Lecturers from the English Department launch their latest books at the Chester Literature Festival

As part of Uni at the Fest, Dr William Stephenson and Dr Ian Seed launched their new collections of poetry at the Garrett Theatre, Storyhouse, Chester.

Ian Seed read from New York Hotel (Shearsman 2018), his latest book of prose poems, which was recently selected as a 2018 TLS Book of the Year.  Mark Ford, writing in the TLS, comments: 'I greatly enjoyed the latest collection of Ian Seed's beautifully-crafted prose poems, New York Hotel.  Seed's micro-narratives and oblique parables are at once droll and haunting, as unpredictable as quicksand, and as elegant as the work of those masters of the prose poem, Max Jacob and pierre Reverdy.'


Ian is Senior Lecturer in the Department of English at the University of Chester.  His poetry appears in a number of anthologies, including The Forward Book of Poetry 2017 (Faber & Faber) and The Best British Poetry 2014 (Salt), and has been featured by the BBC on their Radio 3 Programme, The Verb, hosted by Ian McMillan.


William Stephenson read from his first full poetry collection Travellers and Avatars (Live Canon, 2018), which was shortlisted for the Live Canon First Collection Prize.  He is currently working on the manuscript of a second collection,  The Butterfly Factory.  Reviewers have described his work as 'quirky, refreshingly different and wide-ranging in its cultural references.  Data made interesting in a way I would never have expected or anticipated in poetic form' (Sarah James) and as setting up a world where 'words slip away from their original meanings, become jargon, trademarks, or symbols on a broken keyboard' (Tim Love).  'What his poetry 'does very well is convey the time lag, the stutter that any technology has (especially in its less mature phase) in trying to render reality' (Rishi Dastidar).  He has taught English Literature at the University of Chester since 2001.


The reading was followed by an informal book signing event.


Photo: Sarah Lee
Blog post: Dr Ian Seed, Programme Leader for Creative Writing


To find out more about Creative Writing at the University of Chester, go to:
https://www1.chester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/creative-writing-combined/201809

Students and tutors enjoy a glass of wine (or two) at our latest open-mic night

Students and tutors from the Department of English and beyond read out their poems, flash fiction, short stories, personal essays and scripts at the latest open-mic night held on November 19th, with plenty of wine to keep warm on a cold dark autumn evening.

The event was brilliantly hosted by our two Pandora's box student editors for 2018-19, Jasmine Welch and Reece Merrifield (on right below), who handed out a series of prizes for some fun competitions at the end of the evening.

Open-mic nights are held on a regular basis and offer students and tutors the chance to get together, share creative writing, and relax.

Photos: Ian Seed

Blog post: Dr Ian Seed, Programme Leader for Creative Writing.

To find out more about Creative Writing at the University of Chester, go to:

https://www1.chester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/creative-writing-combined/201909



Former Chester English Student Publishes Book

Tim Lawrence, who studied English Literature at Chester from 2005 To 2008, has written a critical study of modernist author Samuel Beckett. Tim’s book, entitled Samuel Beckett's Critical Aesthetics, has just been published by Palgrave. Tim is currently a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of York.

This book considers how Samuel Beckett’s critical essays, dialogues and reflections drew together longstanding philosophical discourses about the nature of representation, and fostered crucial, yet overlooked, connections between these discourses and his fiction and poetry. It also pays attention to Beckett’s writing for little-magazines in France from the 1930s to the 1950s, before going on to consider how the style of Beckett’s late prose recalls and develops figures and themes in his critical writing. By providing a long-overdue assessment of Beckett’s work as a critic, this study shows how Beckett developed a new aesthetic in knowing dialogue with ideas including phenomenology, Kandinsky’s theories of abstraction, and avant-garde movements such as Surrealism. This book will be illuminating for students and researchers interested not just in Beckett, but in literary modernism, the avant-garde, European visual culture and philosophy.

Reviews for Samuel Beckett's Critical Aesthetics
“With this book, Tim Lawrence delivers a long overdue examination of Beckett’s critical writings. Samuel Beckett’s Critical Aesthetics not only offers a sensitive, perceptive reading of these texts, but also reveals the way in which they establish an aesthetic and philosophical dialogue with Beckett’s creative enterprise. Drawing on a wide range of archival and critical sources, Lawrence’s study will surely establish itself as the indispensable guide to Beckett’s critical thought.” (Dr Mark Nixon, Co-Director, Beckett International Foundation)

“Tim Lawrence has written the first sustained analysis of Samuel Beckett’s critical writings, which are masterfully read within the context of their intellectual history. His readings are subtle, nuanced and illuminating. This book will offer an indispensable point of reference for future critical studies of Beckett’s work.” (Dr Ulrika Maude, Reader in Modernism and Twentieth-Century Literature, University of Bristol, UK)

Launch of Pandora's Box

 

 

With the summer sun streaming in through the window, Pandora's Box was launched on the evening of May 8.  Over a glass  or two of wine, students and tutors read out their poems, flash fiction, short stories, and scripts.  The packed event was brilliantly hosted by our two Pandora's Box student editors, Sarah Kissack and Joshua Cialis, who handed out a series of prizes at the end of the evening.

It was a great way to wind down and round off the academic year.

Pandora's Box features some of the best creative writing from the University of Chester's Department of English.

Post and Photography: Dr Ian Seed

 

Prize-Winning Poet Kim Moore Runs Seminar with University of Chester Creative Writing Students

On April 19^th, students on the course Writing Poetry for Publication were treated to a seminar with poet and workshop leader Kim Moore.

 

Kim read from her collection, The Art of Falling (Seren, 2015), then went on to give the background to some of the poems, reveal some of her drafting processes, discuss techniques she uses to craft her writing, and tell the story of her own route to publication before taking a number of questions from students.

Kim also gave a number of top tips on writing and publishing poetry.

These included:

1. Be prepared to redraft and refine many times.  The middle section of The Art of Falling took years to complete.

2. Raw emotional material can be a good starting point, but it is not enough in itself to convey emotional truth, however honest it may be, or to make a poem. This is where drafting and work com into play.

3. However, sometimes you may get lucky, and a poem will just come to you, for example when you are half-asleep. Take advantage of moments like these.

4. Learn to enjoy the process of writing. Don't become obsessed with product. Be patient.

5. read lots of poetry, including poetry you don't like.

6. If you get writer's block, read some poems to get inspired, take a line from one of them and just start writing. If nothing else, just sit down with paper and pen and start free-writing.

7. Put in the time. Find the time. Learn to fit your writing into small slots of time. Be selfish, if you have to.

8. Use reading and performing your poetry in front of an audience to spot areas you still need to work on.

9. join a writers' group. Be supportive of other poets. That support will be returned.

10. Research your subject matter. Find out what other poets have done.

11. Get in touch with poets you admire. Poets like to know their work is being read and appreciated.

12. Get your work out there. Keep a spreadsheet of where it as been sent and what the result is. Do not be discouraged by rejections, however many you get. Start with some of the smaller magazines, where the competition is less fierce, and build from there.

Kim Moore was recently awarded the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize for her debut collection of poetry, The Art of Falling. Previous winners include Seamus Heaney and JM Coetzee. For more information, see this article in The Guardian: 

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/nov/30/kim-moores-thrilling-debut-poetry-collection-wins-geoffrey-faber-prize 

The visit was organised by Dr Ian Seed, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Chester. 

Photography: Jan Gibson.



University Church Free School Flash Fiction Competition

 

To mark and celebrate the awarding of an Honorary Doctorate of Letters to Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Cornwall (also Countess of Chester) in recognition of her commitment to promoting literacy and celebrating literature, children in Year 6 at the University Church Free School (UCFS) in Chester each created a piece of flash fiction, a very short story of no more than 75 words.

The children met the Duchess after the graduation ceremony in Chester Cathedral on 16 March, where they presented her with a framed version of the winning flash and a bound copy of all the flashes.

 

The results of the competition were:

1st Place: ‘A Little Treasure’ by Lily Wehbeh.

2nd Place: ‘My Helicopter Hero’ by Lilly Pilling.

3rd Place: ‘First Day at School’ by Isaac Wood.

Highly Commended:

‘The Perfect Dress’ by Isobel Ayling.

‘The Golden Star’ by Ella Bargery.

‘Charlotte and the Perfect Flower’ by Ruby Burns-Buckland.

‘Love, the Perfect Present’ by Darcy Furlong-Hart.

‘The Perfect Dress for the Perfect Princess’ by Lili Homer.

‘The Balloon Stuck in a Tree’ by Eve Mackay.

‘Uncle Harry’s Wedding’ by Alexandra Modoi.

 

 

About the day and meeting the Duchess, the pupils said:

 

Lily Wehbeh

‘I felt so proud to present HRH with my winning story – I think she was really pleased that I had written it especially for her. She said she would enjoy reading our stories on her journey back to London.’

Ruby Burns-Buckland

‘It all happened so fast, she just appeared behind us and started chatting to us about our stories. I was so proud we had been chosen to meet her.’

Isaac Wood

‘She said she thought we all looked very smart. I felt very special being there.’

Isobel Ayling

‘She spoke to me about our stories – she was very pleased we had written them especially for her. Afterwards I was interviewed by a radio reporter about what she had said to me – it was very exciting.’

Lili Homer

‘I will always remember the day my class met and presented HRH the Duchess of Cornwall with stories we had written especially for her.’

Eve Mackay

‘I was a little bit nervous about what would happen when we met HRH but she was so kind to us and was really excited about our writing.’

Ella Bargery

‘She talked to me about the 500 word story competition she judges for Radio 2. I told her I had entered it before – she was very pleased about that.’

Darcy Furlong-Hart

‘I really really enjoyed meeting HRH – she was so kind, she asked us questions about our writing and she said she hoped we hadn’t got too cold standing waiting for her. We had lots of photographers take our pictures.’

Lilly Pilling

‘I was so proud to be the first person that HRH spoke to when I presented her with our class collection of Flash Fiction stories. She said that she would read them all when she got back to London.’

Alexandra Modoi

‘She was very smiley – I think she was really pleased to see us waiting for her to come out of the cathedral – she knew we had written her some stories because she said “Hello I believe you have some stories for me”.’

 

UCFS is part of the University of Chester Academies Trust.

 

The competition’s judges were Drs Peter Blair and Ashley Chantler, Department of English, University of Chester. They are directors of the International Flash Fiction Association and editors of Flash: The International Short-Story Magazine.

 

Creative Writing students treated to a visit from historical novelist George Green

Third-year Creative Writing students on Writing the Past and Life Writing courses  were treated to a seminar with author of historical novels, George Green.

In an informal session, George offered a number of writing tips.

For historical fiction, these included:

 

1. Think of a three-line pitch for your story. What is your story really about?

 

2. Readers may not know much about the era you are writing about. Think about what information you will need to give them and how to integrate this seamlessly into the narrative.

 

3. The events you are writing about have already happened. Think about what you are going to add in terms of perspective. What is your story?

 

4. Have three pieces of paper in front of you: a three-line pitch, a half-page summary, a one-page synopsis. As you are writing, compare your story to these. If you are going too far off-track, consider whether the writing or the plan needs changing.

 

5. Don’t keep redrafting your first chapter. Better to continue with your novel to the end, and then you will have a clearer idea of how chapters need to be redrafted. This way you will save a lot of time.

 

6. Don’t grow too fond of your characters. Plenty of horrible things need to happen to them.

 

7. Don’t fall in love with the research. It is your story which is important. This is fiction, not history.

 

8. Keep the pressure going. Build and complicate your story.

 

9. Consider the advantages of using a minor character to tell the story.

For life writing, George’s tips included:

1. Think about the story you are going to tell. Your life in itself may not be that interesting.

2. Think about how you are going to shape that story, and keep the reader turning the pages.

3. Good life writers have been defined as ‘liars in search of the truth’. Consider the relationship between fact and fiction in your story.

4. Use humour.

5. Consider how you will use time. Your story does not have to be in chronological order.

6. Consider how you will balance the relationship between time, events, and characters. Where will your focus be at different points in the story?

7. Don’t forget the importance of ethical and legal issues.

George Green is the author of Hound and Hawk, and the co-author of Writing Novels for Dummies, as well as number of critical articles.

Blog post: Dr Ian Seed, Programme Leader for Creative Writing.

To find out more about Creative Writing at the University of Chester, go to:

https://www1.chester.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/creative-writing-combined/201809