Kerry Hadley-Pryce, "God's Country"

Kerry Hadley-Pryce was born in the Black Country. She worked nights in a Wolverhampton petrol station before becoming a secondary school teacher. A leading exponent of ‘Black Country noir,’ her previous Salt novels were substantial critical successes and helped popularise Gothic writing from the Black Country. She wrote her first novel, The Black Country, whilst studying for an MA in Creative Writing at the Manchester Writing School, for which she gained a distinction and for which she was awarded the Michael Schmidt Prize for outstanding achievement. Her second novel Gamble was shortlisted for the Encore Second Novel Award. She has had several short stories published both in print and online. She has just completed a PhD in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. God’s Country is her third novel. She lives in Stourbridge and tweets @kerry2001

About God's Country, by Kerry Hadley-Pryce

In God’s Country, Guy Flood returns to the Black Country with his girlfriend, Alison, to attend his identical twin brother’s funeral. The reasons he left, and the secrets he left behind, slowly become clear. A chilling dark fiction, dominated by unknown and all-seeing narrator.

You can read more about God's Country on the publisher's website here. Below, you can read an excerpt from the novel. 

From God's Country

Guy looked at her, and she’ll say she knew that look well. She’ll tell how she rubbed her fingertips lightly and briefly on the outside of his thigh. 

‘Oh, Christ, Guy…’ she said. ‘I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that.’ 

Guy sighed. He would have sighed instead of saying anything.

‘That was thoughtless, me saying something like that,’ she said. ‘I’m really sorry.’

Ahead of them, she’ll say the traffic had just begun to move. They would have been able to see it begin to shift, like the vertebrae of an enormous monster that they were part of, and up ahead, the blue lights of the fire engines, the police cars. 

‘I really am,’ Alison said, and she would have been squeezing his thigh, and her breath would have been chemical with thirst. ‘I’m an idiot for saying that.’ 

She’ll say now, she just needed to keep him on-side. 

Don’t feel sorry for her.

She’ll tell how she remembers Guy finding first gear, saying, ‘Thank Christ for that,’ and how he was concentrating on the horizon, leaning forward, seeming to want to push forward physically. She would have taken hold of his fingers if she could have, if she could have brought herself to, that is, but both his hands were on the wheel, and it was late, and nobody wants to be late for their own brother’s funeral, especially when it’s your twin brother ...

Barry Jones, "The Book of Niall"

About the Author 

Barry Jones is a world-renowned professional magician with over two decades of experience. He has received critical acclaim, including BAFTA and Rose d'Or nominations, and has received numerous five-star reviews at international comedy and arts festivals. He has toured the UK multiple times with his sell-out stage shows, and has performed on BBC1 prime time in a weekly live magic show watched by millions of people. He was voted ITV1's 'Next Great Magician.' He is also known for his work as part of the comedy/magic duo 'Barry and Stuart.' The Book of Niall is his debut graphic novel. Follow him on social media at @itsbarryjones. 

About The Book of Niall

A gripping and thought-provoking story of reality, illusion, and mental health, written and illustrated by a master of illusion himself, The Book of Niall is a full-colour graphic novel that immerses the reader in a journey of self-discovery and understanding. 

Actor Niall Adams seems to have it all - a successful Hollywood career, a luxurious LA apartment, and a loving partner. But beneath the surface, Niall's grip on reality is slipping away. He is convinced that everyone around him is an actor, reciting lines from a pre-written script, and that at any moment the director will call cut. As Niall is swept along on a hyper-real journey through the bizarre world of fame and celebrity, his perception of reality is tested to its limits, leading him to question the very nature of existence itself.

You can read more about The Book of Niall on the author's website here. Below, you can read excerpts from the book.

From The Book of Niall, by Barry Jones

Bloodlines: Exploring Family History Through Poetry: A Creative Writing PhD

By Karen Powell-Curtis

I didn’t follow the conventional route to a PhD: I was fifty-six when I collected my student ID card and attended the PGR induction event. Forty years earlier, the school careers teacher told me that O-levels were my academic limit and suggested a ‘nice job in an office.’ I didn’t like school and couldn’t wait to move into the grown-up world of work so that’s what I did with my eight O-levels. In my early twenties, I felt that something was missing in my life – it was education. My return to study led to an A-level, two degrees, a PGCE and a career as a primary teacher. Still hooked on education, I followed my interest in Creative Writing and completed a Certificate in Creative Writing followed by an MA. I thought about a PhD for several years but life and imposter syndrome got in the way. 

Eventually, I approached Jonathan Taylor with an idea and, with his encouragement, registered for a PhD in Creative Writing. It was one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. My PhD gave me the opportunity to combine my three passions, or obsessions, depending on your point of view: poetry, family history, and academic study. 

Bloodlines is a collection of poems and combines memoir and matrilineal family history through the generations back to my seventh great-grandmother. As a child, I was curious about how family members were related to me and to each other, and the questions I asked were the first steps towards my fascination with genealogical research. The inspiration for the poems came from archival documents, photographs, artefacts and memories of my mother’s memories. 

There are several themes running through the collection including motherhood, secrecy, identity and loss, and there is a sequence of poems exploring how mental health issues have been experienced across the generations. There are poems that reflect on the artefacts and memories we leave behind, and some that touch on realm of the uncanny. Throughout the collection there is a hint of ghostliness, a sense of being haunted by the voices and the psychological trauma across the generations. At the heart of Bloodlines is a sequence of poems about Lilla, my maternal grandmother. For as long as I can remember, I have felt a special connection to Lilla, although I only knew her through photographs and my mother’s memories. Throughout my childhood and teenage years, I imagined her as my guardian angel, watching over me and keeping me safe, a spiritual grandmother. These poems are my attempt to understand her life and death, and my feelings towards her.

For me, the most challenging part of the PhD was writing the commentary. My thesis was practice-led and I focussed on issues that had arisen through my genealogical research and through writing the poems. This led me to research and write chapters on topics that were new to me, including life-writing, the use of ‘I’ in poetry, and found poetry. To use Margaret Atwood’s words, Bloodlines involved both excavating and setting down the past (Negotiating with the Dead, p.xix).  Throughout my research and writing, my ancestors, in a sense, lived alongside me and, at the same time, I have been able to lay their ghosts to rest. For me, particularly with regard to Lilla, Bloodlines is an act of remembrance and of closure.

The following poem was inspired by a photograph of Lilla on her wedding day.

Wedding Day, 1922

Her father, in crisp suit and hat,
offers his arm and Lilla lowers her eyes 
to focus on her steps towards the church.

With the waterfall of carnations and ferns
to occupy her anxious fingers
and the folds of her veil to blur
the sharp lines of her thoughts
she could easily be mistaken
for any nervous young bride. 

In the front pew, her fur-draped mother
closes her mind against doubt,
watches the groom across the aisle,
approves of his polished shoes.

Guest Speakers Spring 2023

There are many exciting Creative Writing events happening this term in the Centre for New Writing at the University of Leicester. Here are some of them! They are all free and open to all - students, staff and the public. If you'd like more information about any of them, please email Jonathan Taylor, jt265[at]le[dot]ac[dot]uk or cnw[at]le[dot]ac[dot]uk for further details.

The State of Publishing, with Farhana Shaikh

Wednesday 8 March 2023, 4-5pm in Attenborough building, room 001

Multi-award-winning author, CEO of Dahlia Publishing and founder of The Asian Writer, Farhana Shaikh will discuss diversity in the publishing industry, and the role that small presses are playing to make the industry more inclusive.

What Came First, Character or Plot? A Masterclass, with Adele Parks

Wednesday 15 March 2023, 2-4pm in Attenborough building, room 002

Join one of the UK’s bestselling novelists for a masterclass on writing fiction. Please bring a draft piece of fiction or dramatic writing you’ve written to the class. 

N.B. This masterclass is part of the MA in Creative Writing, but is open to all. Numbers are limited, so if you'd like to attend, please email cnw[at]le[dot]ac[dot]uk.

Literary Leicester Festival 2023

Wednesday 22 March 2023 to Saturday 25 March 2023

Literary Leicester is the University of Leicester’s annual free literary festival, open to all. Brought to you by the School of Arts and the Centre for New Writing, the festival hosts events at the university and right across the city, in cinemas, theatres, community halls, schools and more.

Free and open to all! You can see the full line-up for this year's events here. 

Climate Fiction Workshop, with Liz Jensen, in collaboration with Literary Leicester 2023

Friday 24 March 2023, 130-230pm in Leicester Central Library

Join multi-award-winning novelist and member of Extinction Rebellion’s ‘Writers Rebel’ for a practical workshop on writing climate fiction or ‘cli-fi.’

N.B. Numbers are limited, so please book in advance on Literary Leicester's Eventbrite site here. 

Claiming Our Unconscious and Re-remembering Our Stolen History, with Amirah Mohiddin

Monday 27 March 2023, 10am-12 in Sir Bob Burgess building, room 002.

This masterclass will look at where our ideas come from, and using your own history and memories in writing. Amirah will be discussing her writing, inspirations and research. She will lead a workshop where you will be encouraged to use a memory, dream or folk story as impetus for a free-writing exercise.

Amirah Mohiddin is a writer, a third-year PhD student in Creative Writing and a tutor with The Brilliant Club teaching her self-designed Creative Writing course ‘Our Future Storytellers’ to students aged 13-16. Her PhD research focuses on female storytelling as a form of salvation and heroism in Arabic literature with the aim to reconstruct formidable and empowering storytellers in a YA fantasy novel. Her short stories have been published in magazines, ebooks and physical books, including Dancing Bear Books, Litro Magazine, Post-mortem Press, The New Luciad and Sanroo Publishing. Her MA novel, The Fallen Warriors, has been submitted to editors by her agent in the hope of acquirement.  

N.B. This guest talk is part of the MA in Creative Writing, but is also open to all. If you'd like to attend, please email jt265[at]le[dot]ac[dot]uk to reserve a place. 

Creative Writing Student Showcase, Literary Leicester

Monday 27 March, 530-645pm, Attenborough Arts Centre, Studio 1

As part of Literary Leicester Festival, we'll be holding a showcase event for University of Leicester BA, MA and PhD Creative Writing students to read and perform their poetry, stories and scripts. If you're a student and would like to get involved, please email Jonathan Taylor on jt265[at]le[dot]ac[dot]uk. You can book here. 

Writing Collaborations, Collaborating to Write: Creating Supportive Communities, with Barbara Cooke

Wednesday 29 March, 2-4pm in Attenborough room 002

This talk will focus on the different types of collaboration that make up the professional life of a writer, editor and academic. Barbara will be drawing on her own experiences of poetic co-creation, collaboration with an illustrator, and setting up and participating in writing retreats to show that while writing is usually a solitary act, no writer need ever be alone.

Dr Barbara Cooke is a senior lecturer in English at Loughborough University. She worked in publishing before completing a PhD in Creative and Critical Writing at the University of East Anglia. She is Co-executive Editor of the Complete Works of Evelyn Waugh and the author of Evelyn Waugh’s Oxford.

N.B. This guest talk is part of the MA in Creative Writing, but is also open to all. If you'd like to attend, please email jt265[at]le[dot]ac[dot]uk to reserve a place. 

Val McDermid, 'Killing People for Fun and Profit': Annual Creative Writing Lecture

Tuesday 9 May 2023, 615-730pm - venue TBC

One of the UK’s best-selling crime novelists talks about her work and craft, and will be signing books afterwards. 

N.B. Please book tickets via Eventbrite here. 

Masterclass, with Louis de Bernières

Wednesday 10 May 2023, 10am-12 in Attenborough building room 002

Join the multi-award winning author of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, Birds Without Wings, Notwithstanding, and many other books in a masterclass on the art of writing fiction.

N.B. This guest talk is part of the MA in Creative Writing, but is also open to all. If you'd like to attend, please email jt265[at]le[dot]ac[dot]uk to reserve a place. 

Sabyn Javeri (ed.), "Ways of Being: Creative Non-Fiction by Pakistani Women"

About Ways of Being: Creative Non-Fiction by Pakistani Women, ed. Sabyn Javeri

Does writing have a nationality? Are writers defined by geography, language, religion, gender and ethnicity alone, or are there other attributes that identify them? Fifteen of the most articulate and creative non-fiction writers from Pakistan eloquently demonstrate that, as Sabyn Javeri says, "Who you are is more accurately represented by what you stand for, than by where you are from."

Large-scale migration and transnational mobility have rendered national borders porous, while the Internet has internationalised communication in a way that practically erases territorial boundaries. Questions about "being" and "belonging" acquire an urgency that demands articulation: how does a writer relate to her context, whether at "home" or "away," and locate herself and her writing in it? For the purposes of this anthology, Javeri believes that "A Pakistani writer is one who feels a connection to the land either by origin or by sensibility."

This rich and fascinating collection of reflections, reminiscences, musings—and excellent writing—features Taymiya R. Zaman, Hananah Zaheer, Feryal Ali Gauhar, Sadia Khatri, Saba Karim Khan, Soniah Kamal, Kamila Shamsie, Saybn Javeri, Rukhsana Ahmad, Humera Afridi, Muneeza Shamsie, Uzma Aslam Khan, Shahnaz Rouse, Noren Haq and Bina Shah. They are among the best creative non-fiction writers anywhere.

Below, you can read an excerpt from the Introduction to the anthology. 

About the editor

Sabyn Javeri is Senior Lecturer of Writing, Literature & Creative Writing at New York University, Abu Dhabi. She is the author of Hijabistan and Nobody Killed Her, and has edited two multilingual anthologies of student writing, The Arzu Anthology of Student Voices (Vols. I & II). Her writing has been widely anthologised and published in the London Magazine, Litro, Bookends Review, South Asian Review, Journal of Commonwealth Literature and Wasafiri, among others. She has an MSt from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Leicester. Her research interests include transcultural feminism, South Asian literature & literary translation, inclusive pedagogy and Creative Writing.

From Ways of Being

Encounters with Life: An Introduction

By Sabyn Javeri

When the idea of putting together an anthology of Pakistani women writer’s creative non-fiction was put to me by the feminist publisher, Ritu Menon, I hesitated. The first question that ran through my mind was, but who is a Pakistani writer? Who has the right to call herself a Pakistani writer? Someone who lives in the country, or someone who carries the country within her? Upon a quick search I found that I was not the only one deliberating this point. The question of who a Pakistani writer is has dominated many a discussion in recent debates on global anglophone literature—but it has raised more questions than answers.  

I found myself wondering who, in this age of mass displacement, when very few of us have the luxury to be rooted in one place, can claim to belong solely and wholly anywhere at all? To complicate matters, the rise of the Internet has shrunk traditional borders, making the question of identity even more fraught. Economic migration, religious persecution, emerging right-wing nationalism and populism, pandemics and lockdowns have forced many of us to reckon with a new plurality of identities, where the boundaries of nationality or a singular cultural identity are no longer relevant in the context of our dynamic times. It is, instead, a question of voice that matters. I found myself thinking: who you are is no longer a question of "where you are from"; rather, who you are is more accurately represented by "what you stand for." A Pakistani writer, therefore, for the purposes of this anthology, is one who feels a connection to the land either by origin or by sensibility.

Although the idea of separating writers by gender does not appeal to me, it is with some trepidation that I admit that there is a tradition of women’s writing in Pakistani anglophone literature that merits a place of its own. It provides the reader with a different point of view, a minority outlook, an underdog history, parallel yet complementary to the historical context and the socio-political journey of the country and its diaspora. Although it fits into the larger tradition of Pakistani women’s writing, it has some distinct features of its own. For one thing, English as a language is equivalent to currency in a country like Pakistan and those who make a choice to write in it, do so consciously. The legacies of British colonialism that manifest themselves linguistically 70 years after Partition mean that many of us grew up in households where English was the norm. For others it is an English medium education that leads to a natural inclination to write in the language they think in. Therefore, the choice and skill to write in English not only changes the readership, it bestows a slightly different lens to the reception. Many anglophone writers have been criticised for the fact that class privilege, global education and an international audience influence their themes, which seem to be more global than local. This criticism is often unfounded as it oversimplifies the subtle subtext of the writing. Writers should not be expected to be mouthpieces or representatives of their ethnicity. They should not be dictated to or prejudiced by expectations for they are artists, not activists, and accountable only for the authenticity of their work not the congeniality of their subject matter. 

In this anthology, the essays reflect the experience of the writers and what matters to them. They represent the diversity of the Pakistani woman’s experience, and they embrace any such differences of topic and language as celebratory rather than flawed. At times they may present a wider political view, and at other times a narrower perspective in the form of the local and the personal. The themes are varied, but what they have in common is that they shatter the stereotype of the submissive Pakistani woman and speak for a cross-section of society, across generations and from around the globe. Another characteristic is the ability of these writers to view the world bilingually. This adds a certain filament to Pakistani anglophone writing which makes it distinct from the vernacular, but still "accented" as opposed to standard English writing. This is because the writing leans towards a postcolonial turn, falling into the category of "other Englishes" as a form of artistic resistance. Many Pakistani anglophone writers do great justice in translating the local flavour and dismantling the exoticism or orientalism of the subcontinent in contemporary English literature. 

Although the anglophone tradition differs from that of Urdu or vernacular women writers in Pakistan, it does not mean that it fits wholly into the tradition of western women’s writing. The starting point for this has to be an acknowledgement that while women all over the world share many universal values and oppressions, not all women are the same. With apologies to George Orwell, "All women are born equal, but some women are more equal than others." Just as class plays a huge part in the experience of gender, so does race. This varies the experience of what it means to be Pakistani, especially as an immigrant. It diversifies their concerns, their self-perception and outlook. For the diasporic or second-generation Pakistani woman writer, who may find English the natural choice of language, the experience of being a minority still places her writing outside the mainstream. For the local writer, pressures of representation add to the dilemma of speaking up and finding one’s true voice. "Criticise your culture and you are pandering to the West, praise your country and you are pandering to the patriarchy…" as the wonderfully outspoken Fahmida Riaz said in an interview once. Like her, many Pakistani women writers find themselves in a situation where their individuality is negated for they inevitably become representatives of their "kind." And if they deviate from the dominant narrative they risk being accused of inauthenticity.  And so it is that the most damning difficulty they face is overcoming an implicit bias—sometimes on the part of critics and reviewers, other times in the form of self-censorship. These factors distinguish Pakistani women writing in English from their counterparts in other parts of the English-speaking world.

To a large degree, Pakistan’s short but complex socio-political history still plays a part in defining a woman writer's identity, her values, her subject matter, and most importantly, the reception of her work. Despite many women poets, journalist and writers, speaking up, we still experience a tradition of silencing. We have gruesome, politically motivated murders like that of Sabeen Mahmood who is credited, among many other wonderful legacies, with having revived the literary scene in Karachi through her initiative, The Second Floor. While social media have provided a forum for many women to speak out from the safety of their screens, they still encounter immense trolling, and we still have "honour-killing" victims like Qandeel Baloch who pay with their lives for publicly raising their voices. But we also have survivors like Malala Yousufzai who carry the beacon of hope for Pakistani women, fighting for female literacy and the right for women to tell their stories through the written word—who can forget that Malala’s writing journey began with a blog on BBC urdu.com. One cannot deny that technology has impacted Pakistani women writers. The outreach of their voices has expanded via easy access to the Internet in urban cities, and through it, a rising feminist consciousness is challenging gendered violence and patriarchal gender norms. Whether through the Aurat March or through social media activism such as the #MeToo and #GirlsattheDhaba movements, they are finding new ways to tell their stories ...

The Sound of Music: Ekphrastic Review Contest

By Lorette C. Luzajic, editor, The Ekphrastic Review

The Ekphrastic Review is pleased to announce a new flash fiction and poetry contest called The Sound of Music. Explore our curated collection of music-themed artworks, and use them to inspire your stories and poems. 

The judge is Jonathan Taylor, from the University of Leicester. 

The deadline is March 25, 2023.

Selected works will be published in The Ekphrastic Review. First place wins $100 CAD.

Entry is $10 CAD for five poems and/or stories. You can read the rules in full for the competition here. 

You can read more about The Ekphrastic Review on Creative Writing at Leicester here. 

Viv Fogel, "Imperfect Beginnings"

  

Viv Fogel’s poems have been published in various magazines and anthologies since the mid-70s. She has a collection Without Question 2006 and two pamphlets (Witness 2013 and How it is … 2018). Her poems and her work are influenced by having been adopted by refugee Holocaust survivors. London based, once an art teacher, she is involved with community, social housing and education projects, and since the mid-80’s has worked as a psychotherapist. She is a grandmother to three dual-heritage grandchildren. Her website is here.

 

About Imperfect Beginnings, by Viv Fogel

Imperfect Beginnings lays its poems out to rest on uncertain terrain. Visa paperwork deadlines hang in the air. New-borns, torn too early from their mother’s breast, learn to adapt to harsh guardianship. 

Belonging and exile are mirrored in the stories of having to leave one’s birthmother—or motherland. 

From narrative poems such as ‘My Father Sold Cigarettes To The Nazis,’ Fogel takes us on a journey throughout history, spanning ancestry, wartime, adoption and peacetime, as life settles. Family, work, love and the natural world provide purpose, meaning and a sense of coming ‘home.’

You can read more about Imperfect Beginnings on the publisher's website here. Below, you can read two poems from the collection. 

From Imperfect Beginnings

My Father Sold Cigarettes To The Nazis 

          for Itzaak Weinreich b.1903 - d.1988

blue-eyed and handsome, he nodded and grinned 
at them through the coffee houses of Berlin, the cakes
and cabaret, a sweet tooth and an eye for women. 

He wrote funny verse, made his friends laugh,
turned horror into humour, played the joker,
protected me from the truth.

My father loved to polish: wooden banisters, 
brass door handles, candlesticks - our boots; 
always polishing. 

Buchenwald was his camp: ‘but Butlins it was not!’
I wasn’t meant to hear about the officer’s 
leather belt, his polished boots,

of the baby tossed 
into the air, skull 
cracking beneath the boot.

And once, he upturned the kitchen table, 
mouth foaming, as plates slid 
cracking to the floor. 

He died a year before the Wall came down,
the year my baby was born.
I sat by his bed and fed him, 

as once he fed me. I stroked his baby head, 
made him smile at my jokes,
as his watery eyes were fading. 

I traced his burnt-scarred arm, tapped 
my fingers along numbers the same blue-grey 
as his veins, longing to unlock his story. 

He held my baby in his arms, just once, 
a little awkward, a little shy, 
a big man   grown small.

 
Mr Rockwell

There are no photos but I imagine you sucking on a cigar,
your stubby nails manicured, a gold diamond ring maybe.

I found the faded list of things you paid for: bonnet and bootees,
a knitted coat, a blanket for the cot, formula milk, adoption fees.

My bewildered mother was made to leave, her breasts full
and aching, and a new home was found for me.

They told me you were fat—a wandering 
hand that patted, groped and squeezed—

but you were their boss and the girls were malleable.
No expectations you told them so nothing lost! 

Your accent thick as the lies you told your wife.
Years later I track you down, call your home. 

A curt voice informs me that you’re dead. 
Click—the contact is cut.  But Father,  

I need your eyes, your smell, your look—
to see how akin the echo