Turn Up for the Books
Turn Up for the Books gives 18-25 year olds in County Durham the chance to go behind the scenes of Durham Book Festival and learn more about the arts and literature industry through workshops, talks and hands-on event programming experience, culminating in programming their own event as part of Durham Book Festival. This year, the participants devised an event on Writing from Conflict, featuring authors Ibtisam Azem, Yeva Skalietska, and Peace Adzo Medie.
Here, Matthias Bacon discusses the process of programming an event focussed on such a timely topic.
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Last year, with term drawing to a close, I found myself with plenty of time on my hands to enjoy the start of summer in Durham. I had initially heard about New Writing North’s Turn Up for the Books initiative from a friend who had taken part in it previously, so when sign ups reopened I jumped at the chance to be part of a programme focused around literature, and also one that did not take up too much of my precious free time!
Getting involved in Turn Up for the Books has been an amazing experience. Not only have I enjoyed collaborating with other young people with similar passions, but I have also been able to explore various aspects and careers involved with books. We enjoyed many talks not only to help with our responsibilities but also to enhance our understanding of job sectors connected to literature, from social media to professional reviewing, including a brilliant conversation with Cal Revely-Calder, literary editor of The Telegraph. I am sure many people with a passion for English Literature (especially those pursuing it at a degree level) have been asked over and over again what career this could lead to, and this experience offers plenty of answers for that question.
The central focus for the initiative is of course getting involved with the festival itself and programming an event. As a group of just over ten participants, we split into two groups to brainstorm ideas, eventually coming to a cause that we all felt strongly about: literature about conflict. As young people watching violence and conflict all over the world, we felt a strong passion to explore the literature that illuminates these spaces, from biographical to speculative fiction. We knew we had big shoes to fill, considering the year before us had sold out their amazing event on the Virago anthology, Furies.
Finding relevant books and juggling the availability of potential chairs and guest authors was difficult, but the brilliant team at New Writing North were a massive help and cut out a lot of work for us. We had the honour of welcoming our chair, Professor Hannah Brown of Durham University, and our authors Yeva Skalietska, Ibtisam Azem, and Peace Adzo Medie to Durham Book Festival for their event on Writing from Conflict. Not only was the event completely sold out, but it was also brilliant to watch, with myself and the other participants taking on the roles of roving mics, author and audience care, and helping authors with signings after the talk.
Durham Book Festival this year landed neatly at the end of the first week of Autumn term, capping the end of introductory lectures with an incredible array of talks and workshops. I volunteered to work the event we had organised for the Turn Up for the Books programme, while we had the opportunity to be involved in a range of other events (either running or reviewing them) as well.
Turn Up for the Books is a brilliant initiative right for any young person in the Durham area with a passion for literature, and one I would definitely not pass up on.
Matthias Bacon