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Newsletter – September 2011
5 months ago
by Writing West Midlands
in Birmingham Book Festival, Birmingham Writing Squads, Coventry Writing Squads, Events, For Aspiring Writers, For Emerging Writers, For Established Writers, For Literature Professionals And Organisations, Kidderminster Writing Squads, Links To Other Organisations and Events, Literature Festivals, New Writing, Our Organisation, Poetry, Poetry in Performance, Walsall Writing Squads, Write On! Writers in School, Write On! Writing Squads, Writer Training, Writers in Schools and Communities, Writing by Young People, Writing West Midlands
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Getting Started as a Writer in Education
6 months ago
Getting Started as a Writer in Education
In partnership with National Association of Writers in Education
Friday 16th September 2011
10.00am – 1.00pm
This workshop day aims to provide a toolkit for writers wishing to work in a range of educational fields. It is ideal for writers wanting to explore how they might look for work, who to contact, what to offer and discuss what schools and other educational settings might be looking for. There will be an introduction to current curriculum areas that are relevant to writers as well as lots of practical tips and opportunities for discussion.
Facilitators: Anne Caldwell and Jonathan Davidson
Anne is an accredited coach, poet, and Programme Manager for NAWE’s Writers Compass. She also teaches creative writing at Bolton University and for the Open University. Her latest book is ‘Talking With The Dead’ (Cinnamon press 2011). Anne has worked extensively in schools and the community over the last fifteen years working with children under five to adults over eighty.
Jonathan has worked for over twenty years in arts management and literature development, including working as a literature officer for local authorities and organising book festivals. He is joint-founder and Associate Director of the Birmingham Book Festival and Director of Midlands Creative Projects LTD. He is also Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands and runs its very successful Write On! Writers in Schools programme.
Fees £20 NAWE members, £35 non members.
Tea and Coffee provided.
The Mac Arts Centre
Edgbaston Road
Birmingham
B12 9QH
How to Book
Email a.caldwell@nawe.co.uk or tel. 07818 052108
The Birmingham Book Festival 2011
6 months ago
by Writing West Midlands
in Birmingham Book Festival, Events, For Aspiring Writers, For Emerging Writers, For Established Writers, For Literature Professionals And Organisations, Literature Festivals, Our Organisation, Poetry, Poetry in Performance, Theatre Writing, Writer Training, Writing in Performance, Writing West Midlands
The Birmingham Book Festival 2011
6-16 October
www.birminghambookfestival.org
For 13 years, the Birmingham Book Festival has been a place for ideas and conversation, bringing writing to the fore in its capacity to make us question our worlds. This year is no exception: there is much to talk about in 2011, and plenty to interrogate during the ten days of the Festival.
WILL SELF will lead us in an examination of our dependency on the car in an alternative sermon in the city’s beautiful cathedral. TONY HARRISON will bring his exceptional repertoire of striking verse and the weighty subjects that populate it, to our stage. STUART MACONIE will share his journey through the decades of our recent history in search of the tragic, shameful and glorious ‘days that made Britain’. IAN RANKIN will take us back to 1985 and a period of political turmoil with his new novel. OWEN HATHERLEY will chart the architectural wreckage of the ‘age of greed and aspiration’ of the late nineties and early noughties.
IAN LESLIE will explore how deceit is central to who we are and ingrained in our practise of art, advertising, sport, politics and war. Cuban poet VÍCTOR RODRÍGUEZ NÚÑEZ will join us in a rare UK appearance to share poetry that is ‘participatory yet not political, Cuban yet not essentially Nationalist.’ Dutch poets ELLEN DECKWITZ and DAAN DOESBORGH will delight us with their extraordinary blend of humour, rhythm and mime.
There’s more, too. A festival shop, a festival book (JENN ASHWORTH’S Cold Light, a brilliant second novel), an all night writing workshop with JUDITH ALLNATT (back by popular demand), a Fringe Festival giving opportunities to meet professionals such as TINDAL STREET PRESS and reporter SONIA FALEIRO and a specially commissioned empty shop sound installation, BOY YOU TURN ME.
Join us as we work our way around the city, inhabiting an array of interesting venues, exploring a profusion of events, workshops and conversations. Enjoy!
Grants for Writers from the West Midlands
6 months ago
Grants available for writers from West Midlands
Following the closure of Script, the recentlyWest Midlands agency for dramatic writers, some money has been given to Arvon Foundation’s grant fund specifically to help writers from the West Midlands. If you would like to attend an Arvon residential creative writing course on theatre, film, comedy, TV or radio and live in the West Midlands, please contact emma@arvonfoundation.org for information on how you can apply for a grant for up to 90% of your course.
http://arvonfoundation.org/index2.php?pid=126&subid=116
Are You Birmingham’s Next Poet Laureate?
6 months ago
It’s that time of the year again. Birmingham Libraries are currently seeking the next Birmingham Poet Laureate.
The new laureate will compete for the title against other hopefuls, performing around the city on National Poetry Day (6 October) and ending up at our Festival Launch for a special live announcement that evening.
Full Details about the scheme and how to apply can be found here. The deadline is 12th August 2011.
This is a unique opportunity to get involved with the writing community in Birmingham and promote poetry in the city. Good luck!
The Great West Midlands Poetry Relay
6 months ago
To celebrate the Cultural Olympiad Open Weekend on Saturday 23rd July 2011, ten poets will complete a poetry relay across ten locations in the West Midlands.. This will take the form of public events in different venues, including stations, libraries, Polesworth Park, Hatton Country World, a motorway service station and the Pie and Ale Pub in Stafford.
At the first location, poet A will write and perform to an audience the first segment of a collective poem. They will then join a team minibus and be taken to location two. There poet B will read the first segment and continue in that vein, writing their own segment. Then poets A and B will each perform to an audience. They will then be taken to the third location, where they will be joined by Poet C. The team of poets and segments of the poem will grow until ten segments and ten events are completed. The day will culminate in a final event featuring all ten poets and the finished pieces, at which ten racing pigeons from Project Pigeon will be released to carry the ten segments of the poem back to their Birmingham loft. The order in which they arrive back will determine the final manifestation of the poem.
Provisional schedule for the day:
| Event Time | Location | Venue |
| 8am | Stoke On Trent | Railway Station Concourse |
| 9.15am | Burton On Trent | Library Steps |
| 10.15am | Polesworth | Polesworth Abbey Park |
| 11.40am | Hatton | Hatton Country World – Toffee Shop |
| 13.10pm | Worcester/Droitwich Spa | Library/High Street |
| 14.40pm | Malvern Hills | On the top! |
| 16.05pm | Bromyard | Tenbury Road Car Park (behind library) |
| 17.15pm | Highley | Highley Station (Engine House) |
| 18.30pm | Telford | M54 Motorway Services |
| 19.35pm | Stafford | The Pie & Ale House |
** Details and exact timings are subject to confirmation. **
Come along to celebrate the Cultural Olympiad and get involved in the creation of the relay poem which will be inspired by each place the poets visit and the concept of a relay race!
Follow the relay on twitter (@gwmpr) and see where we are along our route!
Film Adaptations…
7 months ago
Roger Shannon (Producer, Swish Films) has an interesting blog on film adaptations… http://www.screenwm.co.uk/blogs/
Qualifications and training for writers working with children and young people
7 months ago
Arts Council England and Creative & Cultural Skills have set up a group to look at qualifications and training for artists across all disciplines working with children and young people. As Writing West Midlands manages dozens of writers in schools projects and similar activities (through Write On!), we are contributing to this group. And because we only know the story up to a point we are very keen to get reactions from writers, schools and community organisations; anyone who might have a role to play or might be involved.
The immediate reaction of arts practitioners is probably to say there is no need for more hoops to be jumped through. However, we are increasingly coming across writers working in schools who want to know more about the curriculum and about how they should respond in certain situations, particularly regarding child safeguarding. Also, as our recent Writers in Schools Skill Sharing Day (21st May 2011) demonstrated, there is a real appetite for sharing practice and for learning from peers. The group will take at least 18 months to come to any conclusions (there is a lot of consulting to be done). As ideas are generated I’ll write about these. In the meantime do let me have any comments or initial thoughts.
Jonathan Davidson, Chief Executive, Writing West Midlands
Professional Development Planning Sessions for Writers
7 months ago
Professional Development Planning Sessions for Writers
Presented by The Writer’s Compass (NAWE) in association with Writing West Midlands
Saturday 23 July 2011 (four sessions at 9.30–11am, 11.30am–1pm, 2–3.30pm and 4–5.30pm) Writing West Midlands offices, Unit 116, The Custard Factory, Gibb Street, Birmingham, B9 4AA
Does the idea of spending 90 minutes reflecting on your career and what you’d like to achieve with the help of someone experienced, impartial and supportive sound attractive? Perhaps you’re feeling a bit stuck and not clear how best to move forward. Considering a change in direction? Starting out? Or simply want to take stock and check you’re still on track?
Professional development planning is all about exploring where you want to get to professionally in a structured way. During the 90-minute session, you’ll have the opportunity to discuss your current situation and your vision of where you’d like to be and when; look at your skills and motivations; explore strategies for overcoming possible hurdles and consider the different sources of support you can draw on. Finally, you’ll start to map out a plan of action to achieve your goals. Before the session, you’ll be asked to complete a short questionnaire which will help to kickstart the planning process. This material, and the process as a whole, is entirely confidential.
The sessions are delivered by Philippa Johnston, Professional Development Director of The Writer’s Compass. Philippa is a Cultural Leadership PCT Accredited Coach and has many years of experience in helping writers to move forward professionally and achieve their goals.
Cost: Sessions are available at the heavily subsidized rate of £50 NAWE members and £70 non-members. For further information, please contact Philippa Johnston p.johnston@nawe.co.uk
Writer Networking Afternoon, Saturday 11th June 2011, Coventry
8 months ago
A few places are still left for…
A Writer Networking Afternoon, Coventry
Saturday 11th June, 2011, 2pm to 4pm, The George Eliot Building, Coventry University, Coventry
Writing West Midlands is promoting a gathering for emerging and established writers, targeted at those who work in and around Coventry and Warwickshire but open to any writer in the West Midlands region. This Writer Networking Meeting will be an opportunity for writers to share their experiences. We have run several similar such events over the years in Birmingham, Warwick, Newcastle under Lyme and Worcester, and writers have found them a very useful way of developing their contacts.
In addition to meeting each other (we expect around 25 writers to be present) there will be short presentations by Nick Walker of Talking Birds on his radio production work (including with BBC Radio 4), Sara Beadle of the Birmingham Book Festival on how festivals work with writers, Judith Allnatt on becoming a published novelist (now working on her third novel) and Jenny Stephens wearing her Writers’ Guild of Great Britain and theatre producer hats (with Hoopla Productions, who have a show on at The Belgrade Theatre).
Our thanks to Alyson Morris and Coventry University for supporting this event.
Cost: Free
Deadline for booking: if possible by Tuesday 7th June 2011
How to book: Get in touch via www.writingwestmidlands.org/contact