Caption: “Aliya Vaughan, Muslim Writer of the Year 2008, look in awe at the guest of honour Jermaine Jackson as he presents her with her Award. In the background stand the judges who reviewed the 10,000 entries that were received. Aliya is aged 37 and hails from Brixton in South London.”
The Muslim Writer of the Year 2008 awards ceremony took place on Saturday at the ICC, presented by none other than Jermaine Jackson. West Midlands winners were former Guantanamo detainee Moazzem Beg (Published Writer) and Kashif Choudry (Short Story)
Annoyingly the press release I was sent isn’t on the awards site or the council’s page so I’ve popped it online here.
Hello, As Pete mentioned, I’m Danny and I will be your guest blogger for a while, I will be trying to give you all the Birmingham friendly creative news that I find, although my main priority will be not screwing up like deleting the internet, getting Pete sued into the ground, or accidentally starting a Civil War. If there is something that you feel should be covered and I have missed, drop me a line at artiseasy(at)hotmail(dot)co(dot)uk.
I don’t feel so much that I have been given the keys to a brand new sports car, as much as that I’ve been given the keys to an 18 wheeler lorry and its my job not to plough that bugger into a bus queue full of nuns and orphans. So without further adoing
- A nice interview with Catherine O’Flynn, winner of the Costa First Novel Award here.
- Audiances Central normally have some good opportunities, these caught my eye, or rather caught my girlfriends eye, she’s giving me a hand and lovely hands they are too.
Nu Century Arts is an organisation established in 2000 and based in Handsworth who are “dedicated to the development and promotion of performing arts in the African-Caribbean community”
The company’s work encompasses a professional theatre group, organising a regular live music event ‘The Live Box’, literature in the shape of ‘Wired Up’ magazine and a broad range of education work, from jazz workshops, to youth theatre and group trips as far a field as South Africa and the United States.
Given Birmingham’s location within the United Kingdom and the breadth of talent within the city, Nu Century Arts has maintained that its artists should not be marginal, but play a central role in the cultural direction of the country; have access to the fullest possible range of skills; and produce the highest quality work. Moreover, it seeks to provide a consistent base and a framework promoting new African Caribbean work, irrespective of political/ cultural trends and fashions.
The do work in a variety of venues including The Drum and The Rep and the artists listed on their site include Soweto Kinch, Julie Dexter, Eska Mtungwazi and Shabaka Hutchins.
Awareness came to me from Osahon Orchard who is running a free 10 week acting course for over 19 year olds as a “way to regain confidence as well as get back into performing” at 16 Grosevenor Road B20 3NP. Contact him on osahon.orchard [at] ntlworld.com for details.
Dave Hilliard interviews the writer and blogger Thomas Moronic. Here’s the obligatory Birmingham quote:
The Midlands has other influences as well. As you know, it can be difficult being an artist round here sometimes because it can be quite an isolated place, if you are of a certain creative mindset. The place can be very depressing, and at times stifling. But then again, in some ways I’d say that that can help a person’s art – you can use those things in work.
And, being me, I’m particularly interested in his thoughts about why he blogs.
The blog is the thing that helped kickstart me back into writing. I love my blog. I see it as an ongoing, constantly expanding body of work. I feel really pleased with the work ethic that I’ve managed to get together with it. I wouldn’t say that it’s hard, because I enjoy it so much. I love sitting down and putting stuff together for it. Keeping it going is a challenge that I relish.
Like anything in life, there are always distractions – socialising, work etc. But when I stopped writing a couple of years back, the idea of starting again was a really intimidating thing. It felt daunting, because I hadn’t written anything in so long – I didn’t know where to start. By being firm with myself and keeping a set writing routine, it means I’ll never have to worry about starting again, because I don’t give myself chance to stop.
Obviously, with a daily thing, I can’t guarantee that every single day will be amazing entry, and when I look back there are definitely some days that I think are better than others, but I think in order to get good work you do have to work through some not so good stuff. In that respect, the blog acts as a big notebook for me. It’s a good place to experiment with ideas.
But there’s much more interesting stuff in there too.
Mary Rochford writes to inform of her new book, Gilded Shadows, which comes out later this month.
Set in the West of Ireland, Birmingham, Dublin and Nice, five of these stories explore our need to come to terms with the past.
Three sisters: Aefe, Fionuala and Sorcha, struggle towards a recollection and resolution of the event which almost destroyed their family.
Tom and Breda flee Derry for the safety of England and discover that history casts a long shadow.
Bridget, haunted by the past, takes the first plane out of Birmingham and spends a life-changing week in Nice.
The remaining seven stories which are located in Birmingham are laced with humour and deal with the universal desire to be loved and to belong.
She’s released the first piece, Aefe’s story, as a free PDF download. You can buy the book from Bonds Books in Harborne from December 12th and at the Custard Factory’s Sunday Flea on the 16th.
Will Buckingham, the dude behind the Birmingham Words blog, is moving on but isn’t letting the site die. It’s to be taken over by the National Academy of Writing at BCU and will be run by students studying there.
Running Birmingham Words over these five years or so has been a huge amount of fun. But now that we are reaching the end of this particular funding period, it seems time to take stock. As editor, webmaster and general power-behind-the-kitchen-chair at Birmingham words, I am feeling like a change of scene, both for the good of site and also because I myself am planning to move on to other (although not necessarily greater) things.
As a result, I have been in discussion with the National Academy of Writing at Birmingham City University, and they have expressed a strong interest in stepping into the breach and adopting Birmingham Words as an on-going project for students at the Academy. This would, I hope, give a new impetus to the site, and would not only secure a longer-term future for it, but would also give allow it to continue to grow and develop.
More details on the change.
They just keep coming. The latest nomination to grace Catherine O’Flynn‘s What Was Lost is the Costa Book Awards where she’s in the running for best first novel. The Costa’s were previously known as the Whitbread’s and are pretty well respected in the book trade for bridging the gap between high-falutin literary and populist.
Lest we forget Catherine is also up for Brummie of the Year.
news via Audiences Central
Later: Post article.
Later again: Tindal St press release.
Meet The Authors is a nice looking local lit event tomorrow at the MAC with Brummie of the Year contender Catherine O’Flynn and Nicola Monaghan talking about their work.
Catherine O’Flynn was born in Birmingham in 1970, where she grew up in and around her parents’ sweet shop before embarking on a career of curious jobs. Her first novel, What Was Lost, has bounded into the literary scene getting a nod from the Orange Broadband Prize for Fiction and, at the time of writing is 8/1 odds on to scoop The Man Booker Prize. Celebrating Catherine’s insight into the absurdity of consumerism and urban dissatisfaction, the Literary Review observes, ‘O’Flynn is just the colleague you’d want to be stuck with in a dead-end job.’)
Nicola Monaghan has worked as a teacher, a financial analyst and a software guru. She now works part-time as Fellow of the National Academy of Writing, based at the University of Central England. Boyd Tonkin included Nicola in the Independent’s New Years Eve list of rising talent for 2006. Her first novel, The Killing Jar, was published in March 2006 to critical acclaim. It won the Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award and a Betty Trask Award, as well as being shortlisted for the Goss First Novel Prize and the Waverton Good Read.
Tickets are £5 and it starts at 7.30. Details.
A bit of local web buzz for Careless Talk, the new novel by Michael Richardson published by Tindal Street. Birmingham Words gave notice of the launch (which I missed telling you about – sorry), BiNS has a review and The Stirrer has a video interview:
The Muslim Writers Award, an initiative coming out of Birmingham City Council which had its inaugural ceremony in April, goes national in 2008.
The idea of the project is to assist and nurture emerging writers and get them published. We are looking at the writers creative talent – not their religious beliefs. The Awards were televised and went out to 150+ countries and we hope to reach as many new writers (and readers!) as possible.
The categories for the 2008 Awards are:
* Non Fiction
* Short Story
* Novel Award
* Poetry Award
* Under 16s
* Best Children’s Story
* Best New Writer of the Year
* Best Published Writer (to be nominated by publishers)
The 2008 Judges include Randa Abdel Fattah (author of Does My Head Look Big in This?), Emma Hargrave (Managing Editor of Tindal St Press), Bloomsbury publishers and Sunny Hundal (Editor of Asians in the Media).
Alongside the awards there’s also a support program including, editing support, creative writing courses and master classes, networking opportunities, support in finding publishers and more.
The deadline for submissions is December 28th and all the details are here.
