Awards scheme

Interview by Sarah-Clare Conlon.

Nominations are now open for the annual Blog Awards, which have expanded in their seventh year to become the Blog North Awards, organisers Openstories having joined forces with arts websites Creative Tourist and Culture Vultures. Previously the Manchester Blog Awards, the celebration of blogging and independent writing will take place during Manchester Literature Festival on Wednesday 17 October at the Deaf Institute on Grosvenor Street, starting at 7.30pm. The evening will include readings from shortlisted bloggers and the author of “truly original debut” (The Guardian) Empire State Adam Christopher, the launch by Comma Press of a new experiment in literary social networking, The Turing Text, and, of course, the glittering prize-giving ceremony itself. Tickets are available through the Manchester Literature Festival website.

This year, there are seven categories in which you can nominate your favourite blogs from the North of England: Best Arts and Culture Blog, Best City or Neighbourhood Blog, Best Food and Drink Blog, Best Personal Blog, Best Specialist Blog, Best Writing on a Blog and Young Blogger of the Year. Nominations close on 7 September, and a shortlist will be published in mid September. You can see the full criteria and vote via the Blog North Awards website.

Manchester Literature Festival has supported the Blog Awards since it started, and past winners have gone on to publish books, write national newspaper columns and start successful business endeavours based on their blogs. 

Kate Feld, Manchester Blog Awards founder and director of Openstories, says: “There’s so much wonderful blogging happening across the region, and we’re delighted to be able to share our passion for the best independent online publishing with a new audience of bloggers and readers.”

We had a chat with Kate to find out a little bit more about the new-look Blog Awards... 

MLF: You've just launched the seventh annual Blog Awards, and for the first time they cover more ground and extend beyond Manchester. What spurred this on?

KF: I’ve felt for a long time that it was slightly unfair that Manchester bloggers should have this great platform for recognition while their counterparts in Liverpool or Newcastle didn’t. Our partnership with the new Blog North network seemed like a natural next step.

MLF: Have there been any other changes this year we should look out for? 

KF: Apart from the name and area change, we’ve added a few new categories: a young bloggers' category, as we want to specifically highlight the great work young people are doing in blogging. A food and drink category didn’t make sense for Manchester, but it works for the whole of the North. And a specialist blog category seemed like a good way to recognise the passion and devotion so many knowledgeable people pour into subject-oriented blogs.

MLF: Could you explain the connection with Manchester Literature Festival and how literature and blogging fit together?

KF: Blogging is simply writing; albeit writing that is published on a blogging platform. It is a form of literature, one with real breadth and substance, so it makes sense to celebrate it as part of a literature festival. I’ve occasionally encountered snobbery about blogging in the writing world, but I think this is on the wane. There are lots of badly written blogs, but by the same token there are also lots of badly written books, essays and articles. Fortunately there is plenty of good writing to get excited about. Blogging is where a lot of independent new writing is happening, and that is what MLF has really understood from the beginning.

MLF: Obviously we have a Festival blog so we still think blogging is the new black, but why do you think it's remained so popular?

KF: I don’t really think we can rightly say it’s popular any more, for that word implies that it’s some kind of ephemeral craze, like scoubidou or the Charleston. Blogging just is, now. It’s part of the mainstream, it has slotted in alongside newspapers and magazines (and more recently, online communities and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter), and it isn’t going anywhere. 

It’s not hard to understand why blogging stuck around. It’s a self-powered publishing tool, a free personal printing press that comes with free, infinite distribution built in. And the fact that the blog format has been co-opted by established news organisations shows that its appeal is about more than the publishing platform. It’s an exciting time; there is a lot of cross-pollination happening right now in the media (blogazines, anyone?) and people are using blogs in increasingly novel and imaginative ways.

MLF: Is the North a particular hotspot for blogging? Could you describe the region's scene and how people can get involved?

KF: I think the North is a great place for blogging, with an incredible variety of writing, and a number of different scenes in different areas. But it’s a big place and, thinking about it as a region, in terms of blogging, is a new thing. I’d definitely say the Blog North network is a great starting point (see Facebook and follow @blognorth on Twitter for more). It organises events several times a year at cultural venues, with workshops and sessions tailored for bloggers. I know there are blogmeets happening in several cities (the next one in Manchester is later this month: click here for more) and that’s a more informal way to chat with other bloggers. I’ve been along to blogging events around the world and have always found the blogging community incredibly friendly and welcoming, so people shouldn’t be shy about getting involved. It’s great fun!

Corresponding authors

Interview by Sarah-Clare Conlon. Photograph by Tim Power. 

Here in the Festival office, we're really excited about Manchester Letters, one of our new commissions for 2012. We officially launched this literary penpal project three weeks ago and, since then, three missives have been published on the Manchester Letters website, with a further nine to follow in coming months. We'll be announcing when new letters appear via Twitter and Facebook, so be sure to follow us, and feel free to contribute your own observations using the comment facility on the website.

The project sees two authors - the UK's Jenn Ashworth and Turkey's Nermin Yildirim - writing to each other and discussing their working processes and work in progress. The pair will then get together, first at the Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival on 1 October and then at Manchester Literature Festival on 20 October, and read some of their latest fiction and chat about how their different backgrounds and locations might determine their creative output. Jenn’s novels, A Kind Of Intimacy, Cold Light and the upcoming The Friday Gospels, are all set in Lancashire, while Nermin’s debut, The Forget-Me-Not Building, delves into Turkish history.

Here are some extracts from the first two letters, followed by an interview with Jenn Ashworth.

JENN: "I don’t get, I think, as much time as I would like to write. Is it like that for you, too? I do a lot of thinking as I drive up the motorway up and down the M6 from Preston where I live, to Lancaster, where I work. It’s often raining and the windscreen wipers are going like the clappers and planning out the next bit of writing I am going to do stops me from falling asleep!"

NERMIN: "Just like you writing in the car, I tried my luck in every little spot I could find where I was able to find refuge and be alone. Being someone who is easily disturbed by any kind of noise, I preferred quiet places whenever possible. For example, I have never been someone who is able to write in a café or something."

MLF: Could you describe how the Manchester Letters project works?

JA: Nermin and I are writing to each other over the summer - six times each, in advance of meeting up during the project's culmination in October. My letters are translated into Turkish, and Nermin's are translated into English, and then they're posted on the Manchester Letters website in the form of a blog. The first three letters are already there - the next one will be posted shortly, I think. I kicked it off, she replied, and then I replied. I'm waiting for her third letter to be translated now.

MLF: Why did you decide to get involved, and how did you hook up with Nermin?

JA: I was introduced to Nermin before the project started, and part of the reason I wanted to get involved was because I was interested in her - we seemed, on paper, very similar - both had written since we were children, both at a similar stage in our careers, both novelists - and even some of the themes we tackle in our work - silences, nostalgia, etc - are similar. And I guess I really wanted to explore how we might be different from each other too, and what part of that difference would be down to language, and culture. Or not. We're only two letters in and I feel like I've found a friend already. I can't lie, either - the chance to go and explore Istanbul and Hatay with the ITEF-Istanbul Tanpinar Literature Festival was a great temptation! I haven't travelled much, most of my work is very place-based, and the place has always been Lancashire. It's roasting hot in Turkey - how could I resist?

MLF: How are you finding the process of writing letters? Do you adopt a different approach to writing your novels, short stories and, previously, blog?

JA: I went first - and that was very hard. At that point I knew a little bit about Nermin and her work, and the brief for the project, but writing that first letter was tricky. I send emails to people I don't know all the time, but the fact that I knew this letter was going to be translated, and published on a website, gave me a little bit of stage fright. It was a tenative hand-reach out to a potential friend, and a piece of performance all at once. Of course you need to think about that when you write fiction too - the privacy and intimacy of what goes on between you and your characters, you and your reader - and the performance - the drama - of publication. In some ways it is similar in a way I didn't really expect it to be. Like blogging for an audience of one.

MLF: This year's Festival programme includes quite a lot of work translated from various other languages, but how are you finding communicating with someone in Turkey - does anything get lost in translation, and, if so, does this matter?

JA: As I've said - we're early on in the project right now and perhaps you can ask me again once we've sent a few more letters. But right now, I am feeling a pressure to get rid of 'Northernisms' and anything non-standard about my language that might make me difficult to translate, or difficult to understand for someone who's learned English as a second language. And when I wrote that version and read it over, it sounded terrible. Not like me at all. So I decided just to go for it, and use expressions like 'going like the clappers' and 'full head of steam' if they seemed natural to me. I'd love to hear what a translator made of that. Sadly, as I don't have any Turkish, I don't suppose I'll ever know.

MLF: Did you have a penpal when you were younger? How are you finding having a penpal as an adult?

JA: I never had a penpal when I was younger, but, of course, like most people my age, I use Twitter and Facebook and email to keep in touch with friends. I have friends now that I have never met - ones I communicate with only by email, or on Twitter, or on writing forums. And I have many 'real life' friends who started out as Twitter friends. It doesn't seem so much of a strange thing for me any more - but it's only when I look back to how small my circle of friends was when I was much younger that I realise how odd it can be to feel close to friends you've never met. And there's a flipside to that too. There's a difference between a chat in a pub, and a string of emails. I think I'm much more careful about what I write rather than what I say - because you've never really just got an audience of one - those things can escape, and I can never quite let myself forget that.  

Fancy blogging for MLF?

We've got a lot of potential volunteers signed up to help out at this year's Festival, which runs 8-21 October, but if you fancy contributing to this blog, we are looking for people to write reviews and record events as audio or video, and we also want to encourage more young people to get involved. You can drop us a line via mcrlitfestblog@gmail.com or join us next Tuesday (17 July) from 6.30pm at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on Cambridge Street, where we'll be explaining how volunteering for the Festival works and signing up interested bloggers.

Manchester Children's Book Festival is go!

The Manchester Children's Book Festival is a biennial celebration hosted by the Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy and the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. It kicked off yesterday and runs until 8 July, with a range of events across Manchester at MMU, libraries, galleries and museums. More information on what you can expect can be found here. This Saturday (30 June), there is a Family Fun Day, with author readings and free workshops and arts and crafts activities at the Manchester Metropolitan University’s All Saints Campus (on Oxford Road). Click here for more.

Kevin Danson is part of the team behind MCBC and he's very excited about one event in particular: "This year, we are launching a Reading & Writing Relay from Monday 2 - Friday 6 July across the globe. Starting at Longsight Library with a reading from Cathy Cassidy, the physical relay will turn virtual, allowing everyone to get involved wherever you are, and show your support. For further details on how to get your coverage on our relay blog and see your location on our relay map, click here."

Feeling flash

Tomorrow sees the UK's first-ever official celebration of short-short stories, micro fiction, nano fiction or flash fiction, whichever term you prefer. There will be events up and down the country, from writing workshops to flash slams, and here in Manchester two writing collectives are taking the lead to serve up fresh flash fiction throughout the day and evening.

FlashTag is a five-strong group of authors and Manchester Blog Awards winners, and they will be wandering around the city during the daytime offering up guerilla story-telling: flashmobbing flash fiction, if you like. The tour starts at the Whitworth Art Gallery at 10am and finishes at Waterstones Deansgate at 5pm, and in between the gang will be stopping off at various locations, including cultural centres, iconic buildings and public spaces. Follow them on Twitter for details of the venues as they are revealed: @flashtagmcr.

Bad Language are curating the evening affair, which starts at 7.30pm in 3 Minute Theatre on the ground floor of Afflecks Palace on Oldham Street. As well as showing clips of the FlashTaggers at work earlier, there will be readings of the ten pieces shortlisted in the recent National Flash-Fiction Day competition, judged by David Gaffney, Emma Jane Unsworth and Cathy Bryant.

See the National Flash-Fiction Day website for details of all the events and to get hold of a copy of the Jawbreakers anthology of short-short stories, which publishes tomorrow.

Conference call

6^th Cultureword National Black Writers Conference Saturday 24 March 2012, 11am, Zion Arts Centre

Words by Kevin Danson.

The 6^th Cultureword National Black Writers Conference (Facebook; website) takes place in Hulme’s Zion Arts Centre with a lot of support, including Arts Council England and Big Lottery Fund. Despite the gorgeous day outside, the theatres of the Zion Arts Centre show their own version of a lovely Saturday afternoon.

11am–12pm: Poetry Futures

Derry Burden of Curious Minds chairs the first panel. The aim is to debate the guidance poets of the younger generation are being given in order for their work and words to be heard. Beside Derry sits Khadijah Ibrahiim of Leeds Young Authors, Madeline Heneghan from Liverpool Young Writers and Manchester’s Young Identity leader, Shirley May.

Poetry-slamming events have grown in popularity over the past decade. Resonating something of a dance-off with words, Khadijah tells us about the slams she arranges three times a year, with some successful young poets travelling to the US to represent Manchester in an international SLAM! The Contact Theatre-based group Young Identity now go out and deliver a workshop for the project Wordsmith, an interschool slamming competition. Looking at things in different ways and under different names is all about changing with the times. Young Identity appear to have this covered.

Derry asks, ‘What keeps the children coming back for more workshops?’ Hands begin to punch the air as it seems many here have strong views and passionate voices on the matter of children’s education. Facts are revealed regarding the restricted syllabus schools have to adhere to, but one man, an English teacher with over 16 years’ experience, resolves the matter with a simple solution: ‘If you want to change the war, become a soldier, if you want to change the police force, become a policeman.’ Infiltration is key.

Derry brings the discussion to an end with an interesting fact: ‘Fifteen per cent of a child’s waking hour is spent in school, the remaining 85 per cent is at home and this is now being spent in the digital world.’ If influence to the arts starts at home, the transition will be, as Shirley calls it, ‘The passing of caterpillar to butterfly.’

12pm–1pm: E-books & Social Media

Under the hastag #bwc2012, the global ongoing debate of whether e-books will wipe out print begins. The panelists for this insightful talk are Zahid Hussain, a Manchester-based author, Simon Murray, Yorkshire-based poet, Adam Lowe, publisher and blogger, and the chair of the panel, web designer, author and Flipped Eye publisher, Nii Parkes.

I’m forever intrigued with the changes we go through to keep up with modernity. Questions that arise are: can e-books provide readers with good material? Will they allow unpublished authors’ works to be seen? Living in a country where technology is available to the majority of us, we forget about those absent from this developing world. Simon warns how technology and fingertip information has changed the psychology of those who have access to the virtual realm. It’s all about speed nowadays. News spreads much faster over the internet, allowing individuals to become recognised/discovered at a quicker pace. A good example of this is the poem The ‘N’ Word, which was uploaded by the poet Dean Atta. After sending several tweets, the poem became viral, ascribing him a name in the world of poetry.

With his experience of working within a publisher, Adam tells us how e-books challenge writers and publishers on how to reach their audiences. The pressure certainly increases in regards to which channel to choose when publishing current novels. Despite online publishing giving a chance to all who want their voices to be heard, the amount of ‘white noise’ polluting this new medium is abundant, transforming good literature into a cacophony of mumbling texts.

Zahid believes that print will not be going away, but may be sold on demand. Seeing how the next generation prefer more interactive features in their everyday tools, will they be satisfied with just a lump of words on a page? I can’t see why not. We’ve managed to enjoy word power for hundreds of years without needing to feel, smell or lick the page (well, some of us).

From the back of the auditorium the poet Kei Miller reminds us all: ‘Reading becomes an experience and the physical book becomes a souvenir of that experience.’ By looking at my bookshelf at home, I’d say I definitely agree with this.

2pm–3pm: How To Make A Living From Your Writing

Quick stretch of the legs and a blast of vitamin D and we’re back in for an informal session with poet and scriptwriter Anjum Malik. A very useful first tip Anjum imparts is: ‘Work hard and have no shame when it comes to earning money’ – within reason, I’m sure. One of the perks of writing is that it’s not a 9-5 job. It’s about learning, creating and adapting to the ever-changing market. A mantra from Anjum’s retail days is: ‘Every no means you are closer to a yes.’

A number of people ask about workshops they can do to perfect their writing abilities. Mixed reviews are given when it comes to MAs, though Anjum herself did an MA in scriptwriting and, since completing it, has never been without a commission. The Arvon Foundation is recommended, but receives cringing faces when prices are mentioned. One Arvon veteran defends the cost with the course’s content, not forgetting accommodation and food included. Finding out that bursaries are available for many of these writing courses, I begin to dogear the pages of a writing course booklet given to me at the entrance.

3pm–4pm: How To Get Your Novel Published

Panel members are: Margaret Busby, publisher, editor, judge of the SI Leeds Literary Prize for new Black & Asian Women Authors; Jeremy Poynting of Peepal Tree Press; Kavita Bhanot, writer, editor for the Tindal Street Press anthology Too Asian, Not Asian Enough, and chair of the panel Jacob Ross, London-based author and reader for The Literature Consultancy. The panellists do not want to waste our time providing us with tips on how to write a cover letter or proposal, as these are easily found on the internet. Instead they are here to share their experience as MA students, editors and publishers.

Jacob starts us off by explaining how editors are seen as the gatekeepers to the publishing world. When the word ‘quality’ is mentioned, seats stir among the audience. Many of these writers admit to being fobbed off with the excuse of poor quality. When it’s not the quality of writing, it’s the quality of voice or structure or plot. Could this be simply a case of self-victimisation or is the quality of the stories Caribbean writers create, lacking this sought-after ‘quality’?

Jeremy answers this question after admitting to seeing many changes within the publishers over the past 40 years. When it comes to good black writers submitting their novels to publishers, their stories are being rejected not because they are racist editors, but because the accountants look at what sells. ‘It’s not about quality, it’s about market.’ Consumerism once again shows its ugly face. A writer either adheres to the population’s demand and makes the big bucks, or writes for their own convenience with possibilities to publish through smaller companies.

The general understanding here is to prioritise your expectations. Once the art of writing has been developed, write what you feel comfortable with. Confidence comes with practice and whether you’re black, Asian or Caucasian, good writing is recognised and travels.

The end of the conference brings some great Caribbean and Asian poets to the stage to perform. The Speakeasy Collective creates a mishmash of grooving music and powerful words forbidding any foot to remain still. Kei Miller’s work reminds me of the MLF event I saw last year with Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze (read the review here), enchanting with his strong Caribbean accent and rhythm. What impressed me most though was the poetry performed by the Young Identity poetry group. Throughout the day, they had kept quiet in their seats listening to the opinions and declarations, and summing up the discussions in poetry which they performed just before the last break - a thoughtful yet smile-stretching poetic side-commentary and a great ending to the day's events.

Here are some links to the recordings on Audioboo:
http://audioboo.fm/boos/742084-young-identity
http://audioboo.fm/boos/742298-young-identity

Kevin Danson is an English Literature student at MMU. Read his blog Pebbleddash and follow him on Twitter @pebbleddash.

Favourite Manchester Literature - any ideas?

Manchester Literature Festival is joining forces with Oxygen Books to put together a very special event for this year’s festival in October 2012, and we need your help in selecting content for it - ''can you recommend any writing that, for you, perfectly sums up the City of Manchester, past, present or even future?'

The Oxygen Books’ city-pick series already features some of the best writing on favourite world cities, from New York, Berlin and Paris to London, Amsterdam, Dublin and Venice and has been called ‘wonderful’ (The Guardian), ‘superb’ (The Times) and ‘sublime’ (The Sydney Morning Herald).At the Literature Festival office, we've been trying to think of some of our own favourite pieces of local writing. Elizabeth Gaskell and Friedrich Engels both brought Manchester to life in their very different ways. There's 'Love on the Dole', of course, Walter Greenwood's classic slice of 1930's working class Salford and Manchester life. There are also the plays of Harold Brighouse, including the celebrated 'Hobson's Choice', first produced during the First World War and revived many times since then. Moving more up date, the late Shelagh Delaney was one of the first British playwrights to present issues of race and sexuality on stage in a naturalistic setting. Her 'Taste of Honey' is rightly regarded as a classic of literature - and she wrote it in ten days, whilst still a teenager! Delaney is cited as an influence on Morrissey and The Smiths, and of course, their lyrics are another example of writing inspired by a Manchester setting. Andrea Ashworth's moving 'Once In A House On Fire' describes a local upbringing fraught with physical and emotional trauma and is now studied at school.

Rainy City Stories is a great source of local fiction and poetry, and all are linked in some way to the local landscape and infrastructure. Howard Jacobson, Cath Staincliffe, Mike Duff, Jeff Noon...once you start thinking about Manchester Literature, you are spoilt for choice!

Oxygen Books will be presenting city-pick Manchester at the Manchester Literature Festival, together with a well-known actor. A city-pick Manchester pod-cast will also be available.

Do you have any ideas on writing about Manchester? If you do, please send them to Malcolm Burgess at malcolm.burgess3@btopenworld.com before April 30th 2012.

For more information you can email Malcolm or ring him: 01277 263770/ 07964979819