THE INKY SHEFFIELD WRITERS NEWSLETTER Winter 2004 - 2005 No. 32 ______________________________________________________ Inky News Find Peace by ..... "Keeping the Pen Moving!" Natalie Goldberg's primary piece of advice is "keep your pen moving" or in other words - let yourself keep writing and let your thoughts keep flowing. Natalie Goldberg is a writer, poet and teacher whose methods and approaches to creative writing have been influential and widely recognised in the writing world. Sheffield based poet and teacher, River Wolton, recently had the opportunity to attend and work on one of Natalie Goldberg's courses in America (please see River's article in this Inky). Inspired by this experience River will be running a workshop - Writing Peace - in which she will be employing some of the methods used by Goldberg. Using Goldberg's technique of 'writing practice', and through reading and listening deeply, this workshop will offer a chance to explore the obstacles to, and possibilities for, peace in our lives. To take part, you don't have to be a particularly peaceful person, or a 'good writer', or to have done much writing, you just have to be willing to use writing as a tool for learning about yourself. The workshop will be held in the Signposts Training Room on Saturday 12 February between 10.00 - 4.00 pm with one hour for lunch. The cost of the workshop is £8.00 / £4.00 (concs). To book places please send a cheque, made payable to Signposts, and send it to the address on the back page. River has worked in schools & community education for several years, and in 2003 was Writer-in-Residence at the Burton Street Project. Her poem 'Everything I Know About War' written on a recent course with Natalie Goldberg, won first prize in the Red Pepper / Iraq Occupation Focus Poetry Competition. More info: Tel: (0114) 263 4787 Email: signposts@lineone.net Yorkshire Art Circus Aim High Yorkshire Art Circus, through its creative writing classes, projects and printing facilities, has been helping aspiring writers for over 25 years and now, with the assistance of funding from Arts Council England, they have started a new project - The Writer Development Programme, which will help experienced writers to develop their skills to the highest level and learn how to promote their work. YAC plan to work with writers who are well motivated, who intend to make a career from writing and who already have some experience behind them. YAC aims are to develop writers professionally by a programme of workshops, seminars, mentoring schemes and master classes. Participants will work on a one-to-one basis with YAC staff to define their aspirations and goals clearly, and work towards them using their own personal development plan. This will allow each writer to work through a programme unique to them, and help YAC to tailor activities to the needs of the participant. There will be monthly workshops on a specific aspect of writing, such as character development, or performance skills. The themes of these sessions will be chosen to address areas of need that participants identify and various experienced practitioners will tutor on the programme. As well as focusing on individual needs, writers on the programme will be part of a network which, as well as meeting up for regular workshops and feedback sessions, will be expected to submit new work to a monthly deadline which will then be circulated among the group for feedback and discussion. A mentoring scheme will also be available for some participants; this will match writers with established authors for intensive personal support over a period of six to eight months. Writers on the programme will also be encouraged to get involved with the Creative Learning Programme, the short courses that the organisation run for beginners in creative writing. The programme will demand a high level of commitment, both to writing, participating in activities and giving peer support to other writers on the network. If you are interested in applying, please contact Lucy Macnab, the programme coordinator, for further information. Her direct line is (01977) 522 661 or email lucy@artcircus.co.uk *Signposts understand that the closing date for the next intake will be at the end of January so if you are interested please do act quickly or contact Lucy for future entry dates. Wanted! (Again) More Poets and Audience for Gentle & Generous Poetry Slam! Poets are needed! - new or experienced - for the second gentle but enjoyable Poetry Slam, with prizes for all, which will take place at the Furnival Community Centre in Burngreave. Two teams of poets - 4 in each team - will read and perform in a fiercely gentle battle of the bards, in which it is not the points that matter, but taking part (oh yes, and the prizes). Anybody is welcome to come and watch our brave poets - with no longer than 2 minutes per poem - read their poems (over 2 or 3 rounds) and receive scores from a carefully selected random mix of judges from the audience. Date & Time - Saturday February 19th, 2.00 - 4.00 pm. More Info: Tel: (0114) 2794960 Signposts "Winter Workshop" Series Continues As part of Signposts "Winter Workshop" series we have three new poetry workshops planned for the coming months. The three workshops will each have their own writer who will lead the individual workshop along a particular theme. The first workshop, "In The Destructive Element," will be run by Sheffield writer Matt Clegg on Saturday March 5th. If you are interested in poetry that deals with the darker side of experience then join Matt in testing Joseph Conrad's idea that in order to stay alive we must submit our self to the 'destructive element'. The second workshop will be run by Debjani Chatterjee and will be held on Saturday April 2nd. In this practical workshop Debjani will be working with "Myths, Legends & Traditional Tales in Poetry" and looking at ways in which contemporary poetry can tap into the power and beauty of age-old stories. The third, and final workshop in this series, is for anyone who enjoys playing with words and is for new and experienced poets alike! Using colours in the world as the theme, Ann Hamblen's workshop "Seeing in Colour" will look at how we translate colour into words and how it permeates not only published writing but our own as well. All of these workshops will be held in the Signposts Training Room between 10.00 am - 4.00 pm. Cost will be £8.00 / £4.00 (concs) per workshop and places must be booked in advance. To book places please send a cheque, made payable to Signposts, together with your details to: Signposts, 4th floor, Furnival House, 48 Furnival Gate, Sheffield, S1 4QP. Any enquiries please Telephone (0114) 263 4787 Or email: signposts@lineone.net If You're Looking For 'Proof' Look no further; the latest edition of Proof - the Hallam University E-Magazine - is now on-line. The creative-writing and arts magazine is published on the web once a year and has attracted submissions from all around the world. The guest author for this edition is poet Jamie McKendrick, other work includes interactive pieces - animation, print-your-own-design - artwork, poetry, short fiction and prose. This editions theme is 'Higher' and can be found at: http://www.shu.ac.uk/proof/ Feel-Good Reading Are you interested in reading more? Do you want to meet people, talk about books and relax in an informal atmosphere? If your answer is "yes" then you may be interested in a new reading group that is about to start at Burngreave Library. Burngreave Library together with Burngreave Community Learning Campaign is setting up the group, called Feel-Good Reading. The aim is to encourage people to relax and enjoy themselves through reading. To launch the group, they are having a coffee morning on Wednesday 19th January, between 10.00 am - 12.30 pm when interested readers can drop in at any time. At the coffee morning, you will be able to: * Find out about the resources available for you in Burngreave Library. * Enjoy reading, talking about books or join the library. * Meet staff from Burngreave Library and Burngreave Community Learning Campaign who are setting up the event. * Have your say - what sort of reading group do you want? Would you like more activities such as storytelling, reminiscence or creative writing happening in Burngreave? Tea, coffee and refreshments will be available throughout this event. It is hoped that the group will meet on a regular basis so if you can't make it on the day (or have missed it) but would still like to be involved then contact either Anne Grange or Madge Dale for more information. Anne Grange at BCLC: (0114) 279 4960 Madge Dale at Burngreave Library, Spital Hill: (0114) 203 9002 The (free) Yorkshire Word If you haven't seen a copy of The Yorkshire Word then you are missing out on the new bi-monthly literature newsletter for Yorkshire, with news, events, publications, competitions, profiles, opinions and more. Subscription to The Yorkshire Word is free; all you have to do is write to: Audiences Yorkshire, 3 St. Peter's Buildings, St. Peter's Square, Leeds, LS9 8AH Or send an email to: oliver@audiencesyorkshire.org.uk For more details of Audiences Yorkshire visit their website at: www.audiencesyorkshire.org.uk Inky Feature Making Peace: The Power of Writing and Reconciliation by River Wolton In May 2004, a conspiracy of good fortune and serendipity found me in the Californian hills for a weeklong course with two of my writing heroines - Natalie Goldberg (Writing Down The Bones and Wild Mind) and Laura Davis (The Courage to Heal). Natalie's revolutionary technique of 'writing practice' has inspired me for many years. Laura's groundbreaking books for survivors of sexual abuse have sustained and enlightened my work. But what would it be like to meet these highly successful authors and would my Anglo-Saxon cynicism cope with the west-coast vibes? Here are some extracts from my notes. Being There. There are 27 students, all American or Canadian apart from me. The schedule includes 8 hours writing a day plus an hour of sitting or walking meditation. We find our feet in slow steps along the dusty paths. It's hard to be silent when voices are yammering inside. Writing practice happens before, during and after everything. At first, I splurge for pages of 'I-hate-imperialist-America'. We write. We read out. We write. From the beginning there's a powerful chemistry. We aren't afraid to write down the fear, judgement, boredom and repetitive nonsense that comes into our heads. It's surprising, permission-giving. We feed off each other's words and unveil ourselves. I write down things I've never told anyone. I write from the semi-conscious, from a trance-like state, without caring, almost without thinking. We start with Where do you want to achieve peace? The rules are simple. Write - for 10 or 20 minutes or more. Keep the pen moving even if the bomb drops. Go for the jugular. Read out. Listen. No Comment. Remember this: To be a writer you must do three things: Write lots, read deeply, listen well. Writing is 90% listening. Monkey Mind (the inner critic) is a mechanism we listen to as if it's God. The act of reading aloud helps to close the gap between what we thought we wrote and what we actually wrote. Keep going under all circumstances. Be fierce. Be specific. Make positive effort for the good. Listening: 'We are listening to study the mind and the way it moves.' Each afternoon there's an hour of reading out and listening. The bell rings, someone reads. We listen. We wait a moment. The bell rings. The next person reads. Anxiety churns in my gut - should I read or not? Should I read this piece or that? Just listening is a revelation, I see how I reach forward for the words, to judge, compare, analyse. I sit back. Let the words come in and out. Let them touch me or not. Notice my mind and what it likes to listen to, how it pre-forms a sentence or a narrative in the direction it prefers. Reconciliation: We write about the un-reconciled places in our lives, our personal wars and what we know of war in the world. When it comes to saying 'sorry' I realise I don't feel sorry for anything. The women around me are pouring out their truths - deathbed reconciliations, peace-making after years of estrangement. I have been saying sorry all my life. I consider myself good at it. But I don't know how to apologise without making myself small. I'm defiant. Not sorry for anything. Most things I feel sorry for are beyond my control - Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib. How do you say sorry without dissolving? Pick up the pen. I am not sorry. I am angry. Failure and Success: We start to see when our writing leaps, what makes it leap (truth, detail, earning the right to use abstracts) and the electricity of words jumping off into raw and astonishing territory. But I yearn for any sign of approval. In this practice, the validation is in the rich silence when you have finished reading, the deep attention of the group. Slowly success becomes less crucial. I realise that if I pin it all on Natalie and Laura then I'll be back to despair, stuck to the whims of others, the nuances of their comments. Just Doing It: Day 4. 11.30 pm. Still writing. It is effortless and joyful, even after a day of doing little else. So many moments are knocking at the door, wanting to be recorded - the many lives in this one life that seems so shallow and unproductive to the critical mind. The writing is no longer personal - it is a wave that starts with one pen, and circles round the room. Nouns, verbs, sentences, squiggles are rollers of salt water. Writing is the fruit of interdependence. As writers we feed on and compost every word we have ever heard, read, written. Who can claim true authorship to anything? The more I let go of 'me' and get beyond the clamouring of Monkey Mind, the more I see infinite possibilities. Four Weeks Later: Back in the usual grooves; but something fundamental has shifted. I see how I try to save other people from the pain of their lives in a way that weakens them and leaves me burnt-out and raging. I look for more non-violent ways to unite writing with activism. I'm fired up to keep writing, whatever happens. Monkey Mind does not stay in California. She comes home. I breathe her in and out. In the milliseconds of pure present moment she dissolves and recycles. And for the first time I am not ashamed to call myself a writer. Maybe this is reconciliation. References: Laura Davis - www.lauradavis.net Natalie Goldberg - www.nataliegoldberg.com River will be running a workshop for Signposts in which she will use some of the techniques mentioned in this article - all you need to bring are fast-writing pens & notebooks and, If you can, please read about Writing Practice in Natalie Goldberg's Writing Down The Bones (Shambala 1986) or Wild Mind (Bantam 1990). See the first news item for further details. The Inky Interview Elizabeth Barrett lives in Sheffield and has, since 2001, co-edited the poetry magazine, Staple, with Ann Atkinson. Her book of poems, Walking on Tiptoe, was published in 1998. How did you come to be in Sheffield? I am originally from Sheffield and lived in the city until moving away to go to University. I lived in London, USA and Brighton during the next twenty years but returned to Sheffield in 1994 to take up a post at the University of Sheffield. What are you working on at present? I've just had my second collection of poetry accepted by Wrecking Ball Press so at the moment I'm making final revisions to my manuscript before publication later this year. The space between books can be playful and at the moment I'm experimenting with a completely different voice and style which, I suppose, could be considered 'avant-garde'. I'm working at these poems under a pseudonym which I find quite liberating - I'm not quite sure yet what it is I'm experimenting with or where it might go, and using an assumed name somehow frees me to take risks. I haven't abandoned my 'ordinary narratives' though - these are the ones that really matter to me and I've optimistically started a new folder of (third book) poems. Is there anything more to what is called 'avant-gardism' than self-indulgent word play which, though great fun and liberating for the writer, never really catches on with anyone outside a coterie, and, if published, soon ends up cluttering the shelves of specialist second-hand bookshops? Well, it's not only avant-garde poetry that ends up cluttering second-hand bookshops, and at the moment the avant-garde seem to be getting a pretty good airing with mainstream, as well as specialist, mags and publishers. The up-and-coming publisher, Salt, for example, includes a number of experimental writers on its list, and the avant-garde are well represented in recent issues of a range of poetry magazines, including the establishment mag, Poetry Review. (I've even run experimental writing in a recent issue of Staple). I would argue that, in many ways, the avant-garde could be considered deeply conservative and establishment (was it Auden who said: 'Nothing stays the same like the avant-garde'?) and I think it's interesting that there's a revival of interest in the avant-garde in the UK at the moment. I find much of what avant-garde poetry represents repelling. As well as seeming to be so much bourgeois headwank, I experience the 'voice' of avant-garde poetry as very alienating. Much of it is deeply untransparent in terms of meaning, and it adopts approaches to form (lineation, vocabulary, metre, etc.) which pay no attention whatsoever to the music of poetry (indeed, which appear to depend upon the adoption of an ugly 'martian' voice). The features of poetry which interest me most, and which I frequently use in my own writing (the use of narrative structure and a frequently autobiographical first person voice) are also notably absent from avant-garde poetry. My recent attempts to experiment with an avant-garde framework are therefore essentially exploratory; I want to engage with the genre rather than just dismiss it, and I consider the approach I am taking (i.e. writing in it as well as reading it) to be part of the process of coming to understand. This is proving very rich for me; I've found myself exploring the potential of experimental frameworks for dealing with pre-narrative moments, i.e. for representing experience prior to the organisation of experience through narrative structures. This use of experimental poetry in order to represent emotional states, unmediated by thought, is a very different understanding of the genre than the one I began with (that it was an intellectual state, unmediated by emotion). When you refer to 'ordinary narratives', do you mean 'extraordinary'? I agree that a lot of contemporary narrative poetry is 'ordinary' and indistinguishable from diary or journal jottings, except that it is given the look of poetry by what is usually random typography. Your narratives though differ in various ways? The wording of your question reminds me of something that Ann Atkinson and I suggested would be one of our guiding principles when selecting work for Staple Magazine. We wrote, in our first editorial (four years ago) that we were looking for work that: 'shakes the ordinary into new shape and makes the extraordinary tangible'. I still aim for that, both as a writer and an editor. So, for me, narrative poetry (no less than any other poetic tradition) involves the 'quality of extraordinary' as well as of the familiar. When I say the familiar, I mean our known and experienced worlds. My 'ordinary narratives' are frequently domestic; a hurled kettle, a child's tears, a divorce. I'm interested in the small details of people's lives and how they live them. I like telling stories in my poems and I gravitate, naturally, to narratives of human frailty and error. I don't think there is a lot of narrative poetry around at the moment - it seems to be deeply unfashionable with poetry editors. I suspect that's because narrative poetry is driven by needs of narrative structure and pace, rather than the needs of editors to fit a poem onto a single page. I'm afraid narratives don't always fit neatly into forty lines...which leads me to your point about form. Firstly, I don't agree that a lot of contemporary narrative poetry is indistinguishable from journal entries. In fact, of the narrative poetry that does get printed, much is too forced in terms of form for my taste. And neither do I agree that the narrative tradition uses random typography to create the look of a poem - for me the most interesting narrative poetry works in the tradition of free verse whereby the poet must control the pace and structure of the poem essentially through lineation. Judgements about line endings, in this situation, become critical and far from random. In response to your other point - about the content of contemporary narrative poetry - I have to differ with you again. I don't think there is enough 'ordinariness' in contemporary British poetry. I wish someone would be brave enough to publish the poems of everyday lives that I like to read. As it is, I think there are far too many workshop poems around masquerading as ordinary narratives - those poems that come out of brown envelopes with nothing authentic or authorial about them. I know, I know - I do it with my students too. Such exercises have a role. They're OK so long as you know what they can do and what they can't. On the subject of 'can' and 'can't', in your poem, 'This Verdant Grass', you seem to be challenging the legislative attitude taken by some critics and creative writing tutors who say what you can and can't do in modern poetry writing. Nevertheless words like 'verdant' have been avoided since Wordsworth. Are you advocating a free-for-all strategy of 'anything goes'? I wrote that poem about thirteen years ago in response to something Carol Ann Duffy said on a short writing course I attended. I'd just started writing and wasn't reading widely in contemporary poetry at that time. She was very critical about the work I showed her. "Poetry isn't a rest home for words", she barked at me. Her general criticisms were very good for me and I went home determined to read more widely and to learn. But her talk about cliché continued to bother me, and so I wrote that poem. I'm not advocating a free-for-all but rather the possibility of poets reclaiming words and recovering their power and originality. What I wanted to do with that poem was astonish the reader with the power of the transformed familiar - to reclaim 'verdant' and to recover its freshness and originality. And Paterson goes on to suggest that this point (the one he makes above) is "fatally misunderstood by every generation of the avant-garde, which is one reason they often seem stylistically interchangeable" - back to my earlier citation of Auden's 'nothing stays the same like the avant-garde'. Real danger and real risks in poetry involve breaking the rules - not in the predictable way experimental writers do, but in challenging the orthodoxies and dogmas of the academy and the critics. Interview by David Sissons Thanks to Elizabeth Barrett News-bites Borderlines A new poetry event will happen on Saturday 12th February, 7.30 pm, at The Sheffield Independent Film Centre, 5 Brown Street, Sheffield. An evening of innovative and beguiling verbal performance from Sheffield & beyond, featuring: Rachel Pantechnicon - drag poet extraordinaire, the escapades of Harrier Jasmin & his criminal racket; sci-fi lo-fi beat poetry & electronics from Project Adorno; plus more. £4.00 / £3.00 students / low income. More info: Tel (0114) 258 7270 Email: antics@lowtech.org '75 grammes female' Diana Velia, a talented Sheffield based poet, died in 2001. Diana lived and worked in and around Sheffield as a musician, actor, drama teacher, parent and poet for nearly 20 years. To honour the work of a highly original, creative talent Diana's friends have put together a volume of her poetry. '75 grammes female' contains poems that are sharp, witty, sometimes dark, but always very readable. Extracts from the volume can be read on Esheaf- the Hallam University writing website: www.e-sheaf.com Copies of the booklet are £2.00 and can be ordered from www.writetolive.com The AA Independent Press Guide (Update) Previously and still available in CD rom format, it has a host of useful features, including direct links to publishers' and magazines' websites. The CD is available to purchase for £6.00 via Dee's website: www.thunderburst.co.uk or by post from his address at: Dee Rimbaud, 7 Lothian Gardens (GFL), Glasgow, G20 6BN. (Cheques made payable to Dee Rimbaud). The latest news is that the AA Independent Press Guide is now also available online for no charge. You are free to use it without paying a penny. However, if you find it useful and worthwhile and would like to help keep it going, please make a donation. Dee incurs a lot of overheads in providing this service, so Is out of pocket. This is an experiment in trust. If he gets enough donations to cover his overheads he'll be able to keep this service going. It would appear that the "Small Press Guide" is no longer being published so Dee is supplying an important service - have a look at his website to see how you can help. LISTINGS OF LIVE EVENTS In Jan/Feb/Mar 2005 In January Wednesday 19th January Burngreave Reading Group New "Feel-Good Reading" group. Burngreave Library, Burngreave Road, Sheffield 10.00 am-12.30 pm. Tel: (0114) 279 4960 Saturday 22nd January The Poetry Business Writing Days Morning games and exercises to inspire. Afternoon workshop to delve further. No need to book. £16 waged, £8 unwaged. The Studio, Byram Arcade, Westgate, Huddersfield, HD1 1ND 10.15 - 4.15 Tel: 01484 434 840 In February Tuesday 1st February The Sticky Bun Writers Club Read-round: take poetry to share Fat Cat Pub, Alma Street, Sheffield Free. 8.15 pm start Tel: (0114) 236 6225 Tuesday 8th February Antics Upstairs @ The Red Deer Informal evening of spoken words - story telling, poetry, fairy tales and beautiful lies. The Red Deer, 18 Pitt Street, Sheffield. 8.00 for 8.30 start Tel: (0114) 258 7270 Saturday 12th February Writing Peace Workshop - River Wolton See feature on the news page. Saturday 12th February The Poetry Business Writing Days Morning games and exercises to inspire. Afternoon workshop to delve further. No need to book. £16 waged, £8 unwaged. The Studio, Byram Arcade, Westgate, Huddersfield, HD1 1ND 10.15 - 4.15 Tel: 01484 434 840 Saturday 12th February Borderlines Poetry / Media Event See feature on News-bites page Saturday 19th February Burngreave Poetry Slam 2 See feature on the news page In March Tuesday 1st March The Sticky Bun Writers Club Heeley Women Writers led by Nell Farrell Fat Cat Pub, Alma Street, Sheffield Free. 8.15 pm start Tel: (0114) 2366 225 Saturday 5th March In The Destructive Element - Matt Clegg Workshop - See feature on the news page Tuesday 8th March Antics Upstairs @ The Red Deer Informal evening of spoken words - story telling, poetry, fairy tales and beautiful lies. The Red Deer, 18 Pitt Street, Sheffield. 8.00 for 8.30 start Tel: (0114) 258 7270 Saturday 12th March The Poetry Business Writing Days Morning games and exercises to inspire. Afternoon workshop to delve further. No need to book. £16 waged, £8 unwaged. The Studio, Byram Arcade, Westgate, Huddersfield, HD1 1ND 10.15 - 4.15 Tel: 01484 434 840 Tuesday 22nd March Spoken Word Performance Evening River Wolton, Nell Farrell and Clare Shaw will all be reading from their latest works. F.O.B. 18-20 Church Street, Sheffield 8.00 pm start Tel: (0114) 2554030 If you have any events that you would like us to promote via the Inky listings then please email the details to: signposts@lineone.net or post the details to the Signposts address. SHEFFIELD WRITERS RESOURCE CENTRE For information and advice Wednesdays 5pm - 7.30pm The Main Lending Library Surrey St, Sheffield, S1 For more info - 0114 2734711 (Sheffield Central Library) To be included on The Inky's Listings - Phone 0114 2634787 Email: signposts@lineone.net The Inky acknowledges support from: _________________________________________________________ The Inky is put together by Matt Black & Geoff Briggs The Inky is a Signposts Project. Please send contributions for the next issue to: The Inky SIGNPOSTS 4th Floor Furnival House, 48 Furnival Gate, Sheffield, S1 4QP, UK Phone Geoff on 0114 2634787 or email Signposts@lineone.net