Tag Archives: festival of words

Chair’s Blog: A. L. Kennedy.

Posted on by

Chair photo by Paula Schmidt on Pexels.

For the past ten years or so I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing various authors and discovered many magical insights into the writing process. One question I often ask is; why should people read your book? Answers to this have varied but none has been quite as enjoyable as that given by A L Kennedy at the 2011 Edinburgh Book Festival to the Guardian: “Because it’s not shit”. When I heard this on a YouTube clip I immediately booked a place for her Reading Group session on Saturday 16 February at the Festival of Words.

Kennedy won the Costa prize in 2008 for her fifth novel Day, though I suspect her motivation wasn’t for the £25,000 cheque as she appears to live a relatively simple life: “I have sex about once every five years. I’ve lived alone since I was 17. I am slightly tired. My life is not comfortable to me. But I am philosophical.”

Day tells the story of a World War II veteran whose work as an extra on a war film forces him to confront his past. It’s a difficult read, though, as it shifts between three narrative modes and has led to comparisons with James Joyce.

At the Festival of Words Kennedy will be discussing her novels and writing life with particular focus on Day and The Blue Book. The Blue Book sees Beth, the novel’s highly sensitive narrator, board a luxury liner with her dull boyfriend Derek in what turns out to be a particularly rough journey for various reasons. On the cruise she encounters fortune-telling, stage magic and mind-reading and we see how these ancient arts feed on the desperation of lonely and suggestible people.

It’s an event I would highly recommend to studio members because it’s not often you get the chance to spend two hours with a such a prestigious author and is a great opportunity to discuss her complex narrative techniques – something which is growing in popularity once more with novels such as Tom McCarthy’s C making it onto the 2010 Booker shortlist and Jon McGregor winning the Impac prize for Even the Dogs. The Booker also has a new rival in the Literature Prize which will see one author receiving a £40,000 prize in March 2014. The prize was created after the 2011 Booker was criticised for daring to value ‘readability’…

One of the great successes at the studio this year has been the various subgroups that have formed, enabling poets, fiction writers, journalists, YA authors and scriptwriters to workshop ideas with like-minded professionals. Kennedy’s reading group session is a unique opportunity to advance these debates and learn more about narrative and technique. We hope that members (and the public) will take advantage of this two hour session to enable them to develop their craft further.

The Chair’s blog was first published at the Nottingham Writers’ Studio
Saturday 16th February, 3.00pm – 5.00pm, NTU Newton Arkwright Building, £10 (including a free book) from Lowdham Festivals Box Office: 0115 966 3219

 

He’s got the whole words in his hands

Posted on by
Pete Davis speaking at Sillitoe Day

Pete Davis speaking at Sillitoe Day

Pete Davis spent three decades as a fireman and the following two as a storyteller where he has worked with the elderly, the mentally ill and Notts County fans. About fifteen years ago, after a couple of ales, he set up The Storytellers of Nottingham in the Trip where he shared his memories of growing up around the city, culminating in his one-man show Under Bestwood, his unique take on the Dylan Thomas classic. Now he’s offering an introduction to oral storytelling where he’ll be teaching vital tricks of the trade to anyone who fancies themselves as a blabber mouth.

The six-week course will focus on the methods required to retain, construct and perform stories. In particular it will focus in on ways to mentally visualise a story so that you don’t turn into one of those numpties who still have to read from a script when they’re performing a Haiku. Davis’s basic philosophy is: if you believe it, so will they. So if there’s any Romeo’s out there stringing along a couple of lovers then here’s your chance to perfect those excuses so that her in doors never doubts you again.

The course is targeted at writers at all levels of their career and is useful as the publishing industry demands a more rounded product nowadays, someone who is able to write, market and entertain. And let’s be honest, just because you can conjure beautiful imagery on the page doesn’t mean that you are a) a nice person or b) a performer. Writers are pretty unsociable beasts who lock themselves away for months on end, staring into screens, creating artificial worlds out of words. They’re barely one degree of separation away from World of Warcraft. This is your chance to become human again and put your metaphors where your mouth is.

I’ve worked with Pete a few times, most recently on The Space when I commissioned him to take oral histories from Raleigh workers. He’s a great communicator and has the skill of being able to relax people and get them to speak honestly about their life. The Raleigh testaments are the result of lots of conversations and Pete’s ability to slowly cajole out details that people presume are boring but are absolute gold. It’s a skill that requires listening, responding and probing. It sounds easy but it’s not. He’s a great performer as well, able to relay long stories freely without a script. But if you’re thinking of signing up for his workshops why not try before you buy and see Pete’s contribution to the Festival of Words with Stories of the City at Lee Rosy’s, 7.30pm, 13 February.

‘Shaping the Word’ with Pete Davis, Wednesdays, 20 February to 3 April 2013, 7–9pm, £48. Sessions split between Broadway and the Nottingham Writers’ Studio. To book admin@nottinghamwritersstudio.co.uk.