Latest News. Introducing Mervin Close, the fifth of our line up of tutors for the 2010 Festival of Writing;
Marvin Close – Marvin’s TV credits include Coronation Street, Emmerdale, Doctors and Tracey Beaker. A former writer-in-residence at Manchester’s Library Theatre, his ten stage plays include the award-winning Dorothy Parker’s Dead. He co-wrote the BBC radio comedy series’, Arnold Brown and Company, and Where Were You?, and was recently Script Consultant on the new Nickelodeon TV children’s mystery drama series, Anubis House.

His latest book, More Than Just A Game: Football vs Apartheid (co-written with Chuck Korr) is out worldwide through Harper Collins (St Martin’s Press in the USA) in English, Japanese, Korean, Italian, Dutch and Czech. It’s the true story of how political prisoners on Robben Island used football as a vehicle for resistance against South Africa’s apartheid regime, and was Book of the Week in both The Independent and The Irish Times.

Introducing Bob Beagrie, the fourth of our line up of tutors for the 2010 Festival of Writing;
Bob Beagrie lives in Middlesbrough and is a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Teesside University. As well as lecturing at B.A and M.A level Bob also works in schools and with community groups as a freelance writer. He is a Biscuit Poetry Prize winner and recipient of a Northern Writers Time to Write Award. Between 1997 – 2002 worked as Literature Officer at Cleveland Arts (now Tees Valley Arts), running the Buzzwords Programme.

His publications include: Gothic Horror (Mudfog 1996), Masque: The Art of the Vampyre (Mudfog 2000), Huginn & Munnin (Biscuit 2002), Endeavour: Newfound Notes (Biscuit 2004), The Isle of St Hild (Hartlepool Borough Council 2004), Perkele (Ek Zuban 2006) and Yoik (Cinnamon 2008), The Seer Sung Husband, (Smokestack Books 2010). Glass Characters is due to be published by Red Squirrel Press in 2011. His poems have also appeared in many magazines and anthologies. He was short listed for the Forward Poetry Prize 2009 and has performed his work across the U.K. and Europe.

Along with Andy Willoughby he also runs an independent small press called Ek Zuban, which publishes bi-lingual pamphlets and a tri-yearly writing and arts magazine entitled KENAZ. Throughout his career Bob has worked in collaboration with other writers, visual artists, musicians, actors, dancers, sculptors and film makers to explore the cross disciplinary potential of poetry and spoken word.

The Seer Sung Husband is available from
http://www.smokestack-books.co.uk/books/beagrie.html

Yoik is available from
http://www.cinnamonpress.com/titles-poetry.htm

Audio tracks and info at
http://www.myspace.com/ekzubanlive

http://www.ekzuban.org.uk/

Youtube footage of poetry by Bob Beagrie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DoSPEADV5T4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP9iuKvWBso&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJACOFhV9ZE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm8DAs2zxbg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4BXqrdIBZk&feature=related

Andy Broderick will accompany Bob on his guitar as he reads a section from his latest book, The Seer Sung Husband, an epic poem of magic, love and rebellion set in Tudor England.

Andy  is a visual artist and folk musician, originally from Ireland, he now lives in Saltburn by the Sea. He has performed at folk festivals and folk clubs across the country and has worked with a number of poets, developing orginal scores to accompany their readings. 

An introduction to the third of our line up of tutors for the 2010 Festival of Writing; Tim Wilson who also writes under the name of Jude Morgan:

Tim Wilson has an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia. His first novel was published when he was 23 and since then he has had 29 novels published which have been translated into 9 languages. He was shortlisted for Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year in 1993, twice shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Crime Writers’ Memorial Dagger, and his novel PASSION was chosen as Book of the Year 2005 by Hilary Mantel, Tracy Chevalier and Joanna Trollope. He has taught Creative Writing for ten years. He lives in Peterborough with his wife and son.

The second of our tutors to be introduced was Stephen Wade.
Steven writes across several non-fiction genres, but specialises in crime history. His recent books include, ‘Tracing Your Criminal Ancestors’, ‘DNA Crime Investigations’ and ‘Escapes from the Noose’. He has just completed his first biography: a life of Thomas Rowlandson, the regency artist. He also writes regularly for  family history magazines and for writing magazine. For the last six years he has worked as a writer in various prisons.

 His course: Writing Non-Fiction will be covered in four workshops.

1. Looking at Your Writing: Present and Future.
2. Preparation, Ideas and Skills and case study.
3. Research and Synopsis and case study.
4. Structure and Content: theme, period, people etc.

 Members of the group will be able to read and discuss their concept.

Stephen will be tutoring workshops throughout the NAWG Festival of Writing – 3rd-5th September 2010.

The first of our tutors to be introduced was Kate Walker. 

Kate Walker has been writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon Modern Romance since 1984. During that time she has over 56 novels published, with three new titles contracted for 2010/11. Her novels have been published in over thirty-five countries and around twenty different languages worldwide. Kate Walker is also the author of the award-winning ‘12 Point Guide to Writing Romance ‘(Studymates), which gives an introduction to the essential skills needed to succeed as a writer of romance. The first edition sold out and a second, expanded and revised edition was published in April 2008. The third edition of her ‘Straightforward Guide to Writing Romantic Fiction’ (Straightforward Publishing), was published in April 2007.

She has an MA in English from the University of Wales, Aberystwyth and worked as a Children’s Librarian before concentrating on writing full-time. She has run writing days and workshops on fiction and has given over two hundred talks to writers’ groups, libraries, further education colleges, Women’s Institutes and other women’s groups. She has also run many internet classes and workshops and has led one day workshops on writing romance at Huddersfield, Northern College, Caerleon Writers’ Holidays, and the National Association of Writers’ Groups Writing Festival in Durham. She has appeared at Huddersfield Reading Matters Festival, the Derbyshire Literature Festival, and the North Lincolnshire Libraries’ Reading Festival. She is a member of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and Romance Writers of America, has taught several times at the RNA Conference and has read and critiqued unpublished novels for their New Writers’ Scheme since 2000. In 2004 she gave seminars on writing romance at the Romance Writers of Australia and the Romance Writers of New Zealand national conferences. She has run workshops on the 12 Point Guide to writing Romance at Lincoln, Guildford and Louth Literature Festivals, Cearleon and Fishguard Writing Weekends, Arts Training Central Write Away Courses and Highland and Island Arts, Scotland.

Her upcoming releases are Claimed by the Sicilian (3 in 1 collection of reprints April 2010) A Good Greek Wife? (July 2010) and a new novel as yet untitled for late 2010.
Website: http://www.kate-walker.com/

Kate will be tutoring workshops throughout the NAWG Festival of Writing – 3rd-5th September 2010.