Birmingham Book Festival

Birmingham Poet Laureate presents N:Fuse

2010-03-25T10:49:00.000Z

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'

2010-03-24T10:00:00.000Z

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

2010-03-17T14:03:00.000Z

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

2010-03-17T13:53:00.000Z

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

2010-03-10T14:47:00.000Z

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...

2010-03-08T15:20:00.000Z

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

2010-03-08T13:47:00.000Z

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

2010-02-08T16:57:00.003Z

Review: The Loss Adjustor by Aifric Campbell

2010-02-08T15:20:00.003Z

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

2010-02-04T14:39:00.002Z

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

2010-02-02T16:19:00.004Z

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

2010-01-22T12:44:00.003Z

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.

2010-01-20T16:23:00.008Z

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...

2010-01-15T10:12:00.003Z

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

2009-11-23T14:49:00.002Z

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?

2009-11-02T11:49:00.003Z

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!

2009-10-14T15:00:00.005+01:00

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

2009-10-13T14:54:00.003+01:00

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...

2009-10-08T14:38:00.004+01:00

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

2009-10-07T13:15:00.008+01:00

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!

Guests and Books announced for A Good Read, 20th October 2009

2009-10-05T13:49:00.003+01:00

The BBC Radio 4 recordings of A Good Read on Tuesday 20 October 2009 at the Birmingham Book Festival will feature the following guests, and their chosen books:

EDITION ONE:

Sue MacGregor - The End of the Affair by Graham Greene, Vintage Classics £7.99
David Edgar - The Warden by Anthony Trollope, Penguin Classics £6.99
Helen Cross - The Treehouse by Naomi Wolf, Virago Press £8.99

EDITION TWO:

Sue MacGregor - Chicago by Alaa Al Aswany, Harper Perennial £7.99
Catherine O'Flynn - Alma Cogan by Gordon Burn, Faber & Faber £7.99
Kate Pullinger - White Noise by Don DeLillo, Picador £7.99

Birmingham Post article

2009-09-25T13:06:00.001+01:00

Here is a link to an article in the Birmingham Post about the upcoming Festival - good stuff!

Tell us what you think, comment here!

Review of Black Rock by Amanda Smyth

2009-09-22T15:08:00.003+01:00

Amanda Smyth is taking part in our Readers Day on Saturday 24th October. I've had her book on my 'to read' pile for some time, after it was recommended to me by Amanda's editor at Serpents Tail (after a while, they get to know what kind of books you like, and send them to you without you even having to ask - reason #4305834634608945 why this just might be the best job in the world).

When the book arrived, I had my nose buried in something else, and while I was reading that, as sometimes happens, a few events appeared on the horizon which demanded me to read other books that were not Black Rock. In the run up to the Festival (absolute worst time to try and do this, I know) I am trying to catch up on my reading list, and so picked up Black Rock - and am I glad that I did.

Black Rock is a pleasure, a surprising and sorrowful novel full of great language and with a genuinely thorough plot. I'm not going to tell you what it's about, because I don't want to give it away - and because perhaps, like me, you quite relish the slight recklessness of jumping into the world of a book knowing nothing more about it than that your colleague/dad/best friend/a random man on the train really loved it. I will tell you, however, that it is a beautiful story of survival, of changing times and of loss. Smyth writes of the deepest betrayals and long kept secrets as though they happen everyday - which, of course, they do, we just don't always know about it. The book is warm, and mature in its telling, so much so that you find yourself struggling to accept the realities faced by the main characters. They, however, do a much better job, or rather Smyth does in her creation of them.

The book skirts some very old and tender issues rather succinctly - managing to both remind us that bad things have always happened and yet not give itself over to those causes entirely - a clever balance that, for me at least, helped create a book I could enjoy, mindfully, but without feeling like I was being clubbed over the head with the 'moral of the story' .

If you've read this book, I'd like to know what you thought. If you haven't, I urge you to read it.

You can see more about Amanda here .

Sara

Book Festival in the news...

2009-09-21T11:14:00.001+01:00

Check out this interview with the Festival Directors in yesterday's Sunday Mercury.

http://www.sundaymercury.net/news/midlands-news/2009/09/20/birmingham-book-festival-is-jordan-free-66331-24731698/

Special offers on festival events - save money, bring friends

2009-09-18T15:07:00.004+01:00

NEW! Special offers available for Festival events:

You can now book a group ticket for some events.

This means, that for £20, you can have six tickets for any one of these events, saving money on even the concessionary rates!

Tuesday 6th October - Sadie Jones & Kate Pullinger

Thursday 8th October - The Giant Reading Group with Kate Mosse

Wednesday 28th October - R J Ellory

To take us up on this great offer, just call our Box Office on 0121 303 2323.

If you are bringing more than TEN people we can offer you even MORE discount - just email sara@birminghambookfestival.org.

We look forward to seeing you at the Festival.

Change to the advertised programme

2009-09-18T14:58:00.003+01:00

Change to the programme:

Nick Hornby & Lynn Barber: Thursday 15th October.

Regrettably, Lynn Barber is unable to attend this event. The event will still happen, as advertised, but will feature only Nick Hornby. It will still be a fantastic opportunity to meet one of the UK's favourite writers, and get books signed.

If, however, you have bought a ticket for this event and wish to have it refunded, please contact our Box Office on 0121 303 2323.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

The Annual Mailing Party

2009-09-17T16:25:00.003+01:00

Every year the Festival team faces with horror the mammoth task of posting out thousands of brochures to thousands of loyal, lovely Festival-goers who wait anxiously for them to drop onto the doormat. It always seems to happen that our trusty team is at its thinnest on the very day this has to be done.

Over the years we have approached this task in many different ways: from hiring in staff for a day of mad stuffing, to bribing volunteers with cake and coffee, to simply staying late into the night until the last one is done.

This year, we decided to abandon all gimmicks and simply clear our diaries, stock up on coffee and plough our way through, regaling one another with stories of similarly vast mailshots of the past. New Admin Assistant Joanne won hands down with the tale of the all singing all dancing mailing machine at a previous workplace. We remain misty-eyed at the lofty prospect of one day owning such a beast. In the meantime, here is the evidence of our labours...

Here are our shiny 2009 brochures, resplendent in their many, many, many boxes....

Oh how we look forward to ripping these cartons open and popping each and every little glossy item into a little white envelope...

And trolleying them down through the maze-like depths of the Custard Factory for a man in a red van to come for them (and give us *that* look - "you've got *how* many bags?).

So if anyone did not receive a 2009 brochure, or would like some more, just drop me a line and I'll pop one in the post for you.

Profile: Jenn Ashworth

2009-09-08T16:20:00.004+01:00

Author Q&A : Jenn Ashworth

By Festival Programme Director, Sara Beadle.

Jenn Ashworth is the author of the brilliantly dark and quirky novel, A Kind Of Intimacy, and is appearing at the Birmingham Book Festival on Saturday October 24th 2009. If you haven’t read the novel, scroll down for an earlier review. Jenn is currently writing her second novel, and promises to keep our minds in a state of unrest once again…

Firstly, congratulations on the reception A Kind Of Intimacy has had. Everyone in the Festival office loved it. Are you writing another novel?

Thank you very much. And yes, I am writing another novel. After a slow start I’m on the downward stretch of a book I’m calling Cold Light at the moment. I was recently awarded a Time to Write grant by the Arts Council, so I’m more or less full time on that right now. It’s about two girls – Chloe and Lola, who were best friends in the strange, secretive and competitive way fourteen year olds are. Chloe didn’t grow up, and Lola did, and the novel is from her point of view, remembering a period of about six weeks during the winter of 1998, and realising that her understanding of just what happened between her, Chloe, Chloe’s boyfriend Carl and their friend Emma isn’t exactly the way she always thought about it.

Readers of A Kind of Intimacy will be familiar with my style – a creeping sense of unease and barely suppressed guilt about past misdeeds. It’s not exactly a thriller or a crime novel, but it’s in that family in the same way that A Kind of Intimacy is. I always think they should be called whydunnits.

How did the publication of your first novel, A Kind of Intimacy, come about?

I completed the novel during my MA in Creative Writing at the University of Manchester. Shortly afterwards, I entered the first chapter and the last paragraph into a competition run by Durham County Council called ‘The Enigma of Personality’. I didn’t win that competition, but one of the judges – Anne Fine, liked the novel so much she asked if I would mind her sending it to her agent. We now share that agent, and he submitted it to editors and handled the offers in the usual way. Since then, rights have sold in Italy and the US, which is all really exciting. The best part of the process was going to London to meet my new editors at Arcadia – it was the first time I’d spoken to anyone who’d read my entire novel besides my agent, and having that realisation that they liked it, and understood what I’d been getting at was fairly amazing. The process of getting the cover right was another experience I enjoyed – there were several drafts, and I love what we settled on. It was all distracting in terms of trying to settle down and work on Cold Light, but I can’t wait to do it all again!

I imagine creating a character like Annie might be something like having that fantasy during an exam of standing up and screaming – did you allow yourself to live vicariously through her at all?

Annie’s life isn’t anything like mine, so there’s nothing about this novel that is autobiographical at all – except her feelings. I’ve often felt unsure about walking into rooms of people, or at dinner parties, or when trying to make friends. None of my social gaffes have ever worked out as horribly as Annie’s have, but I think part of my imagining the novel was the process of putting myself into Annie’s shoes and imagining the worst that could happen in any particular situation. And then writing it. And as the mother of a young child, it was fun writing Annie’s temper tantrum when she’s first faced with the demands of a new baby – it was very satisfying to let Annie talk about the things you’re not supposed to say about the sheer, unrelenting monotony of parenting a newborn.

A Kind Of Intimacy creates in a reader a great sense of creeping discomfort – mostly in the way one can’t help but recognise small (or not so small!) shades of themselves in Annie’s behaviour - is this a by-product of writing what you felt compelled to write, or did you always intend it to have that effect?

I did want the reader to feel the things that Annie was not letting herself feel. She is relentlessly, delusionally optimistic when she should be, perhaps, a little bit more worried about herself. I wanted the reader to do that work for her – to feel the dread, embarrassment and humiliation that she never allows herself to experience. Putting the reader in Annie’s shoes was very important to me, as from the beginning it was a challenge I set myself – getting my reader to empathise, and perhaps even root for a woman who is fundamentally unattractive and unsympathetic. And I do think there’s little bits of Annie in all of us – I wanted to create a character that played on the worst kinds of insecurities we have – that question you have in your head, late at night after you come home from a party… ‘what if they don’t really like me?’
I grew to like Annie quite a lot, anyway!

The novel is very clever in its use of time and flashback, making a reader simultaneously curious about Annie’s past and what might come next. It seems as though this would be difficult to plot - did you write the novel in the order it appears?

No – not at all. This novel went through seven drafts, and one of the things I found very difficult was keeping both threads of the story in the air and suspenseful – delivering the information to the reader in the right order, and making sure that the tension built slowly so that both sides to the story – what happened to Will, and what will happen to her neighbours, were resolved more or less at the same time. I cut out a lot of scenes to do with Annie’s childhood, partly to keep that focus on her as an adult, partly because I don’t think Annie would want to tell us all her horrible memories about that time, and partly because I didn’t want the reader to ‘diagnose’ her – there’s more to Annie than the product of her upbringing. The endings came to me first, and in the first writing, I worked backwards from there, and stitched it together at the end. It involved, as I say, lots of drafting, cutting and pasting and ignoring people who told me that long flashbacks don’t work in modern novels.

Do you see yourself as predominantly a novelist, or do you/will you write other things, too?

Yes – a novelist. I write short stories, and I love blogging but I can’t imagine myself ever, for example, trying my hand at poetry or scripts. I’m young, so that might change, but I’ve already got an idea for what I want to write after Cold Light and that is novel-shaped too. My main interest in the novel form is in what you can do with narration – how first person accounts deal with the experience of remembering, the problems inherent in narrating that memory and how the circumstances of the telling of the story colour the story itself. None of that is exclusive to novels, of course, but it is certainly where my interest lies.

What are your writing techniques or quirks? Do you have a desk, an office, a shed, a hole in the wall in which you hide to write? Do you write at night or first thing in the morning or only when it rains?

When I was writing A Kind of Intimacy I had a desk in the corner of my bedroom, and wrote most of it in short bursts while my daughter slept, or during the night. Now I have a office (it is actually much less grand that that – a spare room with a desk and a computer in it would be a more accurate description…) but it’s an office I share with my partner and one which my daughter still wanders into. She is here now, in fact, entertaining herself with a sheet of bubble wrap and a hole punch, so nothing much has changed. It is the summer holidays, the childminder is off and the idea of a hole in the wall to hide in sounds more and more attractive.

Now I’m full time I am training myself to write for longer periods during the day; treating it like the job it has become. It is doing me good. As far as quirks – I type right onto the computer unless the words are coming slowly. I had a hard time starting Cold Light, so I wrote most of the first and second drafts longhand, in A4 notebooks while sitting in my car. The process is a little more ordinary now I’m into the swing of it: I sit here, type, drink tea, get up and stretch now and again, and swear a lot. I eat a lot of oranges. There aren’t any special gizmos or lucky charms, although I can’t work with music on. This method, if you can call it that, seems to be working.

You recently became a full time writer. How does that feel?

Scary, and exciting. Because I used to work full time, most of my writing took place in the evenings and weekends and I was constantly, permanently exhausted. I’m recovering from that now, and learning to manage my time and set a schedule for when I’m going to be writing and when I’m doing other things. I worried about feeling lonely, but I shouldn’t have: I don’t regret giving up my work in the prison for a minute. Apparently, being a full time writer will cause no end of havoc when it comes to my car insurance premiums, but that, and still being a bit shy when people ask me what I do for a living, are the only draw backs.

As a writer, you’re very active in terms of social networking. How much of an impact do you think this has had upon a) your profile as a writer and b) the way you interact with your readers?

I’ve had the blog long before I got anything published and I used it as a kind of diary, and a way of keeping in touch with what my friends were doing. It isn’t too different now, although as the promotion for the book has swelled to take over more of my life than it used to, more of the posts are about that. I think readers expect to be able to contact writers, to find out a bit more about them. At least by keeping my own blog I can control, more or less, what kind of things I want out there on the internet and it’s a great way of answering questions, doing interviews and promotion when you are, like me, a bit of a wall-flower and almost telephone-phobic. I can interact with people using writing, which, for obvious reasons, is very comfortable for me.

It is a time-drain though. I really need to limit the amount of time I spend browsing on people’s blogs and messing about on twitter – and reading other people’s reviews and opinions of your work can be distracting. I’ve not come across anything negative so far, but I know bad reviews happen to all writers and I’m still wondering how I will feel about that…

What does writing mean to you?

It’s hard to come up with a pat answer, because I have always, always written and I can’t imagine understanding the world, or myself, any other way. I think a lot of the things Annie says about her hopes for intimacy can be applied to the way I feel about writing – it is a way, first and foremost, to communicate an idea or a feeling, and even though words are unreliable and language is slippery, I imagine learning to do that communication successfully is a magical feeling. It is the hope of that that keeps me going through all the drafts, anyway!

Have you met Annie? Not wishing to risk jumping on the ‘life imitating art’ bandwagon, I mean to ask if she has come through to you in people you’ve seen, met, talked to? Is she a tiny bit of lots of faces and personalities you’ve known? Do you see her on the bus or in the supermarket?

Annie isn’t based on a real person, although as I’ve said, there are shades of my own feelings and fears wrapped up in her personality and experiences. I lived in Oxford when I first started writing this novel, and on the bus into work there was a large woman with a bobble hat, a chocolate bar and a Mills and Boon novel every single morning. The books changed, but nothing else about her did. She’s probably a perfectly nice, sane, contented lady, but there was something about her that caught my attention and she probably inspired A Kind of Intimacy a little bit. When I worked in a library in Cambridge, one of our self-help books, The Surrendered Wife, was very popular. This would have been in 2002 or 2003, a while before I wrote the novel, but I do remember wondering what kind of person would read such a thing and watching it coming in and out of the library very carefully…

See Jenn at the Birmingham Book Festival on Saturday 24th October 2009. For tickets go here:

http://www.birminghambookfestival.org/index.php?view=details&id=86%3Areaders-afternoon&option=com_eventlist&Itemid=56

See Jenn's excellent blog here :http://jennashworth.blogspot.com/

2009-08-21T16:10:00.003+01:00

Mollie Davidson tells us about a family writing workshop she took part in as part of the Birmingham Book Festival and gives details about the next one in October 2009 . For adults and young friends/relatives in pairs, these are a great way to get your kids(and yourself!) writing...

Festival Artistic Director Jonathan Davidson tells us about a forthcoming Helen Cross/Tommy Wierenga event at the Birmingham Book Festival in October 2009, and more about the book behind it...

Joe Speedboat Review

2009-08-21T13:51:00.001+01:00

Festival Author Tommy Wieringa's 'Joe Speedboat' tells the story of Frankie, who emerges crippled from a 200-day coma to find his small town, Lomark, is being turned on its head by a new arrival with the unlikely name of Joe Speedboat. Frankie proves an intriguing narrator; despite his immobility (or perhaps because of it) he is by far the most insightful character and often manages to unravel the motivations of the other characters. Frankie has one good arm, which he uses for writing and working his briquette presser. Until, that is, Joe sees something that only Joe would see: Frankie’s potential to become an arm-wrestling champion. Wieringa manages to fuse more fantastic story elements such as this with more commonplace events, chronicling ordinary life in a very ordinary town and the interactions between a group of adolescents moving into adulthood. At times comic, tragic and thrilling, 'Joe Speedboat' is, in a word, brilliant.

Work Experience

2009-08-21T12:50:00.001+01:00

On Monday 17th of August, I started work experience for Midland Creative Projects, who are currently preparing for the Birmingham Book Festival in October. I was set to work proof-reading the brochure and checking it against the website. Later, I was asked to start updating the Facebook page by adding the events for the Festival; owing to the sheer amount of talks, discussions and performances planned, this was to take quite a while! Also, consulting the brochure, I compiled a list of relevant books and authors which would be of interest to Festival-goers. On the last day, I was given a video camera and charged with filming first Festival Artistic Director Jonathan talking about a Festival event (Spilt Milk and Speedboats) and secondly his daughter Mollie on a family writing workshop which was certainly not a one-take process! I also created a fan page for Dutch writer Tommy Wieringa’s new book, Joe Speedboat. Of course, interspersed were more normal office work experience tasks: stapling, label-sticking, posting parcels, but overall I had a great time and will definitely be attending the Festival in October.

Ben Gambles

Jenn Ashworth on Not The Booker Longlist

2009-08-11T14:27:00.002+01:00

Festival author Jenn Ashworth is long-listed for the Guardian's Not The Booker Prize - please take a moment to vote for Jenn, and if you haven't read A Kind Of Intimacy, scroll down for our review of it...

Go here to vote:

http://tinyurl.com/mkp62z

Good luck, Jenn!

changes afoot..

2009-08-11T14:10:00.003+01:00

It has been one of those months in the Festival office... busy, exciting and frustrating by turns.

We are pleased to welcome our new Administrative Assistant, Joanne Penn, who joins us from a traineeship at Wolverhampton Arts Gallery and is eager to take on some of the Festival's blogging in the near future.

We are happy to report that the Festival programme is now up and running, and all listings bar a few elusive ones are live on our website (www.birminghambookfestival.org) and also at Birmingham Box Office (0121 303 2322).

A few programming rumours that have escaped the mill and ought to be quashed...

There was much talk of River Cottage chef and writer Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall appearing at the Festival, but unfortunately this is not to be. It was unavoidably cancelled in the late programming stages, and did make it onto some press releases, etc - so please bear with us if you have received any incorrect information about this.

There was also to be an event featuring playwrights Jim Cartwright and David Edgar, which sadly has also been cancelled, beyond our control. We apologise for any incovenience caused by these late decisions, and assure you that we have done everything in our power to try to make these events happen, and very reluctantly announce that they are no longer on the cards.

Do have a look at our website for up to date information and to book tickets - and we will continue the stream of information as we get it through this and other mediums.

The Festival Team.

Festival Keynote Speaker confirmed as George Monbiot...

2009-06-25T13:53:00.001+01:00

Latest exciting news is that George Monbiot, writer, journalist and activist has been commissioned by the Festival to create a 'Festival Address' - a kind of keynote encompassing and building on George's ideas that:

"The novelists who help to define their era are those who break through the screens erected by society to shield itself from uncomfortable truths. Performing this task while remaining readable is fiction's greatest challenge. "

The Festival is delighted to have George participate in the Festival for this Tenth Anniversary Year. Dates for this event to be announced soon! More about George below or visit www.monbiot.com.

George Monbiot has held visiting fellowships or professorships at the universities of Oxford (environmental policy), Bristol (philosophy), Keele (politics), Oxford Brookes (planning) and East London (environmental science). He has honorary doctorates from the University of St Andrews and the University of Essex and an Honorary Fellowship from Cardiff University. He is the author of the best selling books Heat: how to stop the planet burning; The Age of Consent: a manifesto for a new world order and Captive State: the corporate takeover of Britain; as well as the investigative travel books Poisoned Arrows, Amazon Watershed and No Man’s Land. He writes a weekly column for the Guardian newspaper.

More Festival news coming soon!

Nick Hornby & Lynn Barber confirmed for October

2009-06-23T17:35:00.001+01:00

Nick Hornby & Lynn Barber will be at the Birmingham Book Festival on October 15th... watch this space for further details...

2009-06-17T13:29:00.000+01:00

Hello all...

The offices of the Birmingham Book Festival have been the setting for some very interesting conversations this month..

There has been plenty of talk about new books, and the Festival team (well, Jonathan and I) have some great recommendations for you:

1. Salt and The Wake by Jeremy Page - I am incredulous that two months ago I hadn't heard of Jeremy and now I am impatient for a third novel - not bad considering the second (The Wake) isn't published until July. Jeremy's prose is lyrical, beautiful, his landscapes and atmospheres multi dimensional. There is a gorgeous sense of the East Anglian settings he often uses, you can almost smell them. Tales of tragedy and human spirit, heart warming, original, not quite like anything I've read before.

Reminded me of: Annie Proulx (The Shipping News), Patrick Gale (Rough Music).

2. A Kind of Intimacy by Jenn Ashworth - I love this book. It is like the dark thoughts you had at school, all the things you think that you wonder if anyone else thinks too - but worse. A slow, unashamed descent into a hilarious, terrifying kind of life that you just can't assuage your interest in. Perfectly pitched and just the right amount of crazy to be believable. Can't wait for more from Jenn.

Reminded me of: Sophie Hannah (Little Face), Helen Cross(Spilt Milk, Black Coffee).

** Jenn and Jeremy will be appearing at the Festival on Saturday October 24th**

3. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters - the new book from Ms Waters is both very like and very unlike her previous ones. If she were seeking to depart from her identity as a gay writer then this book certainly achieves that, but with enough of a deep nostalgia for the same wartime/postwar England we loved in The Night Watch that it is sure to satisfy any and all of her audiences. The story is tightly woven and expertly unravelled, the characters vivid amidst the spectral prowess of the real hero of the book - the decaying country manor at the heart of everyone and everything. Very, very good.

Reminded me of: Sadie Jones (The Outcast)

Other books we loved (Because there isn't room to review them all....):
Becoming Drusilla by Richard Beard.
Heartland by Anthony Cartwright
The Outcast by Sadie Jones
Notes On An Exhibition by Patrick Gale
Spilt Milk, Black Coffee, by Helen Cross
Black Rock by Amanda Smith

If you've read a fantastic book, email me a review and I'll make sure it gets up here...

In other news...

We now have a Twitter account - look us up if you're savvy at that kind of thing - we're still not (but we are better than we used to be!)

We have many writers events promised/provisionally programmed for October including:

An evening with The Archers
Helen Cross & Tommy Wieringa
Readers Afternoon (featuring Jeremy Page, Jenn Ashworth and others)
A L Kennedy
R J Ellory
Lindsey Davis
Fourpenny Circus poetry show
Short stories inspired by The Smiths
BBC Radio Four's A Good Read and Poetry Slam Final
Workshops, Seminars and Masterclasses
Festival Keynote, lecture and debate

There is much more to come - watch this space.

Don't forget we're on facebook too!

Sara

Writing Online for KS2 age children...

2009-05-11T15:00:00.000+01:00

Are you, or do you have, a child of KS2 age who is interested in creative writing? If so, and you are in the West Midlands, you might have heard of the Birmingham Book Festival's education programme, Write On!. Write On brings professional writers into schools to share with and inspire young people about writing and being a writer. Lots of schools have taken part so far. If you think your child's school might want to know more, email me on sara@birminghambookfestival.org.

This education programme is now launching an online writing community for KS2 age children anywhere, all they need to do is register with us via a school or a parent. For more details email me at the above address. This is a free, ten week programme in which children will interact with professional writers. There are plans for a secondary programme, too, which will be rolled out in the Autumn.

Do get in touch for more info, or pass this on to anyone who might be interested.

Sara

Orange Prize Readers' Day: Sadie Jones and Charlotte Mendelson

2009-05-10T15:30:00.000+01:00

From the Orange Prize Readers' Day, Saturday 9 May 2009.

Session 4: Sadie Jones and Charlotte Mendelson: 'A great book speaks beyond its time, place and context'

Kate Mosse: What did being shortlised for last year's Orange Prize for Fiction mean to you?

Sadie: 'The Outcast' came out in February 2008 and the Orange Prize shortlist was announced only a few months later. The fact that my book had been picked up by the prize was a dream, it was such a great beginning and I felt so lucky. I knew then that I could relax because the book had exceeded all of my expectations.

Charlotte: I still don't feel like I should be writing, I'm on my third book now and it is hard as I know about everything that can go wrong, I get more neurotic for each book I write! Being shortlisted for the Orange Prize for 'When We Were Bad' was exciting because for me it was an affirmation.

Kate: Both of your books are about big families...

Sadie: In 'The Outcast' there are two families who are in a mess. People have said that my book presents a negative view of families but families are like that! I'm interested in what people don't say and the book is also about good people and the incidential crimes they commit against children...

Charlotte: I know adults that are so shaped by family and their experience as a children, they still retain the role of the rebel or the sensible one that they had growing up. Lots of people are trapped living the lives their families expected of them; it is very hard to escape the expectations of your family and live your own life. I wanted to explore that tension and look at how people get away. I was told by an interviewer that my book is about being lonely too though and Sadie's book being called 'The Outcast' obviously explores that theme as well.

Kate to Sadie: How did you decide on the time and place of the book?

Sadie: When I got the idea for the story I saw it as a sort of 50's melodrama and so many things about that era work for the story. People were rebuilding their lives after two wars and if you couldn't do that you were a casualty - an outcast.

Kate: Your next book is also set in the 1950s can you talk about your experience of writing historical fiction?

Sadie: My next book is set in 1956 and is about the army in Cyprus. This is a much tougher book to write because it is outside my experience, I have to do a lot more research for this book than 'The Outcast'. It is hard because just as I get going with writing the story I have to stop to check facts.

Kate: How do you view yourselves as writers?

Sadie: As a writer you have to have a weird arrogance because it is hard to balance that arrogance with a natural instinct for self depreciation.

Charlotte: I don't write because I want to tell the world my thoughts I write because that's what I do, I was born to do this.

Question from the audience: 'The Outcast' is very cinematic are there any plans to turn it into a film?

Sadie: I'm actually working on the screenplay at the moment! I'm really enjoying writing the story in a different way.

Question from the audience: What are the three things that make a great novel?

Kate: First I think a book has to speak beyond its time, place and context. Second, the plot and the characters have to work as one thing, a great story can only work when it has characters that are alive. Lastly I think with a great book you can open it at any page and any sentence in that book will give you pleasure.

by Karen

Orange Prize Readers' Day: Diana Evans and Joanna Kavenna

2009-05-09T21:32:00.000+01:00

From the Orange Prize Readers' Day, Saturday 9 May 2009.

Session 3: Joanna Kavenna and Diana Evans: 'You have to get out of your own space to discover new stories'

Kate Mosse: You were both winners of the Orange Award for New Writers, how did that feel?

Diana: It was very strange, winning the prize in 2005 for 26a, it was a complete shock, I felt like I had to be a real writer after winning it. In a way the prize got in the way of my creativity, I had to construct a whole new world for my next book and it was a challenge to get away from the outside world and back to the voice inside.

Kate to Joanna: Was it hard to write non-fiction after fiction?

Joanna: It was a relief! I got this great idea and felt that I wouldn't be writing another failed novel ( I wrote an awful lot of terrible novels before I won the 2008 prize with 'Inglorious').

Kate: How is the process different?

Joanna: With fiction you can be totally subjective and enclosed in yourself and your own reality, you are no longer responsible for a general sense of reality like you are with non-fiction.

Kate to Diana: Did you make a conscious decision to write male characters for your next novel?

Diana: Yes, I made the decision to come away from the female voice and - we are the same! I can write about a man masturbating! You have to get out of your own space to find new stories. The inspiration came from researching dancing and reading the stories of male dancers..I also became fascinated by stories that I came across that talked about dancing and madness. I used to be a dancer in an African Dance Troupe and that has stayed with me, performing before audiences like that takes you to another place and I wanted to write about that. I relished the challenge of getting into men's heads!

Kate to Joanna: What will you write next?

Joanna: I wanted to finish my latest novel, which is coming out next year, before my second baby was born and I managed that and then I was awarded the prize for 'Inglorious' the first book! With the latest book I was looking to do something different, something that cut across time, explored a dystopian future, something with lots of characters....

Kate to Diana: Do you feel nervous about the second book coming out?

Diana: I've been through it once now, having the book published and then reviewed etc so I know what to expect this time and I'm excited. I think it is important to try to start a new book before your previous one is published because I like to be able to develop my persona as a writer before I get swept up in the publishing wave - I don't like to have too much interference from outside.

Joanna: I'm the opposite. I like to hear the readers' response to my last book before I begin the next. If I have an idea I want to give it time to gestate. I think you have to keep your old and your new books separate, you don't want to be inspired for a new book and then find yourself caught up in the publicity for the old book.

Question from audience: How hard was it to find a publisher?

Joanna: I found it very difficult, I couldn't get any of my novels published for years, but looking back I can see they weren't ready. I think when you have the right idea, when the novel is good it will be published.

Diana: Getting an agent was harder for me but once I had acheived that it all went quite smoothly.

Kate: It is a tricky time for writers at the moment in that it is easier to sell new writers but the market conditions are difficult. But what you have to do as an unknown writer is actually write your novel - a good idea won't do! You have to write your novel and be proud of it, you need to actually write to be a writer!

On courses and publishing:

Diana: I did the MA in Creative Writing at UEA and I went to do the course with my novel already completed. Work-shopping your writing can be hard on the ego and I felt I needed something to hold onto, an objective I was aiming for. I did the course in order to polish and finish my novel.

Kate: Courses allow people to take themselves seriously as writers. I run courses in order to to teach people the tools of writing, you can't teach imagination. And courses are not just for those who want to be published, some people simply want to learn a the craft of writing so that they can express themselves.

by Karen

Orange Prize Readers' Day: Catherine O'Flynn and Clare Allan

2009-05-09T19:28:00.001+01:00

From the Orange Prize Readers' Day, Saturday 9 May 2009.

Session 2: Clare Allen and Catherine O'Flynn: 'When you get published everyone buys you notebooks for Christmas!'

Kate Mosse: Where did you find the inspiartion for your books?

Catherine: For 'What Was Lost' the inspiration was very much the place - the Merry Hill Shopping Centre, as I worked there. That place drove me to write, it fascinated me, got under my skin...this coupled with a story I heard about a girl being seen on the CCTV but never seen again and never found.

Clare: With 'Poppy Shakespeare' I knew what I wanted to write about and then the writer announced herself, I remember the morning she arrived. She dictated the whole thing, I was driven by that character; I felt she existed.

Kate: You both took a big risk for your debut novels in that both of you had narrators readers couldn't trust - a child and a patient on a psychiatric ward..

Catherine: The character of Kate, that 10 year old's voice wasn't hard for me to find, but I didn't want it to become quiet or twee. I wanted to create a three dimensional character, not a victim or an innocent which is how children are often portrayed, I wanted her to be a vivid character.

Kate to Clare: With Poppy Shakespeare, there is a sense of grief but it is also hilariously funny, can you talk about the use of humour in the book?

Clare: I love situations where you aren't sure whether to laugh or cry! For me humour is for dealing with tradegy and loss; on a psychiatric ward it is how people cope and show their humanity in a very controlled environment - in that situation humour is all you have got.

Kate: Has winning literary prizes changed the way you view yourselves as writers?

Catherine: When something good happens I always think something awful must be lurking around the corner! It can be intimidating bit also incredibly encouraging, it made me think 'I should stick to this'!

Clare: Winning the Orange Short Story Prize was wonderful in that in helped me find an agent. But with the attention and the chaos that comes with winning a prize, it can be hard to focus back on that second novel.

Catherine: You have to wait for the dust to settle. I was lucky as I wasn't committed to writing a second novel so I could decide when to do that. I waited until something interesting came along, something that bothered me, something that I wanted to explore and get to the bottom of.
Clare: To try and regain my focus, I searched the internet for strategies. The best one I found was the one that said 'only write for 30 minutes a day' - following that guarantees that I write for at least 2 hours!

Kate: Re: the reactions to your work from overseas, was that surprising as your books are so firmly rooted in their locations?

Catherine: It is very surprising to realise that people beyond those you know, or in my case ten people who worked in HMV, have read your book...but I think that there are places like Green Oaks Shopping Centre all over the world.

Clare: It made me aware of how much readers brings to your book....I offered them a way into the world of a psychiatric ward but it was up to them what they did with it.

Kate: Have you found that you have been called upon as a spokesperson on mental health issues, rather than a novelist?

Clare: I can understand the need for that and yes that has happened a lot, but my need is to be a writer. I find it hard to comment on mental health because I am not an expert.

Question from the audience: When did you feel that you had 'got' your story?

Clare: When the main character arrived. I felt that this was someone I wanted to spend time with. I remember singing in the car for the whole journey, the day that happened!

Catherine: I'd been thinking about how to write my story for 2-3 years and I was happy when I felt I'd finally worked it out but this was quickly followed by a deluge of negative thoughts:
'Oh no I have to write this now'......'What if I never finish it?'.......'What if it becomes another failed project?'

Question from the audience: How do you write, what physical processes do you use?

Catherine: I write mainly on a computer, but I also write in notebooks. Once you've been published everybody buys you a notebook, I got millions for Christmas and I keep starting off in a new one and then I find I have lots of notes all over the place in lots of different notebooks - I am not very systematic!

Clare: If I reach a critical part of the story I'll write by hand - this stops me getting distracted by the internet, but when I am writing in a new voice I will use the computer so I can separate the character from my handwriting.

Kate: Writers use many different ways of writing and there is no trick - the 'right' laptop won't help!

by Karen

Orange Prize Readers' Day: Joanne Harris and Francesca Kay

2009-05-07T15:04:00.000+01:00

On Saturday 9 May the Birmingham Book Festival hosted the third Orange Prize Readers' Day.

Kate Mosse, Honorary Director of the Orange Prize for Fiction and best selling author headed a panel of winners, judges and previously short listed authors for an afternoon of readings and discussion.

For those who couldn't attend the event we attempted to live blog the event but due to technical problems we had to abandon this. However never undeterred, here are the bits we got with the rest of event taken from hand written notes.

I hope you that the for those of you who couldn't attend, reading the following four blogs will give you an insight into the day and access to the best comments and advice offered by the wonderful writers who appeared....

Session One: Francesca Kay and Joanne Harris: 'It's not about the sound of a character's voice, it's about their heart beating'

Kate Mosse begins by asking Joanne about writing across different genres...

Joanne: I write in different genres so that I won't be pigeon holed. A lot of my fiction features food and my readers were always asking about the recipes so I wrote the cookery books - with the help of former chef Fran Warde.

Kate: You are associated very strongly with writing about France, is that a blessing or a curse?

Joanne: Writing has enabled me to travel to the places I couldn't travel to when I was younger and dreaming about it whilst I was in Leeds Grammar School....I am never tempted to write about places I don't know however.

Kate asks the authors about writing about place...

Joanne: I always start with smell. For Paris it's things like the smell of a certain bakery or a certain street after the rain.

Kate to Francesca: Will you ever go back to a place in your writing like Joanna did in 'The Lollypop Shoes'?

Francesca: I greatly admire writers who write about where they know, like Anne Tyler who always writes about Baltimore. I'd like to go back to the Antartic, the setting of 'An Equal Stillness', one day - the door is ajar.

Kate to Joanna: Did you feel pressure to return to Chocolat, or did you want to revisit it?

Joanne: I didn't want to do it for a while, because I thought it would just be a 'Chocolat 2' and I didn't want to be stuck there like St Marys Mead! I wanted to give something new to the story, people kept asking me what happened to them....also my child who was a prototype for the child in Chocolate had grown to a new age...Writing Vianne again was like meeting a old friend after several years and wondering how they ended up in that place. I had lots of readers saying to me,'why did you do that to Vianne' and I said 'I didn't do that to Vianne, life did!'

Question from audience: What did you think of the movie of Chocolat?

Joanne: It was a different animal, it belonged to the filmmakers....but every word in it was mine, the cast was amazing and and people liked it! I have no niggles about the film.

Question from audience: How do you make characters real?

Francesca: You have to see them absolutely, know what they wear, look like, eat for breakfast and most importantly what they are feeling.

Joanne: I agree, it's a question of belief and the little details, you need to be able to second guess their reactions. I believe in the pasts of characters, lots of my characters are dragging their pasts around behind them! If you develop your characters, they will develop a voice of their own.

Question from the audience: How did you write as a man for 'Blackberry Wine'?

Joanne: I think of it as writing an individual, its like method acting - what makes them tick? What do they care about? It's not about the sound of their voice it's the sound of their heart beating.

Kate: What will you be working on next ?

Francesca: It's so lovely to be asked 'what are you writing next', instead of 'why are you writing at all'!

by Karen

if so flo unconference

2009-05-06T12:55:00.000+01:00

I attended the if so flo unconference at Friends House in London on Friday... for a day of learning about the power and practicalities of social networking and using the web in creative industries. As a literature organisation we are never sure how much is too much and what exactly all these 'ping', 'ning', 'twitter' and other things really do. However we were willing to accept that they could help us connect and share as well as taking up valuable time!

Friday's event was an eye opening experience - a nice friendly format, too. It was useful to meet other organisations who, like us, know this stuff is going on but don't really know how to connect with it or whether it is for them anyway. It is, it turns out, and I returned with renewed faith and feeling a little more savvy in the realms of social networking. The conference raised some interesting issues, though, that remain unsolved - how do you know how to tweet or blog or set up a ning? Who teaches this? Where do you go for help, and how do you know you need help with it if you've no idea what these things are? How do you convince your employer that spending an hour on various social networking sites is actually a marketing exercise? How do you know if using these things is having an effect or just a rather entertaining waste of time? Measuring the results is a challenge, one that I am told can be met with the use of Google Reader and other such programmes that help to monitor traffic and keep your various blogs in order.

So, armed with my newfound confidence I resolve to try harder - to tweet (and to get over my resistance at even using that word), to find my way around a Ning, and to experiment with ping to keep the whole lot tied together.

I'll let you know how it goes. If I ever remember to update... :)

Sara

It has to be done...

2008-12-18T16:47:00.000Z

It is that time of year when Festive wishes are tossed around like autumn leaves... so here are our handful of well-wishes for all of you.

Hoping you have a restful, peaceful, cheerful Christmas and a productive and plentiful New Year.

2009 is the Birmingham Book Festival's tenth year - so we are happy to receive suggestions for events and activities to mark the occasion. We hope you will all be there to celebrate with us. We see year ten as a milestone year for the Festival - a time for the culmination of some of the changes we have been initiating over the preceding years and the chance to plant the seeds for growth for the future.

We are also sad to say goodbye to Lucy Wood, the Festival's Write On! Project Manager. Lucy is moving south to pursue new projects. She will be much missed by friends and colleagues - good luck Lucy!

Merry Christmas.

2008-11-21T15:10:00.000Z

If you have been to the Festival in 2008, please take a moment to fill out our short online survey. Your feedback helps us to improve and continue to programme with zest and originality!

Take our Online Survey

Legendary Jack Kerouac manuscript on display in Birmingham

2008-11-13T17:18:00.000Z

COMING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM - BARBER INSTITUTE
The Famous 1951 Scroll Manuscript of Jack Kerouac's On the Road
Exhibition date: 3 December 2008 -27 January 2009

Coming to the Barber Institute at the University of Birmingham: an exhibition featuring the original typescript manuscript of On the Road - the world-famous On the Road scroll of 1951, timed to coincide with the fiftieth anniversary of the book's publication in the UK and Eire (1958). The scroll typescript is the most expensive literary manuscript in the world.
Much of the fame of On the Road resides in large part in the way the first full version of the novel was composed.

Jack Kerouac undertook three weeks almost non-stop typing on eight sheets of teletype paper taped together to form a continuous roll of paper 127 feet long - so Kerouac did not have to pause to feed new paper into his typewriter in order to preserve better the rush of his inspiration. The result was a particular 'spontaneous' style marked by energy, vitality and directness. It is based on Kerouac's autobiographical experiences and, unlike the published version, does not disguise the protagonists under pseudonyms. Thus William Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady are all directly named.

The scroll consequently has an iconic cultural status, which secured a winning bid of 2.5 million dollars at auction.

Jack Kerouac remains one of the best-known and most popular post-war US writers, one with a truly global reputation. His books remain in print throughout the world. His popularity spreads worldwide: for example, he is very popular in Japan - almost as popular as in the UK and the USA . His most famous book, On the Road is generally regarded as the founding text of the so-called Beat Generation-a movement which featured, besides Ginsberg, Burroughs and Cassady, Gregory Corso, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane DiPrima and many others.

Other events supporting this exhibition include:
A two-day conference on Jack Kerouac, the Beats and the Post-Beats, Friday 12 and Saturday 13 December 2008. Go to http://www.kerouac.bham.ac.uk/index.htm <http://www.kerouac.bham.ac.uk/index.htm>

A film showing, in conjunction with the conference, on Friday 12 December in the Arts Building, University of Birmingham, featuring a working edit of Nic Saunder's new film, 'Curses and Sermons', the second collaboration between Michael McClure and director Nic Saunders (who will attend the showing and take Q&A after the screening -- visit: www.14167films.com <http://www.14167films.com/> ) and a showing of 'Pull My Daisy'.

A 'British Beat' poetry reading in the Underground Bar , Guild of Students, University of Birmingham and featuring Ian Macmillan, David Tipton and Jim Burns -- compered by John Lucas

This exhibition is funded by the University of Birmingham with additional contributions from the University of Birmingham's US Alumni Fund and Waterstones.

Contact name:
Dick Ellis
Dept. of American & Canadian Studies
University of Birmingham
Birmingham B15 2TT
United Kingdom
r.j.ellis@bham.ac.uk
www.uscanada.bham.ac.uk

Congratulations to Maura Dooley

2008-11-13T16:39:00.000Z

The Festival team is delighted to hear of Maura Dooley's collection Life Under Water being shortlisted for the T S Eliot Prize 2008. Maura has delivered some beautiful readings to Birmingham Book Festival audiences in the past, and has been shortlisted for this prize before, with her 1996 collection Kissing A Bone. She stands amongst an impressive line up, including another previously shortlisted poet, Mark Doty, and the recent winner of the Forward Prize, Mick Imlah.

The Full Short List:

Moniza Alvi - Europa (Bloodaxe)
Peter Bennet -The Glass Swarm (Flambard)
Ciaran Carson - For All We Know (Gallery Books)
Robert Crawford -Full Volume (Cape)
Maura Dooley - Life Under Water (Bloodaxe)
Mark Doty - Theories and Apparitions (Cape)
Jen Hadfield - Nigh-No-Place (Bloodaxe)
Mick Imlah - The Lost Leader (Faber)
Glyn Maxwell - Hide Now (Picador)
Stephen Romer - Yellow Studio (Carcanet)

The winner will be announced on 12 January. Andrew Motion, the Poet Laureate, is chair of the judging panel; his fellow judges are Lavinia Greenlaw and Tobias Hill.

We wish Maura the best of luck!

Sara

Books we like lately...

2008-11-10T14:14:00.000Z

Some of our recent or remembered reads:

Zugzwang, by Ronan Bennett.

Never Never, by David Gaffney.

The Good Plain Cook, by Bethan Roberts (which is currently shortlisted for the Spread The Word Prize, and can be voted for here: http://www.spread-the-word.org.uk/pages/books-2009/book-detail.asp?BookID=39 ). Bethan's first book, The Pools, is also excellent.

Notes From An Exhibition, by Patrick Gale.

New Territories...

2008-11-10T14:00:00.000Z

Welcome to our brand new blog! Thinking it was about time we moved into the 21st Century, we have finally relented and are going to try and do 'one of those blog things'. We can't promise we'll update it every day, or even every week, but we do promise to maintain contact with the outside world and thus keep our eyes, ears and minds open to new ideas and activities.

Keep up with the latest happenings in the office of the Birmingham Book Festival and Write On! Adventures In Writing. We'll share some ideas, some frustrations, some successes, or just our thoughts on the world...and keep you informed as we head perpetually down the road towards the next event...!

This seems like a good place to post pictures of Festival events, too, so look out for some of those, as well as links to other blogs and websites we think you might like.

The Festival's website can be found at http://www.birminghambookfestival.org. When listings for 2009 are available (Summer 09, exact date tbc) you will be able to book tickets and view full details on there. You can join our mailing list there, too.

Keep Reading..

Sara