Creative Midlands Events |
| Room 204 – now open for applications Posted: 04 Feb 2013 08:43 AM PST
Room 204 is for emerging* writers living or working in the West Midlands who are looking for career development. It supports 15 -20 writers per year. We will offer each writer at least a year of support, including meetings and planning sessions in the first year, with follow up contact in subsequent years. The programme is aimed at writers who are emerging and who are writing creatively in any genre. It would be particularly suited to those who have previously had some work published, have demonstrated a commitment to developing their work over a period of time, or those who have graduated from creative writing HE courses. The programme is free and requires only a time commitment of approximately 3 days/6 half days per year. The application process for Room 204 2013 is now open, if you're interested in applying please visit the Room 204 Writer Development page for further details. The deadline for submissions for the 2013 intake is 5pm on Thursday 28th February 2013. To see more information on the 2012 cohort, please click here. *Emerging, for the purpose of this programme, is defined as committed, but in the early stages of a writing career. Its definition does not rely on having earned money (or otherwise worked) as a writer, nor on the quantity of work published, but on the level of initiative shown in pursuing writing as a career. It is further defined as having taken initial steps towards professionalising as a writer, for example participating in writing workshops, tutorials, being part of a critiquing writers' circle, submitting to competitions and magazines, seeking an agent or publisher (even if one has not been secured). We are interested in writers who want to write professionally, even if writing would not be their only or main job.
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| Posted: 04 Feb 2013 07:56 AM PST Sara Beadle, Programmes Director
"The atmosphere was relaxed and inviting; it was a pleasure to be there in the company of such inspiring writers, not only for their literature but for their backgrounds and their ability to share their stories with such confidence and humour. I thoroughly enjoyed the evening as did all of the guests I had the privilege of meeting."
It is never too early to start planning our Summer season (April – July), so we have been working hard on that already. Early indications are good: look out for a Readers' Day in partnership with the West Midlands Readers' Network in May, a Writer Networking Afternoon in Hereford and the launch of Writing West Midlands' new 'roadshows' – a rolling programme of information sessions for writers around the region – think of them as a live version of all the information and advice on our website. We will also be celebrating the winning entries to our short fiction competition – being judged now. Look out for details about the winners, and their work, on our website. Meanwhile, it's back to the huge pile of wonderful books I have to read… currently underway is The Friday Gospels by Jenn Ashworth – and yes, it is all the wit and wonder we have come to expect from Jenn. Buy it!   |
Our writer development programme, Room 204, is just coming to the end of its first year. We have worked with eighteen emerging writers and have found it very interesting to help them negotiate the increasingly complicated world of being a writer. During the course of the year our writers have run workshops, given performances, undertaken writing commissions, set up websites and completed new writing. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of the programme has been the networking, not only with each other but with the wider writing industry. The first Room 204 cohort has established themselves and we will continue to work with them; and now we are looking forward to working with another group of talented writers.
We've really hit the ground running this year, launching our January-March programme with a wonderful evening of European literature in translation on January 15th. This event is just one of the ways we chose to show our admiration for translated literature, of which there is a growing wealth available in English. There was a similar evening of European writers in the Birmingham Book Festival 2012, and you can expect something similar this October. It is always a delight to welcome journalist and broadcaster Rosie Goldsmith to host one of our events, and the 
One book in particular caught my eye: Dance By The Light Of The Moon by Judith Vanistendael (a graphic novelist). The illustrations in this book were beautiful and immediately caught my attention. Judith talked about her childhood – how she always loved to draw, and how she only came to be a novelist through her boyfriend confronting her about her inability to hold down a job, prompting her to find a trade. She found graphic novels, and the results are wonderful.
Luckily for us and the literature-hungry people of the West Midlands, the snow stayed away until the day after High Impact, at which point we began to worry for the safety of our other January activities. With the weather doing its worst we were forced to cancel a Birmingham Writer Networking Afternoon (rescheduled for February 23rd), and quite a few meetings. Recovery was swift, thankfully, with the team back in the office in time to prepare for the first in this year's | You are subscribed to email updates from Creative Midlands Events To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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