Birmingham Poet Laureate presents N:Fuse

http://kindandgenerous.weebly.com/whats-on.html

Waterstone’s book shop 24-26 High Street, Birmingham.
2-4pm Sunday March 28, Sunday 25 April and Sunday 23 May, 2010


Personal stories from real people at work in the city, familiar songs that you can join in with, new poetry and yarns inspired by the city of 'Birminghum'.


Three special 5-10 minute slots always reserved for people aged under 18 years of age to play their guitar, sing a song or share a new story or fresh verse. See above link for more information or to get in touch with Adrian.

Guests for Sat 28 March include great lyrical voice artists Leanne Stoddart and Andre Hesson from Birmingham and the young poet laureate, India Miller.

Public meeting : 'Re-building the TV Drama industry in the West Midlands'

Something that may be of interest...

Public meeting : 'Re-building the TV Drama industry in the West Midlands'


With TV drama series like Hustle and Survivors now filming here, we look at how we can rebuild our TV drama industry in the region. Come along to The Bond to hear a stellar panel of TV drama names give their views.

This is an unmissable event for local screenwriters, directors, producers and anyone who cares about the future of television drama in the West Midlands.

30 March 2010

Venue: The Bond,180-182 Fazeley Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SE

6.00pm Registration/Drinks

6.30pm Panel : 'Re-building the TV Drama industry in the West Midlands'
Chaired by Lee Thomas (Screen WM)
Speakers already confirmed: Tony Jordan, Peter Lloyd, Michael Eaton (more speakers to be confirmed very soon)

8.00pm Networking/Drinks

Booking Now Open for Spring Thing - Festival In A Day Saturday 29th May 2010

You can get tickets and more information on this incredible day of writing, writers, books and discussion featuring: Carol Ann Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Stuart Maconie, Jenn Ashworth, Jo Bell, Samantha Harvey, Amanda Smyth & Aifric Campbell.

A day ticket gets you entry to ALL events!

Have a look at the website for more info - a full timetable will appear there nearer the date.

Sponsored by:

Supported by:

Poetry Competition run by Ledbury Poetry Festival

Check out Ledbury Poetry Festival's Poetry Competition - judged by Billy Collins, first prize a Ty Newydd writing course! See website for details.

Genre: The Bio-Pic : a brilliant day workshop for aspiring screenwriters

Our friends at Script thought you might like this... a brilliant day workshop for aspiring screenwriters...


GENRE: THE BIO-PIC


A Script WORKSHOP

Saturday 13th March 2010

BVSC, Digbeth

10am - 5pm

£50 (£40 concessions)



Biopics are crowd pleasers and regular Oscar winners – with bankable actors often attracted to the challenge of playing a real and notable figure. But while the facts of someone’s life might offer elements of plot, how can writers prevent biopics becoming episodic documentaries – and how far can or should a screenwriter ‘stretch the truth’?

This 1 day course will examine how to find the best story in a ‘life’, how to develop gripping character stories and how to approach those legal and copyright issues that might arise. It will also examine the conventions that define the genre and look at some of the ways that filmmakers are stretching and challenging the ‘rules’ to push the genre forward.


By the end of the course you should have acquired a deeper knowledge of the biopic, along with specific tips and techniques to progress your own scripts and ideas.

The following films will be referred to in discussions; it is recommended that participants view them prior to the workshop:


The Damned United

Hilary and Jackie

The Nowhere Boy


Claire Ingham is a producer and film and television script developer. She works on projects at all stages of development - currently ranging from the adaptation treatment of Eoin Colfer’s bestselling novel The Wishlist to the final draft of Helen Cross’ original feature Stratford Road. Claire has previously worked for a number of film and television companies in development roles. She was Head of Drama Development at Impossible Pictures for four years where she headed a small team, commissioning and developing a range of TV and film projects for all the major broadcasters, including Jed Mercurio’s contemporary retelling of Frankenstein and Michael Chaplin’s family film Pickles.



GENRE: THE BIO-PIC : FULL PROGRAMME




10 – 10.15 REGISTRATION AND COFFEE





10.15 – 11.30 SESSION 1

WHAT IS A BIO-PIC –

The appeal for producers and audiences

Some conventions and challenges of the genre

Legal considerations



11.30 – 11.45 BREAK





11.45 – 1.00 SESSION 2

CHARACTERS AND CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT

When is a life story a dramatic story?

A real person as a dramatic character





1.00 – 2.00 LUNCH





2.00 – 3.15 SESSION 3

STRUCTURING THE BIO-PIC

Dramatic Structure and Dramatic Form

Strategies for handling the dramatic events of a life without becoming simply episodic





3.15 – 3.30 BREAK







3.30 – 4.45 SESSION 4

INNOVATIONS IN THE FORM AND IN THE MARKETPLACE

Expanding the genre

Using blends of fact and fiction

Experiments with structure

Using biography to inspire other kinds of stories



4.45 – 5.00 Q & A

http://www.scriptonline.net/  For more info or to book.

A couple of Flatpack specials you might love...

Wednesday 24th March, 6:30pm at Ikon Eastside, Fazeley St


WALKING DOWN BRISTOL STREET
Birmingham’s cultural scene in the 1930s

Tickets: £6


Birmingham was buzzing with creative types during the 1930s; modernist architects, surrealist painters and a host of writers including W.H. Auden, Louis MacNeice and Walter Allen. To use a new-fangled phrase, what made the city such a cultural hub between the wars? Author David Lodge and Tessa Sidey from Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery will be exploring the period, alongside a screening of Lodge’s TV documentary As I Was Walking Down Bristol Street (dir: Jim Berrow) and beautiful amateur cine footage shot at the time.



Sunday 28th March, 1:45pm at the Electric Cinema, Station St
WELCOME TO THE DREAM PALACE
Total running time: 100 minutes approx.
Tickets: £6
Wrapping up Flatpack’s thirties strand, special guest Juliet Gardiner will be talking about the social significance of the cinema during this time and sharing some of the celluloid nuggets discovered while researching her ambitious and engaging new book The Thirties: An Intimate History. We’ll also look at two very different film-going experiences: the suburban super-cinema, in 1973 documentary Odeon Cavalcade; and the newsreel theatre, a place to kill time while waiting for a train. While preparing a film about the Electric’s history, the current owners have uncovered a wealth of material from the cinema’s newsreel days including footage of the building unseen since it was first filmed.


Booking for Flatpack 2010 opens at http://www.flatpackfestival.org.uk/ on 25th February.

New events, new books, new ideas

A very many things to tell you this month...

I spent part of the weekend at the WIC (Writing Industries Conference). This is the second time they've run one of these, and the second time I have been over to Loughborough for it. This one was quite a change from the one before (2008). Sessions on everything from Paranormal Romance to Pitching Scripts, and all brought together beautifully with a Graham Joyce keynote. I confess I was largely unaware of Mr Joyce, but was impressed with his speech on 'diversification for writers' and the generosity with which he gave to other writers throughout the day. 

The day also got me thinking about genre and sub genre, and whether there is an event in there somewhere (after feeling decidedly ignorant about the various sci-fi/fantasy sub-genres mentioned - steampunk, gaspunk, etc). I'm mulling over ways to bring this to this year's Festival in a way that makes it accessible to all and not just a platform for repeating conversations that might be happening elsewhere - or that happened on Saturday!

Today brought a Guardian article featuring Brian Gambles and Mike Whitby on Birmingham's new Library of Birmingham project - something we are following closely, of course, and final planning for our Spring Thing event on May 29th. The line up for this is now complete, and includes some brilliant writers and performers (Carol Ann Duffy, Helen Dunmore, Jo Bell and Jenn Ashworth to name but a few....) Tickets should go on sale next week, and details will be posted here as soon as they do.

Next month, before our Spring Thing arrives, we are launching Birmingham writer Christine Coleman's second novel, Paper Lanterns at Ikon Gallery (Oozells Square, Birmingham B12HS) on Tuesday 27th April 2010 at 6.45pm. Christine will be in conversation with her childhood friend and former Fat Lady Clarissa Dickson-Wright. This event is free but must be booked. To reserve a place call Sara on 0121 246 2792 or email sara[at]birminghambookfestival[dot]org.

Also on the drawing board this month are ideas for October workshops. If there is anything you desperately want, feel free to let me know. Currently on the cards is something on blogging for writers, writing for children, poetry, and freelance journalism.

I think that's plenty of things to be going along with... more soon...

Sara

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - Kenyan novelist at The Drum, Sat 6 Mar 2010

Review: The Loss Adjustor by Aifric Campbell

Where do I start with this book? The second novel from Serpents Tail author Aifric Campbell, inspired by the Sussex house she now lives in...

At once startling, moving and raw, this is very good prose draped over a very powerful story. If I am honest, it contains plenty of elements that, when put together, ought really to have a sense of the done-before. A city worker with a small-town past, a childhood friendship full of secrets and tragedy that continues to plague her into adulthood, an intoxicating first love that tails off without resolution and leaves our protagonist, Caro, unable to move on, that pain magnified by the object of her affection becoming a world famous rock star. Caro is left to replay the memories of his first guitar solos in their childhood bedrooms, and interrogate his lyrics for any mention of her.

Add this to the challenging and slightly antagonistic friendship Caro is forming with Tom, an elderly man she often sits opposite in a churchyard as they ritually pay their respective dues. It is this that drags her back into the history of the town in which she grew up, forcing them both to confront the demons that accompany them along their lonely paths.

It should be familiar. But somehow, due in no small part to the beautiful prose and commanding language, it is wholly new. The story is compelling, managing to be at the same time nostalgic and contemporary. Caro is likeable, but only just, making her a very three dimensional character - constantly dipping in and out of functionality in a way that we probably won't want to admit we can relate to. The landscape is well drawn, and the twist in the tale was, for me at least, completely unexpected.

A beautiful, riveting book that I hesitate not to recommend.

Screenwriting Workshops

For those of you interested in screenwriting Script's latest workshop series, here, gives you the opportunity to learn more and perfect your skills. Have a look at their website for full details.

Review : Tell It To The Bees by Fiona Shaw

I had expectations of this book. Knowing it was a Tindal Street Press title, and having noticed it featured in events during Birmingham's SHOUT Festival in November, and hearing good things about that, I was curious to see what all the fuss was about.

I wasn't disappointed, although I have to say the book did take a while to get going, for me. Once past the initial exploration of the book's main characters - young Charlie, his mother, and the town's new female doctor, it settled nicely into the painful disintegration of Charlie's family life, before moving into his and his heartbroken mother's respective lonelinesses. What the book does very well is harness the bleakness Lydia (Charlie's mother) faces, the lack of choices, the genuine struggle. It contrasts well with the relief Charlie, and later Lydia, find in the Doctor's house. The bees, Charlie's fascination, are a nice vehicle for the solitude and silence of these characters, bringing out the culture of keeping quiet that permeated Fifties society. This serves to subtly bring to our attention the theme of homophobia rather than assaulting us with it earlier on. In fact, in the end, the story revolves as much around class as it does around the relationship between the two women.

Charlie is well drawn - a harried young boy with plenty of sense, if not a clear understanding, of the world they are living in.

In short, this is a complex emotional plot wound into a very accessible, appealing story. Definitely one to read and recommend.

Clare Morrall Book Launch

Join us in launching Clare Morrall's fourth novel

Monday 22 February 2010

6.45 - 8.45pm

The Electric Cinema, Station St, Birmingham, B5 4DY.

For a free place, email me (sara[at]birminghambookfestival[dot]org or call 0121 246 2792.

For more information about Clare, go here.

Sponsored by Sceptre and supported by the Electric Cinema.

New books and ideas for 2010.

Things are happening in the Book Festival offices. The general pace of things is go, go, go. Which, for January, is interesting.

Perhaps word has filtered through, perhaps not - we are changing slightly as an organisation in order to do more. As well as the Birmingham Book Festival we are now also the new literature development agency for the West Midlands, Writing West Midlands (WWM). Jonathan Davidson, previously Director of the Birmingham Book Festival (now Associate Director and Chief Executive of WWM) is focusing on WWM and Write On, the Festival's education strand. This means that I am now focused solely on the Festival, and, as of January 2010, am full time - a whole five days a week to work on the Festival - a luxury.

I have been spending a lot of that time on the train, in meetings and on the internet finding out what is happening in the world of books and publishing in 2010. Here are a few of the (many) things that excite me:

New books for 2010 that I am already thinking about:

• Lionel Shriver's new novel, So Much For That, is out in March.
• The Room Swept White is the latest from Sophie Hannah, also out in March.
• A second novel from Catherine O'Flynn to follow the brilliant What Was Lost comes our way in July.
• New Tindal Street titles including Maria Allen's Before The Earthquake, in February, Lesley Glaister's Chosen in May and Richard Francis' The Old Spring in July.
• Clare Morrall's fourth novel, The Man Who Disappeared, which we are launching on February 22nd, at the Electric Cinema, Birmingham, at 6.45pm. If you'd like to come, just email or call us (sara [at] birmingham book festival [dot] org, 0121 246 2792).

Look out for reviews and more information about these titles when they land on my desk, which I hope will be soon...

Add to this the heady combination of poet Jo Bell and novelist Jenn Ashworth, who are introducing a new show they like to call Too Much Information - a mix of short stories and poetry, wicked, wise and witty words about the bitter side of love, nightmare dates, friends and dead people, among other things.... knowing these two it promises to be dark, different and definitely funny. It will be part of our Spring Thing on Saturday May 29th, details of which will be appearing here in late February/early March.

Tomorrow I am off to London to meet with colleagues at the RSA, with whom the Festival has been happily working for several years now, to chat over ideas for 2010. It's then on to Serpent's Tail Publishers, who publish the excellent Bethan Roberts, Amanda Smyth and Aifric Campbell among others, to find out what they have to offer this year, and then along to Random House for an intensive two hour run through of their publishing calendar.

Come back here soon for reviews aplenty, including Raphael Selbourne's Costa First Novel Award winning novel Beauty, and Fiona Shaw's Tell It To The Bees.

Stay Well

Sara

A workshop opportunity for poets...

EVERY NEW IDEA - POETRY WORKSHOP - with Roz Goddard.

Venue: Birmingham Central Library (Shakespeare Memorial Room)

Date: Saturday 6 February

Time: 10am-12.30pm

Price: £25 (£20 concs) Call 0121 303 2323 to book.

We all occupy writing territories, some grown dusty with intensive farming.

This workshop will look at ways we can re-seed the ground we love to produce fresh, exciting poems. You will look at startling beginnings, expressing feelings in dazzling images and moving beyond your habitual holding bay.

Some places still available - don't miss out.

The Writers' Toolkit 2009

Saturday was our annual writer networking conference, the Writers' Toolkit 2009. 130 writers and others working in the writing industry came from all over the UK to meet and mingle, enjoying panel sessions on everything from Business Sense for Writers and Agents and Contacts to Performing your Poetry and Pitching Ideas. There was a lot of useful networking, chatting, tea drinking and, despite a rainy grey day in the city, bundles of enthusiasm for the matter at hand.

The day began with an excellent keynote speech from Archers writer Mary Cutler, and ended with a closing address from Director of Literature Strategy at Arts Council England, Antonia Byatt. Antonia's words about the need for activity and networking and open lines of communication between the funders and the writers about what the writing community needs struck a great chord with all those who had come to the conference with just such a thought in mind.

Antonia was followed by Jonathan Davidson, whose announcement of our new umbrella body, Writing West Midlands, was, therefore, timely. WWM is now the new Literature Development Agency for the West Midlands, formed out of a desire to emulate the good work being done by other regional agencies - Writing East Midlands, New Writing North, for example.

The West Midlands has long needed the same treatment, and now, although a fledgling iniative at present, WWM is the banner term for the organisation encompassing the Birmingham Book Festival, its education programme Write On!, and all the other work we do.


Find out more at the new Writing West Midlands website.

Another (Festival) year over, really?

The Birmingham Book Festival is over for another year. Festival years seem to be like dog years. There must be several per human year - surely it isn't November already?

Another year wrapped up as the cold begins to set in, and the Festival is still very much in our minds. The final week began with our brilliant Readers Day. This was a fantastic, intensive session with four brilliant novelists - Jenn Ashworth, Mark Illis, Jeremy Page and Amanda Smyth.

Rather than the usual hour and a bit format, this event took up almost an entire afternoon, punctuated with coffee and tea, and allowed the audience to really get to know the writers. Guided by former Midlands Today broadcast journalist Sue Beardsmore, the writers talked and were questioned extensively about their reading and writing lives.

It was interesting to find out the true life stories behind their work, the influences on them as youngsters that drove them to be the readers and writers they are today, to know their favourite (and least favourite!) books, and to hear about their personal relationship with the written word.

I highly recommend all of their books:

A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth
Black Rock by Amanda Smyth
Tender by Mark Illis
The Wake by Jeremy Page


Tuesday the 27th October saw some other unique events - an extraordinary lecture on Clouds from Richard Hamblyn, good poetry from Helen Mort and the Postcard Poets, and a very popular panel of writers, editors and producers of The Archers. On the final night we saw emerging talent from the National Academy of Writing's current students, storytelling bringing to life the mother-daughter relationship in Some Girls' Mothers and the launch of the latest R J Ellory novel. The night, and the Festival, were rounded off with the Keynote Address by the incredible George Monbiot.

The full text of that lecture will soon be available here and on our website.

We would like to thank everyone who participated in this year's festival. As ever it has been a labour of love and of enthusiasm for great writing and the need to read. We welcome feedback from those who have participated or attended, and if you didn't manage to fill in one of our questionnaires but have something to say, you are welcome to email me at sara at birminghambookfestival dot org.

And it isn't entirely over, as we still have the November Writers' Toolkit to look forward to. This takes place on 21st November at South Birmingham College and is aimed at all emerging and established writers. If you would like to know more or book a place, email joanne at birminghambookfestival dot org.

Thanks for all your support this year - and yes, we're already thinking about 2010...

Sara

Creative Writers - Starting Young!

Week Two is upon us, and started well with a lovely evening celebrating young creative writers in Birmingham.

The second annual Write On Adventures In Writing Awards recognised the progress and enthusiasm of the participants of the Summer Term's Write On Project.

Write On is a Birmingham Book Festival project, and it focuses on placing professional writers in schools across Birmingham and the West Midlands. Its aims are not academic, rather inspirational and aspirational, bringing to life The Writer as a career choice, and the writing as a valuable way to express imagination.

The four prize winners were:

Elijah Madourie and Adelle Raymond of Holyhead Secondary School, Ophelia Wilkinson of Holy Trinity Church of England Primary School and Megan Courtney-Jones of Tiverton Primary School.

The children all read from their work and joined Write On writers Roz Goddard and Philip Monks on stage for a chat about the project and how their writing has evolved.

Each child has shown great promise and enthusiasm for writing, and their work was excellent. It was humbling and warming to hear such 'new' writers generously giving of their work.

Well done all! From the Birmingham Book Festival/Write On team.

Tristram Stuart - Waste - Special Video Report by William Shaw

Here is a great video of Tristram Stuart's Waste event, last Thursday 8th October.

Day Two - John Boyne, Janette Jenkins and a weird and wonderful Ophelia story...

John Boyne & Janette Jenkins


The Festival was delighted to welcome John Boyne (Boy In The Striped Pyjamas) to the Festival. John's work has been on our radar for a long time, and we were pleased to finally manage to invite and welcome him this year. Even better was his introducing us to friend and fellow novelist Janette Jenkins (Angel Of Brooklyn), who, like John, studied creative writing at the University of East Anglia and has had several successful novels since.

The conversation soon turned to labels and the feelings each writer harboured about being slapped with a particular genre. Both, technically, write historical fiction, but only in the sense that the stories they fell in love with the idea of writing were set in the past, rather than from a great desire to write (or rewrite) history.

Both talked of the process of writing and getting published and offered some great advice for aspiring writers.

Let Me Tell You : Ophelia In Her Own Words



This strange and beautiful Ophelia story came to our attention months ago thanks to its author Paul Griffiths, who sent us a copy and explained his idea, which was to rewrite the story of Ophelia using only the 492 words Ophelia was given by Shakespeare in his Hamlet.

Helen Monks, Archers actress and former young poet laureate for Birmingham was a perfect Ophelia, performing sections of the book to an audience last night, bringing to life the text and the craft of weaving the limited vocabulary into a coherent narrative.

A unique, interesting and thoroughly enjoyable event.


Tonight : KATE MOSSE, TRISTRAM STUART, POSTGRADUATE POETRY PLATFORM, TINDAL STREET BOOKER TRIO, WRITE ON SISTER.

Tickets available on the door or on 0121 303 2323.

Fabulous First Night

The Festival's first night began with the excellent, lively (sometimes raucous) final of the BBC Radio 4 Poetry Slam.

Slamming Style:

BBC Radio 4 Producer Sara Davies introducing the event.

Festival Director Jonathan Davidson opening the evening.

The Slam attracted a huge audience of friends, family and poetry fans for a recording of the finalist battling it out for the elusive top spot. The winner, to be announced on National Poetry Day, tomorrow (Thursday 8th October 2009), showed great talent and personality and was the eventual successor of a very good field.

Judges, contestants and audience alike enjoyed almost two hours of pure poetry and performance, all of which promises a great broadcast. Don't miss it, 11pm, Thursday 8/10/09, BBc Radio 4.

Excellent fiction:

Elsewhere at the Festival, the first of our brilliant collection of great literary names arrived in Birmingham. Outcast novelist Sadie Jones, whose new book, Small Wars, is out now, was in conversation with author Kate Pullinger, whose latest novel Mistress of Nothing follows numerous other great works, including one of my favourite books, A Little Stranger. Both novelists have an understanding of the nuances of emotional destruction, particularly in a domestic or familial context, and this brought together their writing experiences in a great conversation.

You may have seen Sadie Jones before, at our Orange Readers Day back in May, where she joined other literary authors including Catherine O'Flynn (appearing at the Festival on Thursday 8th October as part of the Tindal Street Booker Trio celebration, as a contributor to Paint A Vulgar Picture - the anthology inspired by the music of the Smiths on Wednesday 14th October and as a guest on BBC Radio 4's A Good Read on Tuesday 20th October).

And if you missed this, Kate Pullinger will also be a guest on A Good Read, along with Catherine, David Edgar and novelist Helen Cross.

Tonight is now fast approaching, and we are gearing up to welcome Boy In The Striped Pyjamas author John Boyne, in conversation with Angel of Brooklyn author Janette Jenkins at the Birmingham Conservatoire. There are still tickets for this, available by calling 0121 303 2323 or on the door.

WIN FREE TICKETS! BE THE FIRST TO CLAIM!

Tomorrow we are excited to be welcoming Orange Prize founder and great novelist Kate Mosse, with a brilliant new book. We are offering free tickets to this event for the first twenty people to email us : if you would like a pair of tickets, email sara@birminghambookfestival.org now!