These days, it is normal for authors to go to writing workshops – or teach them. So why does the idea they produce derivative writers persist?What makes a writer? How do you become one? When I was younger, even asking those questions seemed to disqualify me: a writer isn’t something one becomes, I thought, a writer just is. Despite writing, rewriting and reading all through my 20s, I was no closer to completing, let alone publishing, a novel. I realised I would need help if I was going to succeed, and I applied to several creative writing MAs.This was, depending on who you ask, either a decision that condemned my writing to being forever derivative and tired, or, an important step on the path towards the publication of my first book. The debate about the value of a degree in creative writing has been done, one might think, to death – good writing depends on an innate facility that cannot be taught, versus good writing depends on devoted time, support, and elements of craft that can be studied – yet it continues to rage. This week, a much-lauded debut novel was criticised in a review by an author for its “MA creative writing-speak” and “oh so tediously writing workshop description”. For some, “writing workshop” is shorthand for bad. But why?'One must have in mind between 68 and 73% of the ending' before starting a story, my teacher once advised Related: Buy a cat, stay up late, don't drink: top 10 writers’ tips on writing Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'
[ The Guardian | 2018-04-20 00:00:00 UTC ]
The Australian author is ‘incredibly influential’, but has had to survive decades of ‘cultural cringe’ and genre snobbery to make finally ‘a decent sort of living’Before parched and dusty towns across Australia became full of fictional sinister people; before the explosion of outback noir and... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2024-04-05 23:00:18 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Novelists and poets, Bernardine Evaristo, Jeanette Winterson, Stephen Marche and others, consider the threats and thrilling possibilities of artificial intelligenceChatGPT seems to have blindsided us all. In less than a year it has proved that it can make writers redundant, which is one of the... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-11-11 09:00:30 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Attention all writers who write about writing (or painting, or dancing, or music…): the Interlochen Center for the Arts and The Pattis Family Foundation have established a new annual award that seeks to recognize “outstanding works of fiction or nonfiction” that “inspire, illuminate, or... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2023-10-19 16:06:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The much-acclaimed Irish author of Small Things Like These on her quietly devastating new story and why George Saunders wouldn’t read it aloud for a podcastClaire Keegan’s five books to date run to just 700 pages and some 140,000 words. “I love to see prose being written economically,” she tells... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2023-09-02 17:00:10 UTC ]
More news stories like this
While other future novelists were discussing iambic pentameter and leitmotifs, Gina Chen immersed herself in computer science. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2022-08-25 09:00:11 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Returning for its first in-person spring event since 2019, the Hay Festival programme will feature more than 600 award-winning writers, global policy makers, pioneers and innovators in conversations, performances and debates.The British Council is supporting a series of seven events at the... Continue reading at British Council global
[ British Council global | 2022-05-12 13:24:32 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Interviews For many years, better opportunities on foreign shores, political turmoil, and the Maoist insurgency in Nepal have contributed to a large-scale migration to foreign countries. Many Nepalese writers, now settled in the West, have begun writing... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2022-02-14 22:32:24 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The Silent Era of cinema was perhaps its most equitable with both hearing and hearing-impaired viewers able to enjoy productions alongside one another, but with the advent of "talkies," deaf and hard-of-hearing American's found themselves largely excluded from this new dominant entertainment... Continue reading at Engadget
[ Engadget | 2022-01-29 16:30:45 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Charities Speakers for Schools and Book Clubs in Schools have teamed up with Andersen Press for the third National Teen Book Club and creative writing course for state school students, this time reading Sue Cheung's Chinglish. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2021-12-10 08:14:22 UTC ]
More news stories like this
BORN AND RAISED in Montenegro, Olja Knežević studied English literature at the University of Belgrade, Serbia, before completing her MA in Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, in 2008. Now living in Croatia, she is one of those effortlessly international authors whose... Continue reading at Los Angeles Review of Books
[ Los Angeles Review of Books | 2020-10-02 12:30:19 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The University of East Anglia has appointed Booker-shortlisted Zimbabwean author Tsitsi Dangarembga as its new international chair of creative writing. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-09-28 17:24:43 UTC ]
More news stories like this
News and Events The Editors of WLT From left to right, prose winner Jamie Lauer and writer Pía Barros, poetry winner Russell Karrick, poet Lucía Estrada. Jamie Lauer and Russell Karrick recently were named as the recipients of the third annual... Continue reading at World Literature Today
[ World Literature Today | 2020-05-18 13:29:17 UTC ]
More news stories like this
The University of East Anglia (UEA) has announced a major strand of its ambitious CW50 anniversary campaign, which celebrates 50 years of creative writing at UEA. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2020-04-01 15:44:04 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Publicist and debut children's author Liz Hyder calls on publishers to be more vocal about the negative impacts of creative writing being sidelined by the current education system. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-08 17:32:31 UTC ]
More news stories like this
“We call them Bunnies because that is what they call each other,” explains Samantha Heather Mackey, the narrator of Mona Awad’s new novel, “Bunny.” “Seriously. Bunny. … Bunny, I love you. I love you, Bunny.” Awad does so many things right in “Bunny,” her follow-up to her 2016 debut novel,... Continue reading at Los Angeles Times
[ Los Angeles Times | 2019-06-11 15:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
This week: new books from Clive Cussler and Jennifer Weiner, plus a very creepy novel about a creative writing M.F.A. program. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly
[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-06-07 04:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
As the first National Writing Day approaches, the co-founder of the Ministry of Stories explains how creative writing can transform children’s lives. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-05-21 06:24:35 UTC ]
More news stories like this
Podcasts, writing workshops and a collection of short stories are among the winners of this year’s RSL Literature Matters Awards. Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2019-03-12 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this
June Sarpong, Sophie Mackintosh, Anton du Beke and Max Porter are some of the authors preparing to take part in this year's Bookshop Day on Saturday 6th October, according to The Booksellers Association, whose "unmissable" line-up also has children running bookshops, alongside poetry karaoke,... Continue reading at The Bookseller
[ The Bookseller | 2018-10-02 00:00:00 UTC ]
More news stories like this