Author Archives: James

About James

James specialises in digital literary heritage projects. He spends most of his time in front of a computer screen writing about life instead of living it. Therefore, do not trust a word he says.

Looking forwards: The Writers’ Social

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Chair photo by Paula Schmidt on Pexels.

When people ask why they should cough up £60 to become a member of the Nottingham Writers Studio my answer is always the same: the monthly social. Over the years I’ve seen our patron Jon McGregor read early extracts from Even the Dogs before it went on to win the IMPAC award, listened to Alan Mahar of Tindal Street Press explain what it is he looks for in a book (and he knows having seen 12 of his first 48 books nominated for prizes), taken part in a live creation of a plot for a computer game, listened to various debates across genres and drank a fair bit of wine. This Thursday is one of the most important socials in the calendar as it’s the one where you do all the talking.

With such a diverse membership of writers it’s difficult to know whether everyone is getting what they need out of the Studio and so we need a session like this to ensure nobody is left out on the margins. Typical areas to be discussed are:

  • Are you happy with the location and actual space of the studio?
  • If you could see any author at a Word of Mouth event, who would it be?
  • What kind of mentoring schemes would you like to see?
  • Should we be working more actively to get you published?
  • Is membership too expensive/cheap?
  • Should we become more digital?
  • What changes could we make to the studio to improve your writing career?
  • Do you require more practical help, such as getting an agent?

The Studio is unique in that it is run by writers for writers. Your input in the session on Thursday could determine not only what happens in the future but how it happens. The recent Festival of Words was born out of a discussion with members at an AGM two years ago, so we’re not joking when we say your view is valued. Your wine is also important as well, as are your crisps and peanuts. So bring a few nibbles and refreshments along with you and together we’ll dare to make the Studio even better.

This is the Chair’s Blog and was originally published on the Nottingham Writers’ Studio website 

LeftLion 51

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Cover designed by Kid30.

LeftLion turned 51 on February 1st and we rabbited on about the Festival of Words for quite a bit because this was Nottingham’s first literature festival since the 1970s. This included an interview with David Almond, a two page lit-binge ridiculing this embarrassing statistic, words from writer in residence Deborah Tyler-Bennett and a poetry page dedicated to performers appearing at the festival. By all accounts I should be delighted at managing to arm wrestle so many pages out of the mag. But I’m not. Why? Because another feature, The Lion List, took up more pages and wasn’t as time specific. It was another music feature. Now don’t get me wrong, we have a duty to capitalise on Nottingham’s recent good fortunes music wise – and it’s been a long time coming – but anyone who thinks that is more important than waiting 30/40 years for a literature festival is an absolute fruitcake. It should have been our front cover. It should have been tattooed on our foreheads. Anyway, enough of this bitching. All is forgiven because of the fabulous illustration for the festival by Cameron Bain (see below), and the front cover we ran with was pretty special: totus ceterus est propago (or should it be ceteris?)

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                                     Illustration by Cameron Bain

Our six book reviews this issue were: Entertaining Strangers Jonathan Taylor, Species NTU Creative Writing MA, Student David Belbin, Dogtooth Chronicles Kirsty Fox, Full Chicken Jacket Tom Hathaway, Amsworth Through History Bryan Maloney. Katie Half-Price got her teeth and other body parts stuck into Cheryl Cole, Will Self, and Jonas Jonasson. As always I tried to find an appropriate reviewer for each book which on some occasions borders on the obsessive. For example, Tom Hathaway is a living breathing Charles Bukowski so we needed someone who could appreciate his sense of humour. Andrew Graves was perfect. Graves uses the stage name of MulletProofPoet which is a play on ‘Bulletproof Poet’ – the name Bukowski was known as in certain circles. I doubt anyone would pick up on such subtle layering but that’s the fun of editing together the literature pages. You do it entirely for your own gratification. All the rest is propaganda, etc.