Kate Fox News news
We are currently busy helping Radio 4’s Saturday Live resident poet Kate Fox take her show, Kate Fox News, to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. The idea for the project came out of the cultural leadership placement Kate did with us last year. She is drawing on her credentials as performance poet, stand-up and sometime journalist to create her first full length-show. It tells her life story, via the big news events. From the Yorkshire Ripper to the burning of The Satanic Verses in Bradford, through the Blair years to volcanic ash, and the coalition government, she’ll be asking audiences to think about where they were when the news broke. Kate will be at The Gilded Balloon from 4-30 August at 12.15pm. Book your tickets now at http://gildedballoon.co.uk/tickets/performances.php?eventId=14:163.

ARC in Stockton, which is co-producing the show, will host the official regional preview on Monday 2 August. There is also a chance to see an early version at Washington Arts Centre on 31 July at 8pm.

New Northern Talent party
Winners of the Northern Writers’ Awards, award entrants who we felt had potential, and participants of the Fast-Track Fiction Programme, attended New Writing North’s New Northern Talent event in London last week. We were delighted that over 30 agents, scouts and editors attended the event, including representatives from Granta, Orion, Virago and Jonathan Cape. The writers attending had been put through their paces at a pitching workshop the previous week so were primed to make the best of the opportunity. Our fingers are crossed for the writers who attended and we wish them the best of luck with following up the contacts they made on the night.

Funding news and your opportunity to enter the debate
In June New Writing North received notice from Arts Council England that we are to receive a cut to our funding of 0.5% this year. The Government’s autumn spending review will make clearer the level of cuts that DCMS, Arts Council England and, then, their clients will receive next year. The Government’s budget signals seem to indicate that the level of cuts for next year could be somewhere between 10% and 30% (though possibly phased over more than one year).

We have always been conscious of managing costs at NWN and for the last two years have reduced our core management and administration expenditure to enable our budget to balance. Working this way has allowed us to protect what we see as our core services to writers. Like many other organisations and writers we have over the years benefitted from the increased availability of public sector funding in the North East; this too will continue to decrease. But we are optimists at NWN and both the staff and board are working hard to ensure that our services to literature and to writers will be as protected as we can make them in the future.

Also in this vein, the DCMS recently announced a consultation on the return of the lottery shares to their original causes. If agreed by Parliament, this would re-balance the share of the National Lottery, restoring arts, heritage and sport shares to their original 20% each by 2012. As many individual writers, arts organisations and community arts organisations benefit greatly from the Arts Council’s Grants for the arts programme, which is funded via the Lottery, this would be a very positive development. However, it’s vital that the Government hears directly from you about how the distinct benefits of additional lottery funding would help the Arts Council deliver their work on the ground. Details of the consultation can be found on the DCMS website at www.dcms.gov.uk/consultations/7070.aspx. We encourage you to take the time to add your voice to the debate and to lobby for the arts to receive a greater share of the available funds. The consultation closes on 21 August.


People

Whitley Bay writer Danielle Ramsay signs with Harper Collins
Congratulations to Whitley Bay writer Danielle Ramsay, whose novel Broken Silence is to be published on 14 October by Harper Collins. Broken Silence is the first book of a two-book deal with Harper Collins, and the sequel will be out next year. The novel encompasses much of the local landscape, figuratively and literally (Whitley Bay’s legendary Rendezvous Café even features on the cover). Danielle’s clearly on a bit of a winning streak at the moment, as she’s also been shortlisted for the second year running for the 2010 CWA Debut Dagger award for her novel, Lockdown. The award ceremony is being held at the Harrogate Crime Festival on 23 July, so we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed! For more information about Danielle, see www.danielleramsay.com.

Tapiwa poem on Cadaverine
Congratulations to young North East writer Tapiwa Moyo, whose poem My Mother at 5’ 7” Tall has been published on thecadaverine.com. Tapiwa was one of the young writers who took part in the writing project run by Kate Fox which culminated in the publication of The Book of Songs, where My Mother… was first seen. Cadaverine publishes the best new poetry and prose by emerging authors under the age of 25.

Adam Maxwell trails new work on YouTube
North East writer Adam Maxwell has just launched a trailer for his next piece of writing via YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNKPUV71S7Y. The writing to which the trailer relates is a comedy-crime-fiction novella he will be putting out later this month called The Defective Detective: Cat Chaser, which came about after a previous instalment via ebook publisher Feedbooks was downloaded almost 3,000 times since February. To get a taste of what’s to come, see www.feedbooks.com/userbook/10512.

Dick Curran’s Islanders at 24:7 fest
Congratulations to Dick Curran, whose play Islanders is one of 10 chosen for this year’s 24:7 festival in Manchester. An earlier version of the play had a rehearsed reading at Live Theatre but this is its first full-scale production. For more information, see www.247theatrefestival.co.uk/showislanders.html.


In the North East

Simon Armitage on the Pennine Way
Poet Simon Armitage will be walking the Pennine Way from north to south in July in the manner of the old troubadours – reading for his supper. A number of communities in Northumberland National Park are hosting readings and these are listed below. Simon will read for about an hour and then take questions, sign books and pass round the hat. There is more information about the tour on www.simonarmitage.com – click on Pennine Way.

Stockton International Riverside Festival looking for performers
Match Theatre, together with award-winning director James Dacre, is beginning a search for local performers, budding artists and anyone who has ever fancied performing at the Stockton International Riverside Festival. Match will be creating and performing a theatrical extravaganza at the festival with residents of Teesside. The performance will take place on 1 August on the High Street, with rehearsals starting on 13 July. Participants do not need to have any experience of theatre, but should be keen to perform and to get involved in something new. For more information, please contact Jenny at info@matchtheatre.com, or on 07803 058078.


National opportunities

The Terry Pratchett Prize
Sir Terry Pratchett and Transworld Publishers have launched a new award for aspiring debut novelists, The Terry Pratchett Anywhere But Here, Anywhen But Now Prize. Transworld will offer the winning author a publishing contract with a £20,000 advance. The award will be judged by Sir Terry Pratchett, Tony Robinson, Michael Rowley from Waterstone’s and two senior members of the editorial team at Transworld Publishers. Deadline for submissions: 31 December 2010. For further details about the award, and full terms and conditions, see www.terrypratchett.co.uk/news%5Ctermsandconditions.html.

Pentabus: We Are Here play competition
The award-winning Pentabus Theatre company invites playwrights from around the UK to submit a play for its 2012 season. Think you have an unproduced play that they might want to programme? Deadline for submissions: 29 October 2010. For submission guidelines, see www.pentabus.co.uk/index.php/current-programme/we-are-here.


The Listening Post

Linda France
Newcastle City Library: Monday 26 July, 6.15pm
Newcastle launch of Linda France’s new poetry collection, You are Her, published by Arc. Linda’s collections include The Simultaneous Dress and The Toast of the Kit Cat Club, a biography in verse of 18th century traveller and writer Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and the acclaimed Book of Days, for which she set herself the challenge of writing a renga verse every day for 12 months. Free event, all welcome.

Alfred Corn
Lit & Phil: 28 July, at 7pm
Poetry reading by Alfred Corn. Alfred is the author of nine books of poems, including Stake: Selected Poems, 1972-1992, which appeared in 1999, and, most recently, Contradictions, which appeared with Copper Canyon Press in 2002. For many years he taught in the graduate writing program of the School of the Arts at Columbia in New York City and his book reviews have appeared in The New York Times Book Review and The Nation, Poetry London, and The Wolf.


Workshops and courses

British Haiku Society
Laing Gallery, Newcastle: Sunday 11 July, 2pm
Special meeting of the British Haiku Society NE Group at the ‘Japanese Wave’ exhibition at the Laing. Come along and write a haiku – or two. Guest poets Fred Schofield and Martin Lucas. For further details, email chrisphil79@hotmail.com.

Crafty Bookbinding workshop
The Hearth at Horsely: Saturday 17 July, 10am-4pm
A great opportunity to spend a day making beautiful, original and intriguing books and a great way to discover interesting formats with which to present and display your writing. You’ll work together to create personalised projects with professional results (with step by step take away instructions so you can reproduce the books at home). No previous experience necessary. To book, email chloe@artgoes.com. Cost: £35 for the day including materials, hand-outs and tea and cakes.

Marion Husband creative writing class
Marton Library, Middlesbrough: Monday 26 July, 6pm
This two-hour introduction to creative writing will help you create convincing characters, discover how to write dialogue, explore viewpoints and tips on how you can edit your work effectively. Part of the Middlesbrough Literary Festival. For more details, call 01642 812972 or see www.middlesbrough.gov.uk/litfest.


Deadline for the next newsletter

If you have news that you would like to submit for inclusion in the newsletter please contact olivia@newwritingnorth.com. The deadline for receipt of information for the next newsletter is 19 July. The next edition of The Listening Post covering August’s literature events will go out in late July. If you have events that you would like to submit for inclusion, you will need to send information by 20 July June to olivia@newwritingnorth.com.

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While every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this newsletter is correct at the time of going to press, things do change, frequently at the last minute and very often without our knowledge.