CREATIVE WRITING in Brighton and London

Since my last post was about the arguments regarding whether creative writing can be taught, I suppose it's not surprising that I should be thinking about the courses that I will be running in Brighton and Central London in the autumn - although I haven't actually been away this summer yet.
Courses take a lot of planing and ideas for new exercises and new approaches to familiar subjects come from a diverse range of sources - a chance remark, a photograph, an article in Sunday supplement.
Last night after a dinner party I suddenly saw how I could use titles from Philip K. Dick's books to spark new and original writing and went straight to my laptop to plan a lesson instead of heading for the kitchen sink and the washing up...can't think why. What's else on offer next term?
Halloween and all things ghoulish, creating believable baddies, discovering how being in the moment can aid description and two entirely new courses - nature writing on the edge of the Sussex Downs and a lunch hour course in central London for busy writers who just want/need to go home after work.
I am also very glad to be running a course on writing the biography of your family again. There's nothing as interesting as people and I meet some fascinating characters in the classroom - the fact that some of them have been dead a couple of hundred years doesn't make any difference.
While the course is aimed at anyone who wants to put flesh on the bare bones of family history - a list of dates of births, deaths and marriages reveals very little by itself - it is also suitable for students who want to write the life story of a parent or grandparent.
Get in touch if you'd like to find out more. 

BRIGHTON

Creative Writing – an introduction MONDAY MORNINGS

It doesn’t matter if you haven’t written since school - come along and discover the writer within on this confidence-building 10 week course starting on October 1^st 2012
South Portslade Community Centre

www.portslade.org 01273 422632 or email comed@paca.uk.com

Creative Writing – advanced THURSDAY MORNING or AFTERNOON

An imaginative 10 week course designed to offer support and inspiration to the emerging writer. Morning and afternoon sessions available  starting on  October 4^th 2012
South Portslade Community Centre

www.portslade.org 01273 422632 or email comed@paca.uk.com

Writing from Nature at Foredown Tower SIX WEEK COURSE

Take inspiration from the natural world, and look at the familiar in new ways at this unique site on the edge of the South Downs. This is a short Wednesday morning course starting on November 7^th 2012

www.portslade.org 01273 422632 or email comed@paca.uk.com

Help! I Want To Be Published!  FIVE WEEK COURSE

A short course for aspiring fiction and non fiction writers that combines practical guidance on the nitty gritty of getting published with advice on how to make your writing stand out for all the right reasons.

Starting on November 6^th at the Friends Centre, near Brighton Station.

www.friendscentre.org 01273 810210

CENTRAL LONDON

The 60-minute Writer  GRAB A SANDWICH & A DOSE OF CREATIVITY

Fit creative writing into your busy day in central London. A relaxed, informal rolling programme for writers of all levels of experience who enjoy being thrown new ideas and experimenting with poetry and prose. This Friday lunchtime class starts on September 28th 2012 at City Lit in Holborn.

http://www.citylit.ac.uk 020 7831 7831

Writing Your Family Biography

A non-fiction course for students who want to learn how to use writing techniques to transform the bare bones of family history into a gripping read.

This Friday afternoon course starts on September 14^th  2012 at City Lit in Holborn.

http://www.citylit.ac.uk 020 7831 7831

Ways into Creative Writing

An imaginative and supportive course covering prose writing and poetry -suitable for the beginner

This Friday evening course starts on September 14 2012 at City Lit in Holborn.

http://www.citylit.ac.uk 020 7831 7831

Poetry in Brighton

Naomi Foyle, a poet I admire very much , is running two poetry courses this spring. Details below. If you want to learn all the difficult bits in a  supportive atmosphere then check this out.
Lyric Poetry: Open Form
January 11th – Feb 1st
Tuesday evenings, 7:30 – 9:30
Cost:  £40 / £35 conc.
The lyric poem is `a brief subjective poem strongly marked by imagination, melody and emotion, and creating for the reader a single, unified impression' (C. Hugh Holman).  In this course students will study and write lyric poetry in `open forms' (or `free verse') and discuss the role that metre, rhyme and other elements of poetic craft  play in the composition and appreciation of open form poetry.
Narrative Poetry
March 1st - 22nd
Tuesday evenings, 7:30 – 9:30.
Cost:  £40 / £35 conc.
Whether long or short, fictional or confessional, the narrative poem tells a story. While it may contain lyric elements including imagination, music, and emotion, this poem moves the reader through time, developing character and
plot.  In this course students will read, write and workshop narrative poems, with a special look at the ballad, the dramatic monologue, and their own life histories.
The Kemptown Bookshop
95 St George's Rd
01273-682110

CONGRATULATIONS to a winning author

I was delighted to learn that Andrew Campell-Kearnsey's story ‘Shrinking Violet’ has just won  £25 in the Spinetinglers competition.
Andrew was a member of my TOWARDS PUBLICATION autumn class held at the Friends Centre in Brighton.
Andrew is also a founder member of a relatively new organisation set up to support and promote writers. Called Brighton Community of Writers (Brighton COW for short), it runs a series of competitions. I've given details below but you can find out more by clicking on the title of this post.

BRIGHTON COW  will run four short story competitions in 2011. The deadlines will be the end of February, May, August and November. 
Theme and Word limit: Any subject. 3,000 words
Prizes: top three winning writers will receive £100, £50 and £25. There will also be the opportunity for the stories to be published on the BRIGHTON COW website as well as being recorded for broadcast on Brighton’s Coastway Hospital Radio, which provides music and entertainment to a network of Brighton hospitals.
Entry fee: £4

Tonight in Brighton...there's only one place to be....

A SPORTING CHANCE 

Poetry, prose and LOL comedy. 7.30 pm Iambic Arts Theatre in Regent Street in the North Laines. You'll laugh. You'll cry. You'll have a drink. You'll be in good company and you'll be supporting a great cause...

Join me on WALK,TALK AND WRITE a creative guided tour of Brighton

This is something different. Local history + a gentle stroll + creative writing. What's not to like...
AUGUST 9th 10am to 12.30
It starts and ends at Brighton Unemployed Centre in Tilbury Place, off Carlton Hill - just by the American Express building. It is part of TARNER STORIES, a project funded by Heritage Lottery that explores an area rich in working class history.
It's a hilly walk - this is Brighton: there's no getting away from that - but the pace is easy and there will be time to stop and stare and share stories. We will hear about Miss Tarner, walk on Victorian red brick pavements, see where a farm was operating in the heart of Brighton only 40 years ago and spot some fine examples of  bungaloosh - a uniquly Brighton building material.
AND I will be setting creative writing exercises along the way and back at the Centre.
I've never done anything like this before - bet you haven't either.
No need to book - just turn up. No need to go to the cash point - it's free. But do get in contact if you want to find out more

BRIGHTON - hip city or what?

I enjoyed Alexis Petridis' article about Brighton in today's Guardian (click on the title of this post to read it). He mentioned a couple of my favourite places

 Muesli Mountain – otherwise known as the hills of Hanover.  Southover Street is so steep they have to have a pub on every corner: base camp one, base camp two...

The Bell Book and Candle in North Laines "which has the local market in rune and casting stones pretty much sewn up".The article didn't mention the Iambic Arts Theatre above the shop which opened this year or the fact that they want to stock A Good Confession (which I have only just remembered...) 

Because we have a Green MP, because we have the largest gay population in Europe and because "The World's Least Convincing Transvestite" lives here, Petridis sees Brighton as England's San Francisco, a city of tolerance...

It's been called lots of other things: London by the Sea, the damp end of Wardour Street, Blow-in Town, the smell of success (Laurence Olivier).

I think of it as Mickey Rooney City. It's the place where you can say:  Hey, let's put on a show...

Have you got a definition for Brighton?

A Brighton Weekend BANK HOLIDAY MONDAY

Most well to do families in Renaissance Italy could only afford to marry off one daughter...the others were sent to the convent. That time, that place, that kind of tragedy was recreated in the inspirational surroundings of St Bartholomew's in a musical dramatization of Sacred Hearts, a novel by Sarah Dunant.
Lost love, Gregorian chant and sweeping, soaring music by Palestrina sung by a choir of "nuns" -made for an unforgettable combination...It was twice as long as the Latin Masses of my childhood and I didn't mind a bit.

A Brighton Weekend SUNDAY

Sunday evening was the first night of Bernadette Cremin's one woman show Altered Egos.
Iambic Arts Theatre in the North Laines was packed - they were standing at the back to hear stories of Val, Patsy, Trudy, Joan, Sophia and Tina...Here's how Bernadette describes it.

Listen to six women who have cat-walked and crawled out of my poetry over the last decade! They will invite you to into their own very different worlds... using spoken-word, music and film in a mish-mash of Shameless and Sex in the City.

It was an impressive and moving performance. The hard edged, fragile women that populate Bernadette's tight metaphors deserve this wider stage and she proved that the quality of her acting matches the quality of her poetry.
Last show next Sunday evening May 9 2010
Iambic Arts Theatre, above Bell Book & Candle on Gardner St with the entrance behind the shop on Regent St, signposted with balloons 
** table seating and cash bar
Time: 7:30 for 8pm
Price: £10/8

A Brighton Weekend SATURDAY

Saturday Afternoon and my first taste of the Open Houses for this year. You get to see beautiful paintings AND inside people's houses, what's not to like. I was floating in and out of one in Poets' Corner, admiring the felt textiles and artworks and taking a quick look around the kitchen (nice work surfaces) when a girl I did my teacher training came down the stairs. I was in her home without realizing it.

Saturday Evening The first night of Tales from the Coffee House at Cafe Moksha, opposite St Peter's in Central Brighton. While you sip a glass of wine or down an expresso the show happens around you and pretty soon you find you're part of it. I ended up being bridesmaid at a wedding and I am not entirely sure how that happened...with fine acting and witty impro means it is different every night.  Go see it. Go be part of it. I really do recommend it.

More dates to come: 7th, 8th, 14th, 15th, 20th,21st, 22nd May 7.30 pm £6 (£5) Tickets 012730 709709 or just turn up on the night.

A Brighton Weekend FRIDAY NIGHT

I wouldn't be anywhere else but Brighton during May. I love the festival and I had such a great bank holiday weekend it's only now that I've had the energy to blog about it.  
Friday night. Ok this wasn't exactly a festival event. It was a birthday party but it is was held in one of my favourite pubs in one of my favourite parts of Brighton. Hanover is steep hills, narrow streets (fold your wing mirrors in if you're driving), tightly packed, pastel coloured two up and two downs and tiny, friendly pubs on the street corners. Once a very working class area, it is now known as Muesli Hill because of the number of teachers who live there. It has a wonderful, friendly atmosphere like nowhere else. And The Geese is like being in a friend's front room. With music. And a pay bar.  I'd like to live in Hanover but I just haven't got the legs for it.

Brighton Writers Workshop

I am very excited about the new Writers Workshop that will run on Tuesday evenings after Easter for eight weeks. The location is the Friends Centre in their new eco friendly premises near Brighton Station.
The very first writing class I ever attended was a workshop in London run by the American playwright Bernard Miller. I can still remember some of the things he said: get sex out of the head. Get it back in the bed where it belongs...
I'm not sure what he was referring to - I don't remember my writing or anyone's else going anywhere near such subjects. There was some debate but mostly we just listened to him comment on our offerings.  He was tough, praise was a rare commodity, but he was also inspirational.

The next workshop I attended - after a gap of X years and two children - was at City University in Islington.
It was inspirational in a different way - a mixed group of writers entered into detailed, pertinent discussion under the thoughtful and reflective ear of Alison Burns. It was a productive experience where trust was earned and equality respected. I am still close to several of the writers I met there and my novel grew out of those sessions.

What's the Brighton workshop going to be like? Well, the second workshop will be my model - I am no Bernard Miller - and I am very clear about the kind of atmosphere I want to create. Supportive. Collaborative.

It's not a competition. It's about getting the best possible text. It's about becoming a better reader of your own writing because you are better at reading other people's...

Writers have always needed workshops -- they might have taken the form of a smokey Fleet Street pub in the 1890s (I am thinking of Yeats at the Cheshire Cheese)  or in a church hall or a smart new classroom in one of the most sustainable buildings in the world (hint, hint). We need to share our work with others who understand the challenges before we let it go out to the wider world of family, friends and reading public...

You can find out more about the workshop (and how to enrol!) by clicking on the title of this post or ringing 01273 810210 Monday - Friday, 9.30am-3.00pm.

Making History

I'm delighted to be part of a new two year project that will record the history of a forgotten part of Brighton,  thanks to a  £49,700 grant by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF). Tarner, the area around Carlton Hill, is in the heart of the city. Everyone knows it – if only because of the landmark American Express Building – and because it is a short, steep, walk from the Pavilion. Somehow though it has always been on the margins, but it is rich in working class history. Part of Brighton Rock was set in these streets and Graham Greene must have known the area well on his visits to Brighton. 

I will be Writer in Residence at Brighton Unemployed Centre - an inspirational community place that is run by the unemployed for the unemployed. It is already a hub of creative education running a range of exciting free and low cost educational classes from computer skills and belly dancing to Japanese for beginners. The Centre will train volunteers to gather the stories of ‘old Tarner’ by creating oral history recordings, photographs and artwork evoking the past. But we will also focus on what is happening in Tarner right now - a book and an exhibition will come out of the project and lots of other creative things...

The Ghost of West Pier

Tonight in Brighton. Snow on the beach and a north wind knifing fingers and faces as the ghost of the West Pier flickers into life.  And the magic isn't diminished because you know it's all done with lasers...

Self-Publishing Day in Brighton

SELF PUBLISHING is now respectable and doesn't have to involve getting a second mortgage.  The wonderful QueenSpark Books are running a day to explain the ins and outs.  
DATE:    Saturday  13 Feb (10.15am - 3.30pm) 
LOCATION: Jubilee Library Central Brighton COST: £20 

Tickets available from the Dome Ticket Office at 29 New Road (01273) 709709 
Topics covered will include:
How to present your book professionally
Design, Layout & Costs
Proof Reading and copy editing
Printing your book
Marketing your book
Pros & Cons of Self-Publishing.
For more information contact:
e-mail sarah@queensparkbooks.org.uk or telephone 01273 571710 

For one night only ...The West Pier Appears

Thrilled to hear that on Wednesday - February 10 - the ghost of Brighton's West Pier will appear from nowhere, shimmering in the dark...

Coming to RADIO FOUR...a slice of real life Brighton

'Legsy Gets a Break'

Afternoon play, BBC Radio 4, Monday 15th February, 2.15pm

Legsy Gets a Break follows a young man at a crossroads in his life after growing up in the care system.  Will family loyalty suck him into a future of serious crime or can he break away and make another life for himself? 

This drama began in 2007 as part of the Arts Council of England South East's  Radio Development Programme.  

It is based on real cases that emerged during work with youth offending teams in Brighton and Hove, West Sussex and Southampton.  This formed the basis of a five part interactive project created with Radio Berkshire.  Company Paradiso has created this latest version with Phil Gladwin, it is written by Phil Gladwin, and directed for Radio 4 by John Dryden