THE INKY The Inky Writers Newsletter Winter 2008 No. 43 INKY NEWS Doncaster Readers & Writers Fair Do you live in the Doncaster area? Are you in a writers group? Or do you fancy having a go at writing? Or are you a writer who sometimes feels isolated and wants more connection with and support from other writers? Or maybe you've entered the Hothouse Festival Limerick competition? If so, you may be interested in the Doncaster Readers and Writers Fair. Signposts are keen to run workshops, performances and other writing activities in Doncaster and want to hear from writers and writing groups, and anyone else, about what sorts of writing events you would like to take place. Please come along and talk to us. Any sort of writers welcome - prose, poetry, reflective, personal, therapeutic, script, local history etc.. There will be an OPEN MIKE hosted by Nell Farrell and Matt Black, and a Writers Resource Centre with information about writing groups, getting started, competitions, courses and publication. There’ll also be readings and prizes for the winning HotHouse limericks and a supply of tea, coffee and cakes. If you organise a group or are a member of a writing group from Doncaster or the surrounding area and you would like to take part by either performing, displaying or selling some of your work then contact Geoff at the Signposts office (details below) and he’ll give you more details and help organise it for you. The Doncaster Readers & Writers Fair takes place on Saturday March 15, between 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm at the Mansion House Ballroom, Doncaster, and admission is FREE. For more details of other writing events which are taking place as a part of the Hothouse Festival 2008 visit the website at: www.doncasterhothouse.co.uk or telephone the Hothouse team on (01302) 862394. The Writing Squad Are Recruiting In Your Area The Writing Squad are looking for a group of fifteen writers who are from, live, work or study in Yorkshire and who are aged between sixteen and twenty or thereabouts. It doesn’t matter what they write, whether prose, poetry, performance, script, songs or those daft shapeless things that won’t stop forming in their heads, the Writing Squad want to hear from them. Over the next two years the Squad will meet eight times to work with guest writers and people from the writing industry. They will focus on all aspects of the writing craft and the other skills which are required for working within the industry. In addition there will also be eight “one to one” sessions which will focus on works in progress. Throughout the two years the Squad writers will be able to keep in touch with each other and the wider writing scene via their dedicated website. The squad is designed to fit in with whatever people are doing - studying, travelling, working or just wondering what to do next. The group meet at Sheffield Hallam University, but are an independent group and squad writers are not required to have any qualifications, just talent and promise - the writers of tomorrow. Writers wishing to join the Writing Squad should send up to ten pages of prose/script, or ten poems/songs, or a CD, or an url where their work can be downloaded from. They would also like a letter telling them a little about yourself and what you would like the Squad to do for you. Applications should be emailed as Word or RTF attachments to steve@writingsquad.com and the closing date is Friday 29th February. More information from www.writingsquad.com or contact Steve Dearden - Tel: 01943 872546. Local Writer Receives Award Congratulations to Sheffield-based writer and poet Debjani Chatterjee, who in the recent New Year’s Honours has been awarded an M.B.E. for services to literature. Debjani, lived in India, Japan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, Egypt and Morocco before settling in Britain in 1972. She received a B.A. from the University of Kent and a Ph.D. from Lancaster University, as well as a P.G.C.E. and an honorary doctorate from Sheffield Hallam University. She has written, translated, or edited more than 45 books, starting with the poetry collection I Was That Woman in 1989. She has won a number of prizes, including the Peterloo Poets Prize, and her book The Elephant-Headed God and Other Hindu Tales was selected for Children's Book of the Year in 1990. Another notable success is The Song of the Scythe, a children's book about the days of steelmaking at Abbeydale Industrial Hamlet (in Sheffield) which has been translated into Bengali, Arabic, Urdu and Cantonese. Debjani has travelled world-wide as both writer and educator, and many writers have benefited from her skills and infectious enthusiasm. Debjani is one of Great Britain’s most well-known South Asian writers, is a founder of the Sahitya Press and chair of the National Association of Writers in Education (N.A.W.E.). It is these, as well as her long-standing work in the community, and for working on behalf of the writing cause of many, particularly within South Asian writing in this country, which have earned Debjani this well deserved award. Signposts are very pleased to have worked with Debjani on a number of occasions in the past and we look forward to working closely with her again; in addition to this we wish her the best of health and success in the coming year. Barnsley Writers Group Here are the full details of this new group (formerly Barnsley WEA Writers). The group meets on Thursday mornings, from 10.15 am - 12.15 pm at Buckley Street Methodist Church in Barnsley and the continuing aim of the group is to maintain and encourage creative writing skills. The group operates on a termly programme of member led meetings with the occasional invited guest speaker or tutor. It also holds ‘Open Evenings’ with other similar groups and members of the wider public. For more information contact Ann Hamblen: Phone (0114) 2831228, Email: ann.hamblen@btinternet.com Let Your Stories Fly Like Birds The 2nd annual Facts & Fiction Story Telling Workshop (“Let your stories fly like birds!”) will be held at Birdsedge Village Hall, Penistone Road, Birdsedge, HD8 8XP (on A629 between Sheffield and Huddersfield) on Sunday 9th March from 10.30 am until teatime. This is followed by an evening concert from 7.30 pm until 10.00 pm. The workshop will be a meeting of people who share a common interest in oral storytelling and want the chance to discuss ideas, try new things, try old things in new ways, ask questions, and hear how others face the same problems— all in a friendly, supportive atmosphere. It will be geared towards your needs and desires and will be equally suitable for beginners, dabblers and experienced tellers. The hope is that you will go away enthused, informed and better able to do what you want with your storytelling. The weekend will be hosted by Pete Castle - storyteller, folk singer and editor of Facts & Fiction storytelling magazine and Simon Heywood (storyteller, songwriter, lecturer in Creative Writing at Derby University). More information contact Pete on 01773- 822829, email steel.carpet@tiscali.co.uk web www.factsandfiction.co.uk New Creative Writing Classes Have you ever wanted to write with others but have been unable to commit to a regular weekly class? If so this may be for you. Susan Elliot-Wright has started regular 1-day creative-writing classes in Hillsborough, Sheffield. All of the classes run on Saturdays from 10.00 am - 4.00 pm, some for beginners, some more advanced. Each of the day classes cost £35.00 (£25.00 concs), which includes a buffet lunch. For more details Please contact Susan - Phone: 0114 - 255 9940 Email: susanelliotwright@hotmail.com Here are the Complete Works Are you a Black or Asian poet at the stage where you are committed to producing your first full-length collection? Would you benefit from a tailored programme of support and career development? If you are then you may be interested in this national two year development programme for advanced Black and Asian poets. For two years you will have an individually assigned poet-mentor offering you intensive critical feedback on your writing. You will also have access to a professional development programme including seven full days of seminars, critical reading sessions, meet-the-editor events and career support and advice. Peer support throughout the project will be encouraged and supported and each year will feature a residential week of writing at one of the Arvon Foundation centres for the group. The Complete Works will culminate in a final anthology and showcase event. If you are interested you need to send two copies of fifteen poems along with a covering letter outlining why you would like to join the programme and how you might benefit from it at this particular stage in your writing career. Your poems should be typed (12 point) and double spaced. Please do not write your name on your sheets of poetry. Please mark your envelope The Complete Works and send it to: Spread the Word, 77 Lambeth Walk, London SE11 6DX. Closing date for applications is Friday 21 March There is a fee for the programme that will be payable over two years. If you would like more information or to discuss The Complete Works, please contact Nathalie Teitler: nathalie@spreadtheword.org.uk or visit the website at www.spreadtheword.org.uk Part three of Beth’s journey ….. A Writing Journey By Beth Longstaff In the last instalment of my writing journey, I’d just reduced my hours at work to make more time for writing. I’d found a weekly writing group which had space for a little’un - Heeley Women Writers. An extraordinary group of bold, gifted and instinctive writers - cunningly disguised as a WEA creative writing class. Led by poet Nell Farrell, Heeley Women Writers are truly inspiring companions on this writing journey. They have taught me how to break the rules, how to write myself calm, how to write myself giddy, how to write fancy poetic forms - how to stop apologising and keep writing. And the places they’ve taken me… In July they convinced me to join them at the Green Fair, one of Sheffield’s community festivals, where Heeley Women Writers were providing a ‘Poetry to Go’ stall. For the uninitiated, this involves inviting the public to request a poem on a subject of their choice which we will write in 20 minutes. The ‘customer’ pops off for a browse or a burger, one of us writes the poem, they come back and collect it 20 minutes later - simple! (terrifying!) A poem in 20 minutes? Forget the muse - this is poetry as practice, gift and graft. And a wonderful training in letting go – of our work, of our preciousness, of our writerly egos. I don’t know who was more surprised when I delivered my first poem that day – me, or the customer who had ‘commissioned’ it 20 minutes earlier for a friend’s birthday. We were both delighted to discover that poetry needn’t always be pen-chewing angst and formal forms; it can be fast, fun, for everyone. And then I became a performance poet – Heeley Women Writers did a slot at the Meersbrook Walled Garden open day. Again, these extraordinary writers swept me up in their matter-of-fact confidence and I joined them on the lawn, reading my poem in the hot sun, our rag-taggle audience bravely straining to hear us above a salsa band that had overrun. But we were fabulous, no question. Just ask the little boy who passed our grassy ‘stage’ and shouted ‘Look Daddy, poetry!’ To whoops of delight and approval from the poets, he dragged his baffled father to join our audience and wouldn’t let him leave until we’d done. Being part of a local writing group has strengthened my writing, and my commitment to writing, enormously. But not everyone is convinced of the value of this sort of ‘amateur’ endeavour. Someone brought along a book one week which is very disparaging about creative writing groups; it gives grave warnings about mediocrity and checking credentials. Fair enough, it was a book about ‘making writing pay’ - writing as a paying profession rather than creativity or joy. So we paid it due respect, read bits out in silly voices, and have been asking to see each other’s credentials ever since. SOUTH YORKSHIRE LIVE EVENTS LIST 12th February - Antics Upstairs – James Nash + Matt Black / Adam White (poetry-music collaboration) 8.00 for 8.30 pm start. The Red Deer, 18 Pitt St, Sheffield. Tel: (0114) 2587270 to book your place 17rd February - Opus Unplugged - Performance from poets, speakers & players. 8.00 pm Riverside Café, 1 Mowbray Street, Sheffield - info email: mail@opus-productions.co.uk 4th March - Sticky Bun Writers - Penny Feinstein Celebrating the launch of her first poetry collection, Willow Pattern, published by Five Leaves . 7.30 pm The Caffetteria (corner of Leopold Street) £2.00 entry. Tel (0114) 2366225 8th March – Some Old Stuff & Some New – Rob Hindle reading a selection of his own work. 2.00 pm – 3.00 pm, free, The Oxfam Bookshop, Fulwood road, Sheffield. Tel (0114) 2664307 8th March - Hothouse Festival - Yarns - Jan Flamank & Doncaster Women’s display - The Fabric of Women’s Lives + performances from Women’s poetry group Six Women Poets With a Kick. 1.00 pm - 4.00 pm Free admission, The Mansion House, Doncaster. Tel: (01302) 862394 13th March – Picture it in Words – Open writing workshop organised by the Barnsley Writers Group. 10.30 am – 1.00 pm Free, The Cooper Gallery, Barnsley. More info (0114) 2831228 15th March - Rotherham Writers Resource Centre – Free advice and information. 10.30 am - 12.00 pm Central Library, Rotherham. More info: Tel (0114) 2536722 15th March – Doncaster Readers & Writers Fair - Performance, Open Mike, Writers Resource Centre, Competition winners, refreshments as well as other attractions. 1.00 pm – 4.00 pm Free, Mansion House Ballroom, Doncaster. More info from Signposts Contact Geoff Briggs at the Signposts office Tel: (0114) 2536722 *Visit http://access-space.org/forwords/ for regular updates on spoken word and live literature events.* 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 free information and advice 2nd Saturday each month 11.00 am - 1.00 pm. The Central Lending Library, Shambles Street, Barnsley For more info - Tel: (0114) 2536722 Sheffield Writers Resource Centre For information and advice Wednesdays 5.15 pm - 7.30 pm The Central Lending Library, Surrey St, Sheffield, S1 For more info – (0114) 2536722 To be included on The Inky’s Listings - Email: info@signpostssouthyorks.org.uk or contact Geoff Briggs at the Signposts address below. The Inky & Signposts Writing Development Project acknowledges support from: The Inky is a Signposts project - Signposts Writing Development Project www.signpostsonline.org Please send contributions for the next issue to: SIGNPOSTS The Circle 3rd Floor 33 Rockingham Lane Sheffield S1 4FW For more information - Phone Geoff Briggs on 0114 2536722 or Email: info@signpostssouthyorks.org.uk 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. *************************************************