As
this is the last newsletter until the announcement of the autumn programme at
the end of the summer, NCLA would like to take this opportunity to thank you
for continuing to support the Centre’s ongoing programme of events. Together
we have become ‘a powerhouse for all things literary in the north-east’
according to Marian
Shek blogging for The Guardian about the recent NCLA Festival of
Belonging. Current NCLA writer-in-residence Helen Oyeyemi has written a
fascinating review of the festival, which may provide you with further
inspiration to enter the under 19s belonging poetry competition, if you are
eligible. In the meantime, NCLA is delighted to announce the winners of the
International student short story competition and there are more great events
for you to enjoy before the semester ends, including Jackie Kay’s reading
with Robin Black this Thursday, the launch of 2012’s Write Around The Toon
and ‘Re-making Shakespeare’, a one-day collaborative event with the RSC and
Northern Stage. Enjoy the summer and the NCLA team looks forward to welcoming
you back in the autumn.
It was wonderful to see so many of you at NCLA’s first Festival of Belonging. The response to the quality and range of events has been overwhelming and there was a great review on The Guardian’s blog. Nicholas Baumfield from Arts Council England thought it was a ‘really interesting festival programme, some great writing, a lovely atmosphere and a good example of the creative case for diversity’ and NCLA writer in residence, Helen Oyeyemi, has the following thoughts on the Festival:
‘Modern technology plays a part in shaping the contemporary attitude towards belonging – we travel, we stay connected to our friends and families by email and Skype and cross-continent text messages; scholars consult e-texts from universities thousands of miles away – communities broaden and we sometimes forget the size of the world. This festival has offered a forum for the discussion and consideration of ideas surrounding home, community, identity – in terms of nationality and otherwise. It’s fitting that Bloodaxe’s Out of Bounds, a poetry collection re-mapping Britain through the voices of black and Asian writers, was launched at this festival. And other flagrant stylistic and formal boundary crossers spoke and read here in Newcastle - Bernardine Evaristo, Daljit Nagra, Hari Kunzru, Jackie Kay, and Sapphire.
Here are other highlights of the festival for me: first there’s the feeling of kinship that connects those who attend any festival that has a real interest in books and the people who read and write them at its heart. Some may go to readings and deny experiencing any such feeling, but you may be sure that if reading was banned tomorrow, these are the people who’d raise hell (or be driven underground, to begin a warren-like network of civil disobedience, complete with codewords and insignia). At this particular festival I brought pages of text from my favourite writers to the workshop table and we had a word picnic, fourteen thoughtful, curious literary folks and me, looking at different ways of narrating our place in the worlds of others, and the place that other people hold in our own worlds. It’s just struck me that none of the writers whose work we discussed are currently living. Pushkin and Dickinson have been dead for a couple of centuries. But of course they were with us, so much with us that it wasn’t easy to isolate what era all of the stories had been written in.
The sharing of stories continued in other ways, whether it happened as part of informal conversations (recognising my younger self when Helen Limon mentioned learning Englishness through Enid Blyton stories), but I’ve also been part of an audience that Sapphire thrilled with her integrity, her loyalty to the characters she’s created and the social and psychological realities they live through. Hearing her in conversation with Jackie Kay, and hearing how calm both writers were about the complicated manoeuvres they pull off in their writing, only highlighted their sheer intellectual gutsiness. In Sapphire’s case, we’re talking about bringing some of the characteristics of the slave narrative into synthesis with contemporary feminism, holding contemporary America in a radical gaze at the same time as occasionally riffing off Dostoyevsky. There is that side of belonging that demands that we challenge the context we live in.’
In the run up to the main festival, the Festival of Belonging Fringe provided workshops and four lively evenings of entertainment with ‘We’re All Mad Here’, ‘Castles, Collieries and Coastline’, Kalagora, ‘Anywhere I Lay My Head’ and ‘I Don’t Think We’ve Met?’ Fringe organisers Trashed Organ filled venues at The Bridge in Newcastle and The Central in Gateshead with an exciting array of writers, musicians and artists and gave audience members the opportunity to go low-fi with a typed or handwritten post-it-note ‘tweet’ or to send a postcard to a stranger.
A reminder that NCLA is still accepting submissions for this competition in two categories - 14 and under and 19 and under - with a deadline of 20th July 2012. Competition judges are Matthew Sweeney and a panel of young adults and shortlisted poems will be turned into a poetry trail across Newcastle-Gateshead in autumn 2012. Further competition details are available on the NCLA website.
If you attended the Festival of Belonging, there is still
time to let the team at NCLA know what you thought. Leave feedback about your
experience and you will automatically go into a draw to win signed copies
of books written by the Festival of Belonging authors.
Submissions for the ‘Belonging’ themed issue of Friction Magazine have now closed so keep a look out for Issue 5 and its selection of stories, poetry, flash fiction and other creative work – especially if you did make a submission!
NCLA is delighted to announce the results of this year’s International student short story competition:
The 1st Prize of £1,000 goes to Samantha Lin from Australia (studying at Durham University) for her story ‘Lily of the Valley’.
The 2nd Prize of £500 goes to Esraa Khalouf from Syria (studying for an MA in Creative Writing here at Newcastle University) for her story ‘No "U" Turn’.
The 3rd Prize of £200 goes to Massiah Begashaw from
Ethiopia (studying at Kingston University) for his story ‘The Miserable
Woman’.
Judge Tahmima Anam said:
‘I
thought all of the stories conveyed, often movingly, the upheavals of leaving
home and finding oneself on unfamiliar ground. The stories spoke of
loneliness and loss, but also of the opportunity to reinvent the self in
light of the many transformations that international students undergo as they
leave home, often for the first time. Some of the stories reminded me of my
own first days as an international student in the small North American town
of South Hadley, Massachusetts. I would like to especially commend the writer
of ‘Lily of the Valley’ who conveyed many of the deep ambivalences of exile –
of feeling, faith, and belonging – through the subtle and moving story of a
young Japanese student. I wish all the writers the best of luck in their
education and creative pursuits.’
NCLA is pleased to be welcoming Robin Black and Jackie Kay, Thursday 17th May, 7pm, Culture Lab, Newcastle University. American fiction writer Robin Black’s first short story collection If I Loved You, I Would Tell You This takes readers into the minds and hearts of people navigating the unsettling transitions that life presents to us all. Jackie Kay's new collection of short stories, Reality Reality (Picador) was due to be published in May. As ever, in this newest and most luminous of collections, Jackie Kay finds dignity in solitude, humour in love, and something universal in longing.
Tickets (£6/£4 [concessions]/£2 [Newcastle University students]) are available online from the webstore. Alternatively, call Melanie Birch on 0191 222 7619 or email melanie.birch@ncl.ac.uk.
The next First Thursday reading takes place on Thursday 7th June, 1pm, Lecture Theatre 6, King George VI Building, Newcastle University with Creative Writing MA Students from Newcastle University. Bring your sandwiches and enjoy this free event.
Also on Thursday 7th June, at 7pm, the second year of Write Around The Toon (WATT) launches at Northern Stage. Over the past four months creative writing PhD students and alumni at Newcastle University have been experiencing short writing residencies at cultural venues across Newcastle-Gateshead, resulting in a web-based tour of the region based on creative writing exercises set in the different venues. Hear readings of work produced from the residencies, have a go at some of the writing exercises, learn more about the project and raise a glass of wine in celebration. For more details about Write Around The Toon 2011 and 2012, visit the project website: www.writearoundthetoon.co.uk.
This event is free but ticketed. You can register here.
Alternatively, call Melanie Birch on 0191 222 7619 or email melanie.birch@ncl.ac.uk.
Taking place from 10am on Saturday 14th July at
Northern Stage, ‘Re-making
Shakespeare’ is an all day event in association with the Royal
Shakespeare Company and Northern Stage as part of the RSC’s World Shakespeare
Festival and involving directors, actors, and scholars focusing on
international Shakespeare. Participants include Artistic Director of the RSC
Michael Boyd, Director of Northern Stage Erica Whyman and Director of the Shakespeare
Blackfriars Playhouse, Virginia, USA, Ralph Cohen. There will be workshops
from RSC movement and voice specialists plus a surprise performance event.
Tickets (£20 / £10 [concessions]) are available from the Northern Stage box office on 0191 230 5151.
Postgraduate Certificate in Creative Writing student Elaine Ewart (who took second place in the recent NCLA water poetry competition) is having a fun and busy time as Fenland Poet Laureate. She has given her first poetry reading at Ely's inaugural River Rhymes Poetry Festival, and been invited to read at an open mic poetry evening in Wisbech as the special guest. She is also organising a nature poetry evening at the Wildfowl and Wetland Trust at Welney, Norfolk in June, and has got three great local poets involved to read their work. Elaine has also written two poems celebrating local events - Ely Eel Day and a local textile art exhibition - and has invitations to do more.
Creative Writing PhD student Barbara Henderson , who writes under the name Bea Davenport, is hoping to make it through the heats of Pulp Idol in Liverpool to the final on 31st May. In this competition for budding novelists, writers read from and answer questions about their work and the winner has their work read by a major publisher or agent.
As part of her collaboration with photographic media artist Samantha Silver, NCLA’s Creative Writing Development Officer Viccy Adams has been selected to display a TV broadcast installation version of their blog, The Peripatetic Studio, as part of The House of Curious Engagements this summer.