On Wednesday 4 April, members of the New Writing South‘s Portsmouth Writers’ Hub, will have their work performed by local actors, and are encouraging fellow Hub members, and members of the public to come along and share your opinions to help them hone their work.
Script-in-hand performances are a vital part of developing new drama writing and the writers hope that the audience won’t hold back with their opinions. This event is open to everyone to attend, and we actively encourage anyone interested in local talent to come along! Visit the New Theatre Royal website for more.
We’re delighted to have been awarded European INTERREG funding to co-host an exciting creative cross-channel collaboration with French theatre company Le Passe Muraile in a project entitled Votre Ville - Our Town By The Sea. Working in partnership with Brighton young people’s writing organisation Little Green Pig and our Young Writer Squad members, the first meetings involving the young people have now got underway. The young people met at The Writers’ Place to plan their trip to Cayeux-sur-Mer in northern France, where they will work with Le Passe Muraile, writer Rosanna Lowe and Brighton theatre company Unpacked. The group will be resident in France from 21-24 February and will be inviting their French counterparts over to England in April to take part in the Brighton Children’s Festival.
New Writing South and The School Creative Centre in Rye, East Sussex are looking for an enthusiastic organiser to lead their monthly Writers Hub.
Held at The School Creative Centre in Rye, the Writer Hub is a great opportunity for all kinds of creative writers living in and around the area to meet up, network and listen to inspiring guest speakers. The Rye Writer Hub is one of four Hubs in the south east region and complements a similar network of New Writing South Young People’s Writer Squads.
The Hub Coordinator will:
Work with both companies to plan inspiring speakers, events and programming for the monthly Hub in Rye.
Keep writers informed of Hub activity with a monthly e-mail
Welcome writers and guests at each Hub meeting
Keep records of attendance and payments
Be the main point of contact for the Hub.
Involve themselves in the management of the Hub web pages and social network sites.
Apply by email telling us why you would like to run a Writer Hub at the School Creative Centre in Rye and attach a CV.
This is a volunteer post that we envisage will need a commitment of between 5-8 hours a month. The successful applicant will become an important member of the NWS team and a member of the Creative School.
The School Creative Centre is a cultural hub and outstanding studio facility for over 30 resident artists, performers and makers. Offering a dynamic programme of events and workshops for adults and young people in East Sussex and Kent. http://www.theschoolcreativecentre.co.uk/
New Writing South is the organisation for creative writers: authors, playwrights, poets, screenwriters, radio writers in the south east. Just starting, mid career or seasoned hardy NWS can help you and your work flourish with a programme of support, workshops, feedback, mentoring, networking, bursaries, advice and much more. www.newwritingsouth.com
We’re pleased to announce a partnership with Kent Adult Education at Tonbridge in bringing a series of new creative writing courses starting this spring.
Creative writing courses represent a chance for anyone who enjoys writing, to develop their creative writing skills in short stories, poetry and autobiography. Laugh Your Way to Creative Writingis a chance for you to kick-start your creativity and try your hand at comedy writing. It will be a fun day with former stand-up comedian Marian Kilpatrick. Budding performers can try Performance Poetry, and join performance poet Justin Coe, exploring how to write and perform effectively and with confidence. Flash Fictionis a fast-paced, creative and hands-on day with Vanessa Gebbie, a short story writer. Students will find inspiration to start writing fiction or to see if writing is for them.
The workshops will take place at Tonbridge Adult Education Centre starting from April 2012 and are open to everybody.
As we draw to the end of 2011, naturally we’ve looked back over the past year and boy what an eventful one it has been! Since moving into our new premises and workshop space in February, we have enjoyed hosting memorable events with inspirational people like Wendy Cope, Albie Sachs, Will Self and Peter James, our inaugural lecture with patron Mark Ravenhill took place during the Brighton Festival as well as our second Best New Play Award and White Night event. This year we also launched our first Writer Hubs and squads for young people, along with our new website, Just Words, for young writers, not forgetting to mention all the work we do in supporting our members and writers across the region. We’re looking forward to great things in 2012 and all of us at NWS wish you a very merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year. Below are some images from our members Christmas Party.
Saturday 3 December saw our annual industry day for writers take place at the Jubilee Library in Brighton. The partnership event with Brighton & Hove libraries gave writers the opportunity to network and meet with industry professionals in order to learn effective marketing strategies, gain tips and insights into the publishing world and take away valuable sources of market information.
Many thanks to all our guests of whom included: Jo Ellis from Faber & Faber, Clare Hey from Shortfire Press, Gary Pulsifer from Arcadia Books, Vicky Blunden from Myriad Editions, Lucy Luck from Lucy Luck Associates, authors Mick Jackson, Emlyn Rees and Andrew Marshall; Clare Christian and John Prebble and Charles Beckett from Arts Council England.
The all-day event covered topics such as: digital opportunities for writers, a Meet the Industry session, an award-winning writers journey and marketing and funding advice for authors. The day also included 1:1 sessions with professional writers Nicholas Royle, Catherine Smith and Alison Fisher.
Clare Hey – Shortfire Press, Clare Christian – publishing professional, Jo Ellis – Faber & Faber and Charles Beckett – Arts Council England in The Digital Arena.
Andrew Marshall gives a synopsis writing session.
Award winning author Mick Jackson talks about his journey as a writer.
Gary Pulsifer – Arcadia Books, Andrew Marshall (chair), Vicky Blunden – Myriad Editions and Lucy Luck – Lucy Luck Associates in Meet the Industry.
As far as awards for playwriting go, you can’t get bigger than the Bruntwood Prize. It is Britain’s biggest playwriting competition that has so far awarded over £120,000 in prize money, and this year received over 2000 entries.
Huge congratulations to long-standing NWS member Louise Monaghan, for scooping a Judges’ award for her play, Shadow Play. Louise (second right in picture) along with Alistair McDowall and Gareth Farr, all picked up an £8,000 award for their work. First prize went to London-based writer Janice Okoh for her play, Three Birds.
Louise says, “Winning this award marks a significant step forward in a journey of more than ten years. This endorsment of my work is enormously important to me both professionally and personally and I’m overwhelmed and delighted.”
“All ten shortlisted plays are remarkable and to be part of that list is an honour and a privilege, to be a winner is just surreal! The prospect of a full, professional production at the Manchester Royal Exchange next year is incredibly exciting and I can’t wait to start developing the play with the new writing team.”
Louise added “The Bruntwood Prize is an important award for all aspiring/emerging writers, not least because the judging is anonymous and therefore completely impartial. This is reflected in a short list whose writers are as diverse as they are talented: black, white, middle class, working class, young and … mature. Thank you Bruntwood for this award and thank you New Writing South for getting me there.”
Well done Louise, we look forward to continuing the journey with you.
Our Flash Utopia event that was part of this year’s White Night was a huge success and we’d like to thank all the spoken word performers for their gargantuan effort. Hosted by award-winning writer Dean Atta, performers were: Andi Devine, Deanna Rodger, Femi Martin, Laila Sumpton, Martyna Baker, Paradox, Paul Cree & Sean Mahoney.
White Night is Brighton & Hove’s all night free arts festival, and this year’s theme was around Utopias. We attracted over 150 people into the Writers’ Place between 7pm and 3am, with some people staying the whole duration (well done!) Participants produced a body of work for the White Night website inspired by our mass writing event that took place at midnight, and also read their work. It was a truly inspirational evening! Below are some photos from the event.
This one-day workshop took place as part of Black History Month 2011. Lead by writers Dave Nwokedi, Sindi Gordon and Kadija George, the day offered the chance for writers to explore the themes of legacy and inheritance. Images: (C) Paul Jackson.
At the beginning of October, NWS played host to South African writer, lawyer and author Albie Sachs. Former Judge of the South African Constitutional Court, Albie has played a prominent part in the struggle for justice throughout his life and made a rare appearance in the UK in conversation with Simon Fanshawe at The Old Market, Hove. Images: (C) The Argus.
New Writing South
