Audio Archive: Writers’ Toolkit
New Narratives for the North East: Writing Collaboratively
A special round-table discussion where New Writing North’s Chief Executive, Claire Malcolm talks to writers Lisette Auton, Carmen Marcus and Mim Skinner about the approaches that they took to creating their pieces of work. All three writers chose to collaborate with other creatives and communities to make their work. The podcast explores how they did this and what writing collaboratively with others enables.
New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.
Common People: Breaking the Class Ceiling in UK Publishing
The Common People anthology brought together 16 leading working-class writers with 17 new unpublished working-class writers to create a picture of working-class life in Britain today.
Now, to coincide with a new report by Professor Katy Shaw of Northumbria University, Common People: Breaking the Class Ceiling in UK Publishing, we are delighted to present this special one-off podcast which brings together several of the established authors who featured in the Common People anthology, including Stuart Maconie, Kit de Waal, Tony Walsh, Lisa McInerney, with writer and academic Dave O’Brien and new writers Jodie Russian-Red and Shaun Wilson. The episode also features Jonathan Paterson, a Finance Director at the Hachette UK Group, and Clara Farmer, Publishing Director of Chatto & Windus.
Together they consider the experience of working-class writers and publishers working in the UK, identify some of the pervasive barriers which mean that the publishing industry fails to represent a huge proportion of the British public, and consider what change could look like.
Produced by Philippa Geering for New Writing North.
The Common People Writing Development Programme was produced by literature development agencies New Writing North, Writing West Midlands, New Writing South, National Centre for Writing, Writing East Midlands and Literature Works and Spread the Word with support from Arts Council England.
Crime Story: Denise Mina in conversation with Professor Katy Shaw
For Crime Story 2018 award-winning writer Denise Mina was commissioned to write a thrilling crime story about murder, trafficking and the drug trade. The story was the focus of a series of panel events in which real police, lawyers and criminologists explored how they would have approached solving the crime in real life. Here she talks with Professor Katy Shaw of Northumbria University about her work and writing life, how to write a truly interesting victim and just how to solve her intriguing mystery.
Crime Story is a unique event for crime writers and readers, produced by New Writing North and Northumbria University.
How to Get Published - with Northern Writers' Awards winners Yvonne Battle-Felton and Laura Steven
We join two former recipients of the Northern Writers’ Awards, Yvonne Battle-Felton and Laura Steven, in conversation with our Senior Programme Manager for Writing, Awards and Libraries, Will Mackie.
Listen to find out just how the Northern Writers’ Awards work, from tips on how best to apply to the impact of winning an award. Yvonne and Laura both explain how crucial the Northern Writers’ Awards were to their writing development and how winning helped to further their writing careers. We also cover the value of a good pen name, the importance of diversity in writing, dealing with rejection and how to get the best out of agent-author relationships when you’re about to publish your work.
Please note that this podcast was recorded as part of the 2019 Awards, meaning some details and advice may no longer apply. Go to Northern Writers’ Awards for all the latest information.