Visit to Chester by Prize-Winning Poet Andrew McMillan

On 15 April, Creative Writing students on the module Writing Poetry for Publication spent a seminar and workshop with poet Andrew McMillan (in centre of photo). Andrew was born in South Yorkshire in 1988; his debut collection physical was the first ever poetry collection to win the Guardian First Book Award. The collection also won the Fenton Aldeburgh First Collection Prize, was shortlisted for the Costa Poetry Award, the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. It was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation for autumn 2015. In 2014 he received a substantial Northern Writers’ Award. He currently lectures in Creative Writing at Liverpool John Moores University and lives in Manchester.

The focus of the seminar was ‘routes to publication’. Andrew advised first becoming familiar with literary magazines, many of which can be found in the University of Chester’s library, such as The North, Poetry London and Shearsman. ‘Once you have found a magazine whose poetry you enjoy and which suits your style, read the submission guidelines carefully, then send off your poems.’ Andrew’s first published poem was in The North when he was still an undergraduate; his second was in the online journal Shadowtrain. Andrew believes that sending work to magazines is a better bet than entering competitions, and that your poem in a magazine will actually be read by people who care about poetry. If you are very lucky, your work may even be selected from the magazine for an anthology. No book publisher is likely to consider your poems unless you have first had your work published in literary magazines. Andrew advised not to worry about rejections (he says he could fill a suitcase with all the rejections he has had), to be persistent, and to make your writing the most important thing in the world when you are doing it.

Andrew then went on to take questions, read from his collection physical, talk about the nature of ‘confessional poetry’, and finally got us all writing a confessional poem of our own.

The visit was organised by Dr Ian Seed.

Peter Blair - Runner-up in Bath Flash Fiction Award

‘Shadowtrain’ by Peter Blair, Senior Lecturer in English, was a ‘commended’ runner-up in the Bath Flash Fiction Award. You can read the story and an interview with Peter by clicking on the following links:

http://bathflashfictionaward.com/2016/02/p-blair-february-2016-commended/

http://bathflashfictionaward.com/2016/04/interview-with-peter-blair-bath-flash-commended/

Dr Ian Seed on BBC Radio 3

Last Friday, Ian Seed was a guest on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, where he discussed prose poetry and read from his latest collection, Identity Papers. 

Ian’s contribution was part of a wider discussion around the changing representation of new towns in film, music, history and literature. 

The programme can be heard here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b073b0nn

Visit to Chester by Poet Tom Jenks

On 22 February, Creative Writing students on the module Poetry: Other Voices, Other Forms spent a seminar and workshop with poet Tom Jenks.  Tom has published ten collections of poetry and his work appears in Salt’s Best British Poetry 2015 (ed. Emily berry). See http://www.zshboo.org/ for more details.

Through a series of prompts and exercises, Tom showed us how to generate poems using the internet and computer programs, tempered by human input and intervention. There was a discussion about how to make use of this for writing poetry, for example, exploring new territory, going out of one’s comfort zone, overcoming writer’s block, and just having fun with the composition of poetry. Tom also read from his own brilliantly funny work.

One student commented that it was the best workshop he had ever been to. Tom has produced a collaborative poem using some of the lines from the workshop. See http://www.zshboo.org/and-then-but.html

The visit was organised by Dr Ian Seed.

Simon Armitage, 'Putting Poetry in its Place' (25 May 2016)

[Photo Credit: Paul Wolfgang Webster]

The Department of English, University of Chester, is pleased to announce that the ninth talk in the Professor Glyn Turton Lecture series will be delivered by one of Britain’s most distinguished writers, Simon Armitage.

Armitage is author of over twenty poetry collections, including: Zoom! (1989), Kid (1992), Book of Matches (1993), The Dead Sea Poems (1995), CloudCuckooLand (1997), Killing Time (1999), Travelling Songs (2002), The Universal Home Doctor (2002), Tyrannosaurus Rex versus The Corduroy Kid (2006), Seeing Stars (2010), and Paper Aeroplanes (2014). His other writing includes autobiographies, travelogues, plays, scripts, and translations of Homer’s Odyssey (2006), Sir Gawain and the Green Knight (2007), The Death of King Arthur (2011), and Pearl (2016). In 2004, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and in 2010, for services to poetry, was appointed CBE. He is a Vice-President of the Poetry Society and Professor of Poetry at the University of Oxford.

Entry is free, but BOOKING IS ESSENTIAL.

To book a place, and for further information, go to:

http://www.chester.ac.uk/departments/english/prof-glyn-turton-lecture

Visit to Chester by Novelist George Green

On 5 February, Creative Writing students on the module Writing the Past spent a seminar and workshop with author of historical novels, George Green. George’s novels include Hawk (2006) and Hound (2003), which was described in the Guardian as ‘tightly written, oddly touching and with a strong sense of history as well as myth’. He is also co-author of Writing a Novel and Getting Published for Dummies (2007; 2014). 

George gave out a number of tips based on his own experiences as a published writer on matters such as the relationship between historical research and fiction, the role of planning and plotting, and how not to waste time going up too many blind alleys with your story. He then took a number of questions from the class on issues such as theme, setting, and use of foreign languages.  

All agreed that it was a useful and thoroughly enjoyable seminar.  

The visit was organised by Dr Ian Seed.

New Book of Prose Poems Published by Lecturer Dr Ian Seed

Ian Seed’s book of prose poems, Identity Papers, has just been published by Shearsman.  

Poet and critic Mark Ford comments: ‘Ian Seed is our most brilliant exponent of that most unBritish of genres, the prose poem. Hilarious and unsettling, his beautifully controlled micro-narratives genially induct us into a world that soon turns out to be as dangerous as it is magical. His work should really come with some kind of health warning, for these poems are not only intoxicating – they are addictive.’ 

Click here for to find out more.

 

Ian will be launching his new collection at Swedenborg Hall, London on Tuesday 9^th February, as part of the Shearsman readings series