday 16 January 2012. Application information: www.uea.ac.uk/lit/fellowships
Charles Pick Writing Fellowship
There are two Charles Pick Fellowships: the
Charles Pick Fellowship and the
Charles Pick Fellowship for South Asian writers.
Both Fellowships seek to support the work of a new and, as yet, unpublished writers of fictional or non-fictional prose. The Fellowships' dual purpose is to give promising writers the opportunity complete a major work and to develop his/her talents. Both Charles Pick Fellowships are for six months, starting on 1 October. The award is £10,000 and includes accommodation on campus at the University of East Anglia.
Closing date for applications: 31 January 2012.
Application information: www.uea.ac.uk/lit/fellowships
Despatch from China
Posted By: Kate Griffin, 11 January 2012
On the way back from Australia in December 2011, I spent a week in Shanghai and Beijing talking to Chinese writers, translators and editors about the editing culture in China (or lack thereof) and its impact on translation, and about support for writers. After a few days of intense conversation I gained a fascinating glimpse into the writing life in China today.
All those I spoke with agreed that there is both a serious need for more professional editing as well as a shortage of experienced editors within the Chinese publishing industry. Twenty years ago editors worked closely with writers on rewrites; nowadays, however, it is rare for an editor to follow a writer’s career, and writers don’t respect editors in any case.
Xu Zechen, a writer and an editor for
People’s Literature Magazine, is one of the few editors who work closely with writers, editing structurally. However, he has had no real training: most people learn editing on the job. Xu noted that the number of publishing houses and magazines is high, so entry level qualification is low, and it’s hard to find people who take the job of editing seriously.
Editing in China mostly consists of copy editing, checking characters and keeping pieces within the assigned word length. Journals and literary reviews pay by the word, so people tend to be verbose; there’s a lot of repetition and plenty of scope to distil stories. Some Chinese writers don’t like to be edited, though, and among editors there is a strong sense of hierarchy and reverence for famous and older writers.
However, younger Chinese authors told me they would be happy to have their work edited more closely and recognise the importance of structural editing. There’s also a certain amount of self-editing. One writer said that after being rejected by several Chinese publishers because of sensitive content in his work, he simply took out the offending passages; his novel will be published later this year.
The translation into languages such as English is often the first time a book is edited, so translators would do well to avoid too much fidelity. Chinese is an informal language without many rules, but takes on a more formal tone when translated into English. Other issues include cultural references, word play and tenses. Some Chinese writers also mix regional dialects (Beijing, Szechuan, etc.) into standard Mandarin. Moreover, an excessively long style is now a style in itself. All these variables pose significant challenges for the translator.
‘There are also notable differences between Chinese and Western styles of writing,’ Xu Zechen mused. He felt that Chinese fiction ‘focuses on grasping the moment, finding the mystery and pulling it out, while Western writing is more scientific. Western writers offer lifelike portraits, while Chinese writers use one or two brushstrokes to evoke details, as in landscape art.’
Traditional Chinese literary style adopts rural, oral storytelling forms that are unfamiliar to non-Chinese readers, translator Eric Abrahamsen explained. Also, Chinese writers often try to get specific messages across, and use their characters for this purpose – the opposite of show-don’t-tell narratives in which story and characters speak for themselves. Such conventions can make characters in Chinese novels ‘seem like puppets’.
Xu added that there are few good female characters in Chinese fiction, even by women writers. However, the reason Chinese writers characterise the way they do is that they are often writing for a purpose – to make a point rather than to offer a broader understanding of human nature.
Many Chinese writers do welcome editing and feedback from their translators and editors.
Sheng Keyi, author of the novel
Northern Girls (to be published by Penguin in 2012), discussed issues with her translator such as the book’s title (whether to use a direct translation or change it altogether), how to render descriptions of faces (what is a ‘goose egg-shaped face’, for example?) and countryside customs. Penguin editor Mike Tsang praised translator Shelly Bryant’s economy of language and light touch, faithful but still attractive to Western readers.
Writer
Zhu Wen maintains a lot of contact with his
translator Julia Lovell, as she passes on suggestions from his English-language editor. When Zhu started writing, he wasn’t open to being edited, but after working collaboratively in film he recognises the value of other people’s opinions. Now he prefers to receive feedback on his writing as well.
The younger generation in China reads more foreign literature than original Chinese writing, according to
writer and translator Kong Yalei. Unlike their UK counterparts, Chinese publishers produce a lot of books in Chinese translation in the belief that they will sell more copies of works by famous foreign writers than by Chinese authors, and always indicate the nationality of the author on the cover as a selling point.
The problem, I was told, is that Chinese publishers don’t edit translations well either. Some international writers have several Chinese publishers, using different translators each time, so there’s no consistency in tone and style. Few editors are specialised in editing translations, so many rely solely on the translator. Well-established translators are brands in themselves, but translators working into Chinese are not well paid: they receive only 60–100 RMB (£6–10) per 1,000 words, leading to rapid translations and low quality. As a result, people increasingly prefer to read the original English.
There is currently little opportunity for professional skills development for Chinese writers.
The Chinese Writers’ Association offers some educational programmes, but at the moment these are more useful for networking. Creative Writing MFAs are a new phenomenon in China, so it is too early to evaluate their impact or effectiveness.
Others had quite a different view of the problems facing Chinese writers, however. It is easier for writers to find their place in China now, said one critic, as there are plenty of magazines, publishers and readers. With such a focus on enabling writers to make a living, it’s all quite comfortable. But this is not good for literature, the critic continued, as it lowers the aspirations of writers. Great writing, he felt, comes from struggle and desperation, not from writing within your comfort zone.
Discuss …
Kate Griffin
January 2012
From a Masterclass to Publication - Good News from Terri Armstrong
Posted By: Richard White, 10 January 2012
Terri Armstrong attended a Writers' Centre Norwich Masterclass workshop back in June 2010, led by author MJ Hyland. She has kindly written to update us about what happened next. It's music to our ears - read on! 
In June 2010 I had already begun sending the manuscript of
Standing Water, my first novel, to agents and publishers when I saw that M J Hyland was holding a Masterclass at the Writers' Centre. I’d vowed years before to give up ‘studying’ writing, and just write (I took the Diploma in Creative Writing at UEA and had done various other classes and courses), and my novel was ‘finished’, but this was a class I couldn’t resist; M J Hyland - one of my all time favourite, most revered novelists! I felt a bit guilty only paying twenty five quid.
The group was small, and of mixed experience, but Maria Hyland gave the same incisive, direct but practical advice to all. We’d each provided her with a sample of our work a couple of weeks prior to the class and I’d picked a significant section of my book, where a revelation takes place. I’d worked on the section a lot but it was still niggling me; why didn’t it seem right? I couldn’t work out what the problem was.
When Maria returned my piece in the class I panicked - red writing everywhere! She hated it. The whole book was rubbish; I was a talentless nobody who should never have bothered. When I calmed down enough to read the comments most of them turned out, thankfully, to be positive, and the rest provided me with exactly what I’d been hoping for – the answer, at last, to why the section wasn’t working. As with the other members of the class, my piece was discussed, and everyone had an opportunity to comment, question and advise.
Following the class, I revised not only the section Maria Hyland had looked at, but the whole novel in light of new ideas and understandings I’d gained from the Masterclass.
In August 2010 I had a happy surprise, with Standing Water winning the Yeovil Literary Prize, and an incredible and much welcome £1000. After a steady stream of rejections (nice book; won’t sell) it was just what I needed to lift my writing confidence. I pushed on.
At last, in December 2010 a small independent publisher called Pewter Rose Press offered to publish Standing Water, and I accepted.
Standing Water will be published in February 2012. Maria Hyland’s endorsement: ‘A talented writer with immense natural flair’ will be on the cover. Who would have thought?
Novel launch: Standing Water, by Terri Armstrong
Join Terri at the
Book Hive in Norwich to celebrate the launch of
Standing Water.
23rd February, 6:30pm, Free.
Standing Water by Terri Armstrong
‘A completely engaging and particularly vivid story about friends and family, love and death, set, mostly, in the brutally harsh outback… A powerful tale, loaded with pertinent, and increasingly poignant issues of betrayal and redemption, loss and new beginnings… Exceptional.’
Henry Sutton.
Winner 2010 Yeovil Literary Prize
Published by Pewter Rose Press, February 2012
Peer Mentor Opportunity – Shake the Dust
Posted By: Laura Stimson, 13 December 2011
Shake the Dust is a national Slam project managed by Apples & Snakes. The project for the Eastern region is being delivered by The Garage in partnership with Writers’ Centre Norwich.
We are looking for two young people from the East of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk) to act as peer mentors on Shake the Dust. Peer mentors are young people who have taken part in slam programmes before and can inspire Shake the Dust project participants and act as role models. They should ideally be aged 16-24, but there can be some flexibility. This is an unpaid development role but expenses associated with the project will be covered.
Peer mentors will get the opportunity to:
• Take part in a national youth consortium which will input into Shake the Dust, the national Shake the Dust weekend, and the Shake the Dust legacy. The consortium is most likely to meet virtually
• Attend the national Shake the Dust weekend to represent their region (all travel, accommodation and food will be covered)
• Be part of a national ‘All Stars’ project, in which two or three teams of peer mentors will work together to create new pieces of work to be showcased at the national Shake the Dust weekend. This will be devised initially over the internet, and time will be given for peer mentors to work on the performance at the weekend itself
• Work with a wide range of poets, slam producers, young people and arts professionals from across the country as well as with each other; coming into contact with many different styles and poetics
• Improve their writing and performance skills and observe workshops at the national weekend, led by experienced poet coaches and shadows
• Share their experience of poetry, spoken word and slam project with Shake the Dust participants
Peer mentors might also have the opportunity to:
• Act as video hosts at regional finals, broadcasting interesting content before and after slam finals and during breaks
• Act as “sacrificial poets” at regional slam finals (to be agreed by steering groups)
• Take part in a national judging panel, to assess ‘guest teams’ at regional finals. Details to be confirmed
In return, peer mentors will need to:
• Be excellent role models for younger poets
• Be very good at responding to emails, without extra chasing!
• Support their regional final by acting as runners and assisting as needed throughout the day
• Commit to coming to the national Shake the Dust weekend and taking part in all activities
• Commit to contributing to the creation of a national performance piece
• Contribute a piece to the Shake the Dust blog (if asked)
Despatch from Perth
Posted By: Kate Griffin, 12 December 2011
I’m writing this from Beijing (taking the scenic route back from Australia). It’s a cold winter morning with bright sunshine, far from the heat, rain and thunderstorms of Perth, and I’m taking a little time to reflect on and share with you what I’ve learned during this trip.
The
Asia-Pacific Writing Partnership conference, organised by APWP director Jane Camens, was hosted by the University of Western Australia, coinciding with their own symposium on
digital literature in the Asia-Pacific. The university has a beautiful campus, by the lake; we were in the arts block, famous for the mating displays of the roaming peacocks, including an albino peahen who apparently doesn’t know she’s white and is distressed when her offspring don’t look like everyone else.
The theme of our conference was Writing Out of Asia, with representatives from all over the region. Much of our discussion focused on the multilingual nature of the region and the writers within it, the advantages of writing in more than one language and the importance of translation.
From left to right: Alvin Pang, Jhoanna Lyn Cruz, John Mateer, Jane Camens, Shelley Kenigsberg, Kyoko Yoshida
Worlds regular
Xu Xi, who set up the MFA in Creative Writing at City University Hong Kong is introducing a programme of creative literary translation for Asian-language literatures, as part of the MFA. The MFA is a combination of residential teaching and distance learning, using online workshops, and focuses on Asian writing and Asian Englishes. Many of the creative writing students are bilingual and some are writing in more than one language, so they are well equipped to explore literary translation. This new programme is in part to address the shortage of literary translators for Asian languages in the region. Also, although the MFA is taught in English, Xu Xi hopes that students will go on to set up their own creative writing programmes in Asian languages across the region.
Kit Kelen at the University of Macau also combines the teaching of creative writing and translation, looking at the work of classical and contemporary poets from China as well as Western Australian writing, training his students to become bilingual poets and to work across cultures. We enjoyed bilingual readings of Kit’s own work by two of his students as part of their presentation. Both Kit and Xu Xi are keen to explore possible links between their students and Norwich-based writers and translators.
Japanese writer and translator
Kyoko Yoshida writes in English, but incorporates Japanese idioms and language into her writing, creating a strange kind of English that crosses boundaries. She also co-translates contemporary Japanese experimental writing and theatre into English, as the Japanese informant for a native English speaker. For her, translation and transformation is a way of exercising her creative writing muscle, and she believes that all writers can benefit from experimenting with translation and other languages.
Cristina Hidalgo from the University of the Philippines gave an overview of the development of creative writing programmes in the Philippines from the first course in the 1960s. Although originally set up in English, many of the courses are now bilingual, English and Filipino. Also from the Philippines, Isagani Cruz talked about how he is incorporating more translation and multilingual writing into his programmes, encouraging his students to follow the example of writers such as Junot Diaz. There was some discussion of the advantages of this approach, using your other languages for concepts that don't exist in English, and creating a sense of intimacy with local readers.
Jose Dalisay from the Philippines gave a brief overview of digital literature in the Asia Pacific, talking about the varying rates of adoption (Taiwan's airport offers free access to library e-titles, for example, while Japanese publishers are very slow to adopt e-books). He also spoke about how in the Philippines digital access separates one class of society from another - Filipinos send the highest number of SMSes per day, but broadband is lagging behind and e-readers are expensive - calling into questions claims of democratisation. However he felt that the development of distance learning and e-procurement could be revolutionary.
Alvin Pang pointed out that in Singapore, despite having more mobile phones than people, readers have no access to kindle or itunes stores and find it difficult to buy books online. Alvin edited Tumasik, an anthology of 39 Singaporean writers from across the four language groups (English, Chinese, Malay and Tamil). His work on the anthology led him to recognise the need for a culture of quality literary translation in Singapore, as well as the importance of translation in allowing writers and readers from the different languages groups access to each other’s work.
In the translation roundtable we talked further about the importance of translation for crossing community boundaries within countries, as well as across the region. We started to explore the wider issues of editing and translation and audience, how to help writers in Asia get their message across without Englishing them too much (the domestication versus foreignisation debate) and who are we writing for - a local audience or an international readership. We also talked about how UK-based organisations such as Writers’ Centre Norwich and the
British Centre for Literary Translation can work in partnership with writing and translation initiatives in the region.
Overall it was a fascinating conference, with many contacts made and avenues opening up for future collaboration. My thanks to Jane Camens for inviting me, and to WCN and BCLT for funding my trip.
Kate Griffin
Beijing, 12th December 2011
www.kategriffin.org
Write For Rights This Saturday With Amnesty
Posted By: Katy Carr, 08 December 2011
Please see below for a note from our friends at Amnesty International about an event this Saturday. As a City of Refuge we hope that Norwich's Write for Rights day is fully supported by the many people we know really do care about these things. And if you can't make it down to the Playhouse, there's a big social media campaign going on on the day too - so get tweeting, buzzing, facebooking away.
Write for Rights Event
Saturday 10th December, Norwich Playhouse, 10.30-4.30
To celebrate the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International, Amnesty International Groups around the world are organising 'Write for Rights' events on 10th December (Human Rights Day) this year. The idea is to hold letter-writing events on behalf of ten particular victims of human rights violations. Here in Norwich, we'll be holding a 'Write for Rights' event at the Norwich Playhouse between 10:30am and 4:30pm. Between those times, people will be invited to drop in and write a letter about one of the campaign appeal cases.
If you are in Norwich on 10th December, please do come to the Playhouse on St George's Street to support the event.
NonfictioNow, Melbourne: Call for panels
Posted By: Katy Carr, 08 December 2011
As you will no doubt have heard Norwich is bidding to become a UNESCO City of Literature and as such we have been developing strong links with other Cities of Literature around the world. Melbourne, Australia is one such city, and they have asked us to let nonfiction writers know about their NonFictioNow conference in November 2012 for which they are currently searching for panels. See below for full details from RMIT University.
THE BEDELL NONFICTIONOW CONFERENCE IN MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA
A conference exploring the past, present, and future of nonfiction and its myriad forms.
NOVEMBER 21-24, 2012,
Featuring David Shields and Helen Garner
in Melbourne, Australia, a UNESCO City of Literature
RMIT University 2012
Call for Panels
NonfictioNow, The Bedell Nonfiction Conference, is a biennial gathering of over 400 nonfiction writers, teachers, and students from around the world. Panels and readings highlight the myriad forms of nonfiction from the video essay, documentary, and graphic essay to the memoir, lyric essay, and literary journalism. Past keynote speakers have included Patricia Hampl, Pico Iyer, Lauren Slater, and Richard Rodriguez, among others.
NonfictioNow is one of the most significant gatherings of writers, teachers and readers of nonfiction from around the world.
Three full days of panels, screenings and events will centre on the practice, thinking, communication and writing of nonfiction in all its forms to be hosted by RMIT University in November 2012.
The Bedell NonfictioNow Conference seeks panels that showcase the diversity of the genre. Panels should have a minimum of three panelists, including the moderator. Panels can explore any aspect of nonfiction ranging from the celebration, discussion or tribute to the work of a particular essayist, or a discussion an aspect of memoir, ethics, the lyric essay, literary journalism, travel writing, food writing or regional writing. Panels that explore nonfiction at or beyond the margins of the literary, such as film, radio and online forms, are also welcome. In addition, a small number of proposed readings will be accepted for the conference.
Please note that the conference will not be able to pay for the travel or accommodation of panellists.
The call for panels is now open.
Access to HE - Creative Writing - Applications Open
Posted By: Anonymous, 05 December 2011
We are once again supporting the City College Norwich Access to HE course; if you are interested please peruse the details below, and do watch out for news from previous years' students, which will be coming soon.
Access to HE - Creative Writing
School/Department: School of Creative Arts
Course Level: Level 3
Course Description:
The essential aims of the course are to make writing practices, contexts and applications accessible to a wide range of participants. To do this the course is structured so as to initially give writing experiences as diverse as possible, and then encourage individual specialisation along one of two strands: writing for performance or writing for publication.
Within this remit the course will teach core skills: knowledge of genres, literary and social contexts, critical awareness, close-reading skills. It will also apply these skills within contemporary and popular forms: song lyrics, children's fiction, writing for the web and games. Furthermore, whether traditional or contemporary, the delivery method will focus on the experimental, often using the interdisciplinary arts expertise that the School has readily available in key related disciplines.
Subjects and Syllabus Details
Stage 1 includes the following units:
• Research and Context (3 credits)
• Introduction to Writing on Location (3 credits)
• Introduction to Mechanics of Writing (3 credits)
• Introduction to Dialogue (3 credits)
• Introduction to Future of the Book (3 credits
• Digital Publishing (3 credits)
Stage 2 includes the following units:
• Research (3 credits)
• Thematic Project (6 credits)
• Writing for the Public Project - Persuasive Power of the Word (6 credits)
Stage 3 has optional units. Students select either all the units in Writing for Books and Journals or all the units in Writing for the Spoken Word.
Writing for Books and Journals includes:
• Contemporary (3 credits)
• Children's Books (3 credits)
• Journals (3 credits)
• Self-Directed Study (6 credits)
• FMP (12 credits)
Writing for the Spoken Word includes:
• Poetry (3 credits)
• Song Lyrics (3 credits)
• Theatre (3 credits)
• Self-Directed Study (6 credits)
• FMP (12 credits)
For further information please contact:
Drew Webster
Email: a2webste@ccn.ac.uk
Amanda Addison
Email: aaddison@ccn.ac.uk
Or telephone 01603 773311 and ask for admissions
Please note that although the information given is believed to be correct at the time of publication, courses and costs may be subject to change.
More Good News: Catching Up With Escalator Writer Liz Ferretti
Posted By: Katy Carr, 21 November 2011
"I would never have even thought about writing without Escalator!"
One of the nicest parts of my job is the constant flow of updates that ping into the WCN inbox from past Escalator graduates as to their progress.
The writers update us on their literary developments which makes for gratifying reading, and quite perks one up (especially if what you're working on is Access Database related).
This news is just in from Elizabeth Ferretti, who went through the Escalator Literature programme in 2007. Rather than paraphrase her news, here it is direct from Liz herself:
"Having 'finished' Archipelago at the end of this summer I started sending it out into the big wide world. Last week, I found out that the novel has been longlisted for the Mslexia Novel Competition. I was doubly pleased when Guy Saville told me that 100 books had been longlisted out of 1800 entries! I have also been shortlisted for a competition run by Words With Jam. The extract I sent in will be published in the December issue I think.
The book is currently with an agent who I am waiting to hear from...
I always think with great gratitude of the work you all did for me through Escalator...I would never have even thought about writing without Escalator!"
Ahhhh. Warm glow.
If you're someone who'd like to join the long list of Escalator Alumni who continue to perk us all up with their good news, then it's not too late to get on board the 20011/12 Escalator Fiction Competition.
Deadline November 29th. Come on - what are you waiting for?
A HELPING HAND FOR WRITERS
Posted By: Katy Carr, 21 November 2011
America's Largest Not-For-Profit Literature Organisation
Earlier this year I took part in some training, part of which involved being paired up with an organisation in New York. Michael Royce from The New York Foundation For The Arts set us all up with relevant partner organisations and then sat in, invisible but omniscient, on our first Skype calls.
So the first time that I met Bonnie from Poets & Writers was through the pixellated screen of our laptop, with the occasional cough coming through from the invisible man on the third connection. Myself and Bonnie were both a little nervous, especially as we had no particular brief other than to talk and to try to find ways in which we could beneficially work together.
However after a few minutes I soon realised that I had been particularly lucky in having been paired with this organisation. As Bonnie outlined all the work Poets & Writers do; their wide scope, community expertise and all the services they run for writers, I saw all kinds of useful possibilities opening out.
As Bonnie outlined in that first chat, Poets & Writers was founded in 1970, and is America's largest non-profit literary organisation. It serves poets, fiction writers, and creative nonfiction writers, with offices in New York City and Los Angeles.
Importantly, many of the services that they offer writers in America are open to writers from across the world; including grants (Poets and Writers manage and distribute a large amount of funding for literary events in America).
It’s been interesting to learn about the different ways funding works. Here, writers can apply for grants individually through the Arts Council or other bodies or trusts. In America it works differently – writers can pitch their ideas to literary organisations first, then get those organisations to apply for the funding. So if you’re interested in working in America, please do bear this in mind.
Poets and Writers are in fact very keen to establish links with writers through our network. So if you’re interested, why not have a browse of their website where you’ll find out about what they have to offer. You can:
•
Sign up for newsletters for prompts to encourage your writing or subscribe to the Poets & Writers magazine
•
Get funded for events in America (by initiating readings or workshops at American organisations that may want to host your event and asking that organisation to apply to P&W on your behalf)
•
Upload your details into their database of artists
•
Network and chat in their virtual writers room – the Speakeasy Message Forum
•
Browse their many writers’ resources and find news of competitions, submissions, requests and exchanges.
We are enthusiastically continuing our relationship with Poets & Writers, and if you’re a writer or in the world of literature development then I heartily recommend that you start getting to know them too.
http://www.pw.org
Many thanks to the Train to Captivate programme, the New York Foundation For The Arts and Arts Council England for facilitating this partnership.
The 2012 Café Writers Norfolk Commission is open for submissions
Posted By: Richard White, 17 November 2011
The Café Writers Norfolk Commission is an annual prize awarded to a Norfolk poet to produce a pamphlet of poems in response to Norfolk. Previously only open to recent graduates, we now welcome submissions from anyone who lives in the county or has an NR postcode. The prize includes £3,000 and the publication of a pamphlet by Gatehouse Press. This year’s judges are George Szirtes, Helen Ivory, Kate Birch and Chris Gribble.
The prize is to encourage an emerging poet in the difficult early stages of establishing their writing career. Café Writers supports writers at all stages of their development from beginners right through to well established names. The Commission Patrons are Kate Birch and Dominic Christian. Kate says: “The Commission has proved to be an ideal way to celebrate the richness and variety of Norfolk, while at the same time promoting and supporting at least some of the many talented poets who are inspired by it. We are very proud to be part of it all.”
The Commission is a strand of Café Writers, which holds
monthly live literature events upstairs at Take 5, Tombland. Past winners of the Commission include Meirion Jordan (
Strangers Hall), Laura Elliott (
Bridge) and Angus Sinclair (
Another Use of Canvas) who have all been short-listed for the East Anglian Book Award.
How to Enter
Entries should include 12 pages of your poetry (this need not be on the topic of Norfolk) and a 400 word proposal that outlines your approach to creating the work for the pamphlet. Please provide 4 copies of your entry.
The deadline for submission is 7th December 2011. The winner will be announced in March 2012. Please mark your envelope clearly as ‘Café Writers Norfolk Commission’ and send your submission and £5 handling fee to Café Writers, The Butchery, 168a Silver Road, Norwich, NR3 4TH
Ed Cottrell's final hurrah!
Posted By: Edward Cottrell, 01 November 2011
In February 2011 I was awarded a DCMS Jerwood Creative Bursary, which funded my placement as Digital Media Officer at Writers’ Centre Norwich. It’s now the 28th October at 5.30pm. It’s the end of my last day working here and, in fact, my last day as a resident of the fine city. Reflecting back on the last eight months is daunting - settling in anywhere seems to be a constant process that only feels complete once moving on.
I've been very fortunate to get such a vivid and enjoyable look at how a literature organisation works - especially one with such an idiosyncratic remit and ethos as Writers’ Centre Norwich. Festivals? They got it covered. Community programmes? Tick. Helping up and coming writers? Of course. Year-round workshops with world-class writers? …anyway you get the idea.
Professionally I’ve gained a great deal of experience working at specialist events such as Worlds, as well as participating with projects like Summer Reads, Escalator, and Well Versed. I was the one holding a camera, asking questions,
putting together videos, and linking us up to
iTunes and
Soundcloud. Or occasionally writing articles and shouting about us on
twitter and
facebook.
And personally, well…it’s been a nightmare. ONLY KIDDING. The staff at Writers’ Centre Norwich are the best bunch you could hope to work with. I fear that I am spoiled for future employers. Utterly, butterly, spoiled, and grateful.
Anyway. I hope you can tell I’m very sad to be leaving.
Scroll down to enjoy a selection of films and podcasts created by Ed Cottrell during his time here at Writers' Centre Norwich. We would like to thank Ed once again for all of his help and creativity. Whoever gets him next will be very lucky indeed!
Films:
Audio Jon McGregor at Worlds Literature Festival 2011: an Afternoon Reading on the Novel by Writers' Centre Norwich
John Boyne and Joseph O'Connor, Interview and Discussion for UNESCO City of Literature by Writers' Centre Norwich
The Escalator Literature Fiction Competition is Open!
Posted By: Richard White, 18 October 2011
Yes, that’s right, Escalator Literature is back. A year of delicious literary development could be yours and this time we’re looking at you, fiction writers!
If you’re resident in the East region, write high quality long-form fiction and think that a period of structured support would enable you to develop artistically then read on – we look forward to hearing from you.
Enter the Escalator Literature Fiction Competition
"Thank you for all the wonderful events and opportunities to learn along the way. These were terrific days, greatly appreciated, always inspirational, and insightfully chosen.”
Martin Ungless, Winner 2009/10
Are You A Novelist Ready To Get Professional?
Deadline: Tuesday 29th November
The Escalator Literature is a unique writing competition which offers you much more than the usual cash prize.
About the Competition
Open now, the Escalator Literature Competition 2011 is for you if you are a novelist from the East of England who wants to get professional. Enter now if you think you would benefit from:
• One-To-One Mentoring
A year’s worth of support from professional writers (Tobias Hill, Joanna Hines, Bernardine Evaristo, Katharine McMahon and Michelle Spring) – invaluable. Read their biogs here.
• Supported Applications For Grant
You will be coached through an application for an Arts Council England Grant for the Arts award.
• Professional Development Workshops
A tailored range of workshops designed to give you the information you need to get ahead in the writing world.
• Introductions To Agents and Publishers
Your work will be introduced to agents, publishers and other industry professionals and you will take part in a special London reception at the end of the year promoting you and your work.
• Peer Support
Across 2012, ten winning fiction writers will be supported through Escalator Literature. Many of our Escalator graduates are still in touch with their group and find it of invaluable benefit to go through the year talking to each other.
When?
The Escalator Literature Fiction Competition is open now. Submissions must reach us by Tuesday 29th November.
It Works
Escalator Literature is an Arts Council funded initiative and has been running for six years. Many Escalator Literature prize winners have gone on to find agents and get published: Guy Saville, Helen Ivory, Susan Sellers and Nicola Upson are all graduates of the scheme.
Case Study: Guy Saville
“So, four years on from winning Escalator, things couldn’t be going better. Now all I need to do is finish book two...”
“Afrika Reich did really well in hardback, selling more than 10,000 copies which makes me the 11th best selling debut of 2011. It also reached number three in Spain’s charts (no doubt helped by a week long publicity tour of Madrid and Barcelona) and the paperback has also got off to a flying start. All in all, not bad for a book which the majority of publishers in this country said had no commercial appeal!...I’ve also just had some more good news... The book has now sold to America in a major two-book deal with Henry Holt, part of Macmillan. It will be published next year in the US.”
October 2011
Who Can Apply?
We welcome applications from writers of ambitious, high quality long-form fiction, which may include genre or teen novels but not children’s or non-fiction. Escalator Literature is open to writers currently resident in the East of England, who think that a period of structured support would enable them to develop artistically. Successful applicants will demonstrate considerable creative talent and potential for development and will commit to the Escalator Literature scheme and the work they undertake as part of it.
Eligibility Guidelines:
Applicants must
• Be over the age of 18 years old
• Be resident in the East of England (Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk)
• Application must be in written in English
• Submit single authored works only
• Demonstrate creative talent and potential for development
• Be available to attend a mentoring session on 21 January 2012
Applicants must not
• Be studying for a full time academic qualification in creative writing at the time of applying for the GFTA (January 2012)
• Applicants must not have previously published or self published a full length work of fiction.
• Applicants must not have received an Arts Council Grant for the Arts in the previous three years
• Applicants must not be employees of Writers’ Centre Norwich
Want to Apply? Here’s How:
Apply and Pay Online:
Please pay online here, filling in the questionnaire and then printing out your e-receipt. You will need to pay a processing fee of £5 online, and we accept credit and debit cards.
Applicants may not apply more than once.
If you have not already registered with Writers’ Centre Norwich you will be asked to register.
If you are unable to pay online please contact us on 01603 877177.
Then Send Us Your Application:
Once you have paid online please submit the following by post:
• A Sample Of Your Work (3 x copies)*
Up to 3000 words typed (hand-written submissions will not be accepted), single-spaced 12pt on A4. Note – this sample of work should be a sample of work that demonstrates the quality of your writing and should be an extract from a piece of longer writing.
• An Application Letter (3 x copies)*
Please send a type-written covering letter no longer than one side of A4 paper including:
• The context and scope of your writing submission
• A short biography of your writing history
• An explanation of where you are in your writing life and how you would benefit from Escalator Literature
•
The Receipt From Your Online Payment
*Please include your online booking reference number on all copies of your documentation. You can include your name on your application letter, but please do not include it on your writing submission.
Please send the receipt for your online payment along with three copies of your writing sample and three copies of your covering letter to:
Escalator 2011/12
Writers’ Centre Norwich
14 Princes Street
Norwich
NR3 1AE
DEADLINE: Tuesday 29th November 2011
Your application must reach our office by this date
If you need further information about the Escalator Fiction Competition then we are very happy to talk to you informally and answer any questions:
Please contact: Laura Stimson on 01603 877177. Email: Laura.stimson@writerscentrenorwich.org.uk
Last year’s Escalator was for poets and it was open nationally. Visit the 2010/11 project page or alternatively, find out how they got on in this short film:
What Happens Next?
The ten Escalator winners and commended applicants will be notified by Friday 13th January 2012. Good luck!!