THE INKY The Inky Writers Newsletter Winter 2005 / 2006 No. 36 INKY NEWS New Novel Writing Course A new course has just started in Sheffield and if you've been meaning to get started on "the novel that's somewhere inside you" then this could just be the kick-start that you need. This course is aimed at people who have experience of writing shorter pieces such as stories and articles, but who have not, as yet, undertaken a novel. Writer Daniel Blythe - author of 4 published novels as well as a number of non-fiction books - will talk you through some possible approaches to the process. The course is aimed at developing your own writing confidence and giving you the impetus and framework for completing a full-length work of fiction. There will also be an opportunity to look at the publishing stage, including agents and the markets for novels in the UK. The approach will be firmly realistic, student-focused and accessible throughout, with numerous examples and references from literature and some of the more useful "how-to" books and websites. The tutor's insider information, which has proved popular and useful with students on the "Writing for Publication" courses, will again be brought to bear, with the course covering issues such as approaching agents and marketing your novel. The course started on Thursday 12th January but there will still be an opportunity to join after this date. It runs for 20 weeks on Thursdays between 7.00 - 9.00 pm and is held at the Scotia Works on Leadmill Road, Sheffield. A Challenge to all Writers Yorkshire writer Char March has a challenge (but it could also be a request) to all writers. Char has recently started taking humanist funeral ceremonies, and, although she has amassed a lot of good poetry and useful quotes from all sorts of sources, she is on the lookout for more. The vast majority of people who Char works with are 'ordinary' working-class families who simply want a non-religious ceremony - they (like most of us!) have pretty much no idea what a humanist is, they are not looking for trendy alternative poems, just something which reflects the language and being of their loved ones. Char has found that there's a lack of direct, positive poems and prose quotes that reflect their lives. The things that people most value are 'simple' - it's almost never about work or career, it's nearly always about family; creating a good home; bringing up children well; being a wife and mother, husband and father; hobbies, etc. This is surprisingly challenging territory - and is (if it is done at all) often done badly - particularly in poetry. So, knowing that there are so many good writers out there, Char had the idea of putting out a request (or a challenge if you prefer). The challenge is: to write some positive, direct poetry or very short prose that is not in 'high-falutin' poetic language, and that is quite emotional, and that will be suitable to use in non-religious funerals. Thoughts to bear in mind are these are funerals, not memorial ceremonies, so everyone who's there has very recently lost someone that they love - usually only 4 or 5 days before. These deaths can have been lingering, but are often sudden. This point is important, there are lots of great poems and prose around that are good for helping people once they are into the grieving and/or recovery process but the poems or prose that are needed at the actual funeral are much more specific in terms of tone. The prize is: knowing that your poem/prose will be used to very real effect to help people at a time when they need all the help they can get. Char may send a bunch of lilies to the ones that she likes the best but, other than this, there's no financial rewards .... just a massive emotional and moral one. And, if you do come up with a real cracker, you'll probably find that it becomes one of the most anthologised poems/pieces of prose in the world. If you are able to produce something that you think will be suitable then please send it to: Char March, 17 Garnett Street, Hebden Bridge, West Yorkshire HX7 6AL If you would like more information then please contact Char at this address or email her at: char16march@beeb.net To help clarify the type of thing that Char is looking for here's an example. Still Listen. There is this silence now. This stillness. Gradually we will get used to it. But, for now, it is strange. You have left such a gap. Our world is in shock, holding its breath But listen closer - all your laughter, all your love is still ringing out. Still holding us. All our memories of you are still with us. All the love we shared is still in every one of us. And although we ache from this loss of you, you will always be here - as still and steady, and fierce, as any star. Look. You are shining bright through all our skies. Thank you for being here with us. Char March Time to stop sucking the pencil tip? Here we are, a New Year full of new opportunities to develop your writing. To help you on your way here are the details of just a few of the paths that you can take, there are a lot more and if you would like to discuss what else there is available then you could always drop into one of the Writers Resource Centres where our advisor will help and guide you through a whole range of courses, groups and other writing opportunities. For details of the Writers Resource Centres see the back page of the Inky. Writing a Novel Tutor: Daniel Blythe Venue: Scotia Works, Leadmill Road, Sheffield When: Thursdays 19.00 - 21.00 pm Starts: 20 weeks from 12th Jan, new students welcome at all times. More info: See first item of news. Contact number: (WEA) 0114 2423609 Poetry Business Writing Days Venue: The Studio, Byram Arcade, Westgate, Huddersfield When: Various dates each months More info: An opportunity to produce and develop your own poetry Contact number: 01484 434840 The Open College of Arts Creative Writing Courses Venue: Your home - correspondence courses When: Start any time to suit you More info: nine different courses - Writing 1: Starting to Write Writing 1: Poetry Writing 1: Lifelines-Autobiography Writing 2: Storylines-Short fiction Writing 2: The Experience of Poetry Writing 2: Poetry - Form & Freedom Writing 2: Making 'Magic' Happen (Writing for Children) Writing 2: I-Lines (Imaginative Non-fiction) Writing 3: Advanced Contact number: 01226 730495 Creative Writing Workshop Venue: WEA room, Voluntary Services building, 23 Queens Road, Barnsley When: Thursdays 10.15 am - 12.15 pm More info: A supportive, friendly group for new or experienced writers Contact number: (WEA) 0114 2423609 Creative Writing Workshop Venue: Broomhall Community Centre, Broomhall, Sheffield When: Mondays 19.30 - 21.30 More info: The opportunity to develop writing techniques through in-session and homework assignments in a supportive group environment Contact number: (WEA) 0114 2423609 Rawmarsh Writing Group Venue: Rawmarsh Community Library, Rotherham When: Thursdays 14.00 - 16.00 More info: Workers' Educational Association writing group Contact number: (WEA) 0114 2423609 Creative Writing for Women Venue: YWCA Doncaster Women's Centre, Doncaster When: Tuesdays 10.00 - 12.00 More info: Workers' Educational Association Writing Group Contact number: (WEA) 0113 2453304 Yorkshire Arts Circus Venue: YAC, School Lane, Glasshoughton, Castleford, near Wakefield More info: on a variety of courses, one day workshops, etc, can be obtained by phoning or looking at the YAC website: www.artcircus.org.uk/yac/ Contact number: 01977 550401 BBC Mini-Writing Courses Venue: Online courses via the internet When: Anytime to suit you More info: 3 levels - Beginners, intermediate & advanced. All levels feature a combination of advice from experts, video clips, articles to read and writing exercises. There's also the opportunity to share your experiences via the online community. Here are some brief details of the different courses available: Beginners: 1. Finding inspiration 2. Finding your voice 3. How to start a poem 4. How to start a short story 5. Rhythm, rhyme & other techniques 6. What is a short story 7. Finding inspiration 8. The art of reviewing Intermediate: 1. Creating Characters 2. Descriptive powers 3. Developing dialogue 4. Editing your work 5. Genre-buster: Children's fiction 6. Genre-buster: Crime fiction 7. Genre-buster: Historical fiction 8. Genre-buster: Horror fiction 9. Genre-buster: Science fiction 10. Perspective: First person 11. Perspective: Third person. 12. Researching your world 13. Using form in poetry Advanced: 1. Getting an agent 2. Preparing for publication 3. Showing and telling 4. Structural integrity 5. Writing a novel Contact address: www.bbc.co.uk/dna/getwriting/minicourse WEA Travel Writing Course Venue: Ecclesall Library, Ecclesall Road, Sheffield When: from Tuesday 17th January and continuing on after Easter, new students welcome at all times. 15.15 pm - 17.15 More info: A chance to write about your travels at home and abroad as well your journey through life. Suitable for new and established writers Contact number: 0114 2368361 * This article is now out of date Radio Drama Competition In April 2006 BBC 2 will screen "The Lost World of Friese Green" presented by Dan Cruikshank. This series will tell the story of an experimental colour film made in the 1920's of a journey from Lands End to John O'Groats - www.bfi.org.uk/features/openroad/ Inspired by this road movie, BBC Radio Sheffield is running a competition to write a 5 minute radio play based around the theme of Moving Stories. Each play should feature a journey, arrival, departure or travel element. The winning 5 radio dramas will be recorded at BBC Radio Sheffield using professional actors and then they'll be broadcast on the Rony Robinson programme to coincide with the BBC2 screenings of Claude Friese Green's film in April. To help you out we're running a free radio drama writing workshop at BBC Radio Sheffield in Shoreham Street on Saturday 21st January with award winning playwright and Radio presenter Rony Robinson. He'll give tips on how to write for Radio and how to tell your story in a short form. If you're a member of a writing group then your group might like to send along a representative or two to the workshop to pass on tips to the rest of the group so you can all enter the competition. The closing date for entries is February 28th and we'll be making the dramas in March. You don't have to come to the workshop to enter the competition but if you would like to come it's between 11 and 3 here at Shoreham Street on Saturday the 21st of January. To book or to get entry details for the competition call the BBC Radio Sheffield Action Desk on 0114 267 5444. If you call in the evening or when the phone is busy leave a message on the answer-phone and someone will call you back. The South Yorkshire Pages Barnsley Access Poetry Barnsley The Access Poetry Group stride out into the year with a new programme as part of their monthly meeting in the Central Library. There'll be an opportunity for you to share your poetry and join in with the usual mix of discussion, read around, and friendly gentle critique. The next meeting will be on Monday the 13th February at 7.00 pm In the Meeting Room, Central Library, Barnsley Rotherham Rotherham Poetry Champion! The organisers of this competition are looking for "Poetry Champions" from towns across the UK. From tens of thousands of entries from people all over the UK, United Press pick around 250 regional winners every year and put them into the annual National Poetry Anthology. Each one of those 250 winners then votes for the best poem in the book. Entry to the competition is free and is designed to encourage new poets, all winners will receive a free copy of the book, while the overall winner gets £1000. If you want to enter the next National Poetry Anthology, send up to three poems (20 lines and 160 words maximum each) to: United Press, Admail 3735, London, EC1B 1JB (0870 240 6190) by the annual closing date of June 30th The Rotherham One-Act Play Writing Competition The biennial Rotherham One Act Play Competition is being held again for 2006. Writers resident in or regularly working in South Yorkshire, North Nottinghamshire, or North Derbyshire are invited to enter the competition. Closing date for entries 31 March 2006, cost of entry £5 per script. An entry should consist of a one-act play, written by the entrant, with a running time of between 25 and 40 minutes. For further details, rules and an entry form please contact: Graham Rippon, 19 Godric Drive, Brinsworth, Rotherham, Yorkshire, S60 5AN Doncaster Arts Council Award goes to Local Writer Rashida Islam, who lives in Hatfield, near Doncaster, has received a Grant for the Arts award from the regional Arts Council to enable her to complete her first poetry collection. Rashida is a poet, singer and song writer - originally from Bangladesh. Her previous books include Grandma's Treasure Trove, which is a children's collection, and three anthologies that she co-edited: A Slice of Sheffield, Sweet & Sour and the award-winning Barbed Lines - all published by Sahitya Press in Sheffield. Her Arts Council-supported collection will be published in autumn 2006 by Sahitya Press. Rashida writes in Bengali but her book will be published in a dual language edition with English translations by Debjani Chatterjee. The Inky Interview Glyn Hughes was born in Middlewich, Cheshire, but he has lived at Mill Bank near Halifax for more than thirty years, with a second home in Athens for a spell. He is the author of several poems, novels, radio plays and the celebrated autobiographical Pennine journey, 'Millstone Grit', which was first published in 1975. His literary output has recently had a resurgence, and 'The Inky' caught up with him just in time for it. Could you introduce 'Dancing out of the Dark Side'? The obvious question I suppose is why, after a good start, (Poetry Book Society Recommendation, praise by peers, including Seamus Heaney, Philip Hobsbaum, et al) and involvement in the poetry world, with lots of readings - for a period an average of two a week - here and abroad, yet I stopped after my third book and haven't done another until now, 26 years later? The answer is, firstly that I lost my sense of direction with my second book - though, looking back, the future was there in those poems really, but overlooked. The second reason is that I was seduced by prose. I won prizes for novels - my first got me the Guardian Fiction Prize and the David Higham Prize, and another novel was short listed for the Whitbread. Philip Hobsbaum, a wise and learned judge of such matters, warned me again and again that I was making a mistake. But I wanted to be a 'full time', totally occupied writer and not have to do anything else, such as teaching. When approaching the age of seventy however everything began to look quite different. Two to five years on a novel seemed such a toil, for one thing. Lately, too, it has seemed clearer to me what it is that I truly want to do, when my gift is focussed. It has been quite a stumble, getting back to poems again. Lots of false starts, lots of sending out a premature collection and thereby spoiling the pitch as it were - you are lucky these days to get a publisher to look at a collection once, let alone twice, no matter how much altered. Besides which, after quarter of a century's absence, so many had never heard of me, and so many of my peers have died. I am fortunate. Quite a few of the poems are 'love' poems by the way, either overtly as this term is usually understood, or in a more hidden way, and I think they express a love of life that I feel - so I feel good at having that streak at seventy. The poems have been coming at an increasing rate the last few years, and I already have about half of a new collection ready. Could you introduce 'The Summer the Dictators Fell'? When I was dithering about three years ago, losing faith in myself and therefore not writing much, the extraordinary Mike Goldmark, basically a fine art dealer in Rutland who has also a line in very well-produced and beautiful books, said to me that he'd publish anything I wrote within the following twelve months. It was an exceptionally beautiful summer, global warming having made West Yorkshire almost like a Mediterranean country. I was getting up at dawn, and I was inspired to go back to notes that I'd made in 1974-5 when I was living in Greece during the chaotic years of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus and subsequent collapse of the Greek Junta. I had been married to a Greek then, so I was involved at family level. My notes were as chaotic as the times, but with perspective a series of stories emerged. They are mostly about living in a family, or wandering the countryside, encounting people, - with the political events as the context, rather than the subject of the stories. Robert Graves has influenced a lot of poets, especially with 'The White Goddess'. A lot of the scholarship behind 'The White Goddess' has long been questioned. Has your assessment of Graves changed over the years? I'm assuming that he was an influence on your first novel, 'Where I Used to Play on the Green'. He was one of the influences even more on the later novels. (You could also add such sceptics concerning mythology as E.P.Thompson, and other radical historians.) It is many years since I read Graves, so I don't know what I'd think of him now. To be honest, whether his scholarship is right or wrong doesn't matter much to me. Even if it's fanciful, I think it led to a stimulating definition of poetry and art, and in fact of our general relationship to what we call 'nature', that then, and I think still, means a great deal to me. Graves is one of those poets I admire more than I love - though if I re-read him perhaps I'd change my mind. I remember something Henry Moore said about the danger of an artist 'knowing' too much, about his art and perhaps himself in the psychological way. If an artist knows too much, what needs to be inspired discovery that thrills the viewer or reader becomes mannered according to a pre-ordained scheme. Picking up on our general relationship to what we call 'nature', you described a rural landscape in 'Millstone Grit' that was as derelict as the adjacent industrial landscape. Thirty years later do you see it differently - i.e. have you changed, has it changed, or both? Are there any signs of anything positive growing out of the dereliction? 'Millstone Grit' was written in the early 1970s and the Pennines were as derelict then as the industrial towns. There has been a transformation since. The soot that coated even the highest places has largely been washed away, and everywhere Nature has shown its remarkable capacity to heal itself. Farming as it used to be has almost disappeared though. Dairy cattle have been replaced by the horse-riding business. I am told for instance that there are now more horses in the Calder Valley (where I live) than at any time in the past! This is a well-heeled commuter district for Leeds, Manchester etc. now. There are horrors that come with this which I won't go into now, but generally speaking the Calder Valley has probably never looked better since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Nor been, perhaps, a happier place. Ironically, while the erstwhile 'rural districts' of England have been desecrated by industrial-scale farming, here where hardly any pesticides and herbicides are used (with the exception of by the local Council!) the flowers and bird-life have flourished. I too have changed with it all. By now I've had most (not all) of my say about its material and spiritual history, I think. That doesn't mean I won't ever get back to it - I had a 'dead central theme' as Ted Hughes told me - and I've left it unfinished. But unless I'm inspired with some new way to dramatise it, I don't want to dabble with any more quasi-sociological reporting. Poetry wrecks lives. It breaks up relationships, makes people ill or mad, wastes intelligence and talent, ruins careers, often keeps people poor and lonely and is completely ignored by most people on the planet. It would be a lot easier to write advertising jingles or relatively unchallenging pop lyrics, and there might even be money in it. What keeps people under the influence of poetry? I wish I knew. At bottom no artists have ever been able to explain why they become absorbed and make sacrifices for art. If you say 'sense of duty to a gift' even that doesn't get you very far. I've wriggled so much in the net of poetry, done so many other things, but it seems I've failed to escape in the end! The alternatives you mention, incidentally, are not that 'easy' to indulge in, because to do them you have to be absorbed in and find congenial a particular metier and profession. I would find it abhorrent - I skirted away from what bit of film scripting I dallied with as soon as I realised it wasn't at all a writer's medium, as radio drama, for instance, is. (By the way, I think radio drama is very close to writing poetry, and I love it. It's condensed, its aural, it relies on the spaces between words, and so on.) Ted Hughes blamed the bowel cancer that killed him on his having deserted his poetic muse for so many years in order to write his (great) prose book on Shakespeare. Bearing that in mind, I guess I'm lucky to find it in me to be writing quite a lot of poetry, even though I don't find my life at all easy these years. But that's not because of poetry. I don't think by the way that 'poetry wrecks lives, etc etc'. Such lives would occur anyway, and do, without poetry. Poetry helps one NOT to be wrecked. Poetry is about sanity. How did it all start? You've described your background in 'Millstone Grit' - council estate next to Cheshire countryside, the radio programmes, 'Out with Romany', bookish working class dad who was a trade unionist, Mr Murdoch, who was your guide to country lore, etc. What is it about poetry that gets through to some people at a critical and perhaps vulnerable age - like a religious experience? The natural world was a mysterious enlargement that seemed to offer the solutions to that cramped misery that I associated with council-house life, and art was the only satisfying way of containing it, of exploring it. Art paralleled that other reach into a larger existence. Some felt it, or felt it through different channels, and some didn't. I wish that lure to the countryside could be as easily satisfied by children today. It was a very Lawrentian way, which we shared with many, but it was very male too - not exclusively so, but on balance. What do you think of 'the poetry scene' at present in the UK? One of the easiest ways of making money today is to hold a poetry competition, because thousands will post in their multi-fivers, using their verses like lottery tickets to fame. On the other hand, my present poetry publisher tells me that according to the Poetry Society 70 copies is now an average sale for a new poetry book! It seems that the 'scene' consists of millions of solipsistic egos, but not much interest actually. A sociologist might be more illuminating on 'the poetry scene' than a poet. A 'national poetry day' went by recently, noticed mainly for not being noticed. Can you blame the lack of interest? If one were fully interested, one would drown. One thing I observe is that few will turn to current poetry for spiritual nourishment, for there is little of it (there is some), in the way they might turn to some painting or music, say to that of Arvo Part. What counts most in the 'scene' seems to be versified journalism, a versified opinion-piece, or a personal complaint of some kind, or at best, something 'radically' political. This is ok - there is room for everything but popular reputations and therefore the notion of what poetry is, are made from that, not from the spiritual element which is ultimately satisfying. Unlike journalism, poetry crucially goes beyond what it overtly or obviously 'says'. To expect only the latter of poetry is to degrade it - though some big reputations are made by doing so. One should write so as to reach through the form into a mystery. I think we live in a bad age for poetry when, as in other bad ages, while the commonplaces are distributed ad nauseam, the enduring survives, if it can do so, in the shadows somewhere. Think of G.M.Hopkins. So who knows ... actually ... what is going on, and where it is? Thanks to Glyn Hughes Interview by Dave Sissons Newsbits Burngreave Reading group The next Burngreave Feel-Good Reading group is on Monday 23rd January in Burngreave Library on Spital Hill from 1.30 pm - 3 pm. They will be talking about "Memoirs of a Geisha" by Arthur Golden, a stunning book about the life of a geisha girl, set in Japan before World War II. The book is now a film, due to be released in cinemas in the UK from January 13th 2006. It would be great if some people could go and see it before the reading group date. Copies are available to borrow now from Burngreave Library. Writing by the Seaside There's another chance to enjoy a Writing Weekend at Bridlington. The weekend is for experienced and new writers in prose and poetry and takes place from Friday 17th to Sunday 19th March 2006. Tutor: Liz Cashdan. Ensuite hotel accommodation at the Victoria Hotel in Bridlington and tuition: £130 Contact: Liz Cashdan on 01142 3368361 or email: cashda@onetel.com LIVE LISTINGS Jan/Feb 2006 In January Saturday 14th January Barnsley Writers Resource Centre - 2nd Saturday of each month at the Central Library, Shambles Street, Barnsley 11.00 am-1.00 pm Info Tel: 0114 2634 787 Sunday 15th January Waterstone's Sunday Reading Group Please phone for further details Waterstone's Bookshop, Orchard Square, Sheffield. Free 2.00 pm start. Tel: 0114 2728 971 Saturday 28th January The Poetry Business Writing Days Morning Games & exercises to inspire. Afternoon workshop to delve further. No need to book. £20 waged, £10 unwaged The Studio, Byram Arcade, Westgate, Huddersfield, HD1 1ND. 10.15 am- 4.15 pm Tel: 01484 434 840 February Tuesday 7th February The Sticky Bun Writers Club James Caruth will read some of his more recent work F.O.B., Church Street. Free. 7.30 pm start. Tel: 0114 2366 225 Saturday 11th February Barnsley Writers Resource Centre - 2nd Saturday of each month at the Central Library, Shambles Street, Barnsley 11.00 am-1.00 pm Info Tel: 0114 2634 787 Sunday 12th February Waterstone's Sunday Reading Group Please phone for further details Waterstone's Bookshop, Orchard Square, Sheffield. Free 2.00 pm start. Tel: 0114 2728 971 Monday 13th February Access Poetry Barnsley News, and a chance to share your writing with others Barnsley Central Library, Shambles Street. 7.00 pm Info Tel: 01226 232 604 Tuesday 14th 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 pm for 8.30 start. Info Tel: 0114 2587 270 In March Saturday 12th March Barnsley Writers Resource Centre - 2nd Saturday of each month at the Central Library, Shambles Street, Barnsley 11.00 am-1.00 pm More info Tel: 0114 2634 787 We always welcome entries for our listings page - If you have anything that you want us to include then please send us the details Barnsley Writers Resource Centre For information & advice The 2nd Saturday of each month 11.00 am to 1.00 pm Barnsley Central Library more info - 0114 2634 787 Sheffield Writers Resource Centre For information and advice Wednesdays 5 pm - 7.30 pm The Central Lending Library Surrey St, Sheffield, S1 For more info - 0114 2734 726 To be included on The Inky's Listings - Email: signposts@lineone.net or contact us at the address below. The Inky acknowledges support from: The Arts Council England - Yorkshire The Inky is a Signposts project - Signposts Writing Development Project www.signpostsonline.org Please send contributions for the next issue to: The Inky SIGNPOSTS 4th Floor, Furnival House, 48 Furnival Gate, Sheffield, S1 4QP For more information - Phone Geoff on 0114 2634787 or Email: signposts@lineone.net If you would like to receive a hard copy of The Inky then please contact us at the above address, we will need your address details and your permission to keep your details on our database. If you wish to receive the email version of the Inky we will require your email address together with your permission to keep your details on our database. *Please note* - The hard copy of The Inky may well precede the e-version by a number of weeks and some articles may be out of date by the time the e-version is received. *************************************************