Journal

Amy Langdown, who was awarded a Matthew Hale Award in 2016, talks about being a Cuckoo Young Writer, and the experience of winning a Northern Writers' Award.

Jessica Sinyard, our December blogger in residence, returns with advice on pitching your screenplay.

"When asked that old question, ‘Why study Creative Writing?’ I used to shoot back, ‘Because I want to be a waiter’. It’s a spin on a Billy Connolly joke that guarantees a cheap laugh. Yet, like many arts graduates I know, I was a waiter after my Creative Writing BA. A temporary fix that lasted years, as I struggled to compile a first collection I felt confident with..."

We love a good end of year list in the office, so we thought we’d bring you a selection of some of our own favourite reads of the year. We kept the rules simple – recommend any book that you enjoyed reading in 2016.

And yet with barely any rules to break, Claire Malcolm still did her best. Chief exec’s prerogative…

"Having a standard way of communicating allows readers to be undistracted by trying to decipher a new form each time they read a script, and instead to immerse themselves in what really matters – your story, your characters, and the world you have created."

I haven’t yet come down from the ceiling since winning a Northern Writers’ Award. Hearing a lovely review of my stories at the awards ceremony felt like the pinnacle, but there was more. The following week I met leading literary agents at a talent party organised by New Writing North (NWN) in London. The evening was relaxed and fun, but might have been daunting if not for the preparatory pitching workshop NWN also organised. I now know how to weave my pitch into ordinary party small talk! This workshop was also huge fun and I made great friends there.

Each year we take to the road to spread the word about the Northern Writers’ Awards, visit new places and meet writers. It was a genuine pleasure to head to Sheffield last weekend for a special poetry-themed Roadshow run in partnership with pioneering publisher, the Poetry Business. As our expert speakers arrived for the day, I was tempted to abandon the planned programme and rapidly instigate a series of poetry readings. Clare Pollard, Degna Stone, Anna Woodford, Suzannah Evans and Mark Pajak formed a striking gathering of poetic talent in a single room, but we kept to the script and stuck to prose.

Durham Book Group discuss Jessie Burton's The Muse.

Statistical analysis found that in his speeches Trump only told the truth 14 percent of the time. We seem to be living in an age where the truth really doesn’t count, and my new novel, An Honest Deceit asks – what kind of relationship do we have with the truth?

The Whitley Bay Book Group discuss Kamila Shamsie's Burnt Shadows.