Inkerman Writers
a showcase of our work
Literature at the Festival
There’s lots of literary event the Darlington Arts Festival, including a Night with the Inkerman Writers. The full programme is at http://www.darlingtonforculture.org but here's something to whet your appetite.
Thursday 1st May, 7pm: Café Create, 95 Parkgate, Darlington
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists: 100 Years On
The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists by Robert Tressell celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. An enduring classic of socialist literature, what message does it still hold for us in these times of economic turmoil? Celebrate May Day with this follow up to last year's popular event about Orwell. Admission free.
Saturday May 3 Crime Writing Masterclass,
Crime novelist John Dean presents a day-long workshop at the Friends’ Meeting House, Skinnergate. Time 10am-4pm
Want to create the perfect villain? Being driven to murder? Then this masterclass from the creator of the John Blizzard and Jack Harris crime novels is for you.
Tickets £25. Places can be booked in advance by contacting John at
deangriss@btinternet.com, tel 07889 554931
Saturday May 3 Cafe Hippo: Palace of Varieties Cafe Create, 93-97 Parkgate Chambers, Darlington (next door to the Civic Theatre) - 7pm
As in Hippodrome, that is. Join the Arts cafe overlooking the Civic Theatre for an evening of music, poetry and performance presented for your delight and delectation. Open Mic slots are available – all kinds of performers welcome!
Cafe Create, 93-97 Parkgate Chambers, Darlington (next door to the Civic Theatre)
Tickets and arrangements: £2 on the door or pre-book at
Tuesday May 6th from 7pm, Café Create, 95 Parkgate, Darlington.
Northumbria University and HC Productions present ‘Raunchy Reads and Serious Sermons: A Geordie Library in the 18th Century’. Come and meet the bawdy beauty Fanny Hill, the crazed Christian Christopher Smart, and some comic characters from the early novel. This dramatized reading of items the Delaval family (of Seaton Delaval Hall) subscribed to will show the range of texts that readers dipped in and out of during the eighteenth century, turning the coffee house into a living library.
Tickets £4: available on the door or pre-book at
www.cafecreatedarlington.co.uk
Friday May 9th, 3 – 6pm, Poetry Artefacts. Café Create, Parkgate, Darlington
Give your words an extra dimension with poet Jo Colley. Using paper, fabric, old photos and images, and your creative imagination, give your words a 3D life. This 3 hour session will give you some basic ideas and techniques.
Tickets £6: available on the door or pre-book at
www.cafecreatedarlington.co.uk
Fri 9th May 6.30-8.30pm
Venue: The Health Warehouse Cafe, 15 Post House Wynd (entrance through the shop).
Academic Artists: Reading Our Writing (including open mic slots)
Join writer Tracey Iceton and five of her fellow academic writers from Northumbria and Sunderland universities as they talk about their postgraduate creative writing studies and read extracts from their work. Better yet, bring your own work along for the open mic slots and take the stage with them. Including guest appearance by local poet Natalie Scott whose debut collection Berth was published in 2012.
Tickets: £3 per person on the door. Contact Tracey Iceton
traceyiceton@hotmail.co.uk 07773 797817 for more details
Open mic readings max 8 minutes to allow time for everyone who wants to read.
Saturday May 10 Darlington Book Fair
, Queen Elizabeth Sixth Form College
Vane Terrace, Darlington 10am-4pm
Looking for that cracking read? Seeking that book you’ve been looking for for ages? Then this is the event for you!
Monday May 12, Conservatory Bar, Darlington Civic Theatre
Join Vane Women for a bright May evening of poetry and prose. Why not join in the fun by bringing along a piece of your own for the open mic(one per reader, please)?
Time: 7.30 pm
Tickets: £5 / £3 conc., available from Darlington Arts Box Office, 01325-486555
Contact
Tuesday May 13th 7pm: Sunny Side Up, Cafe Create, 95 Parkgate.
Keeping On The Sunny Side!
Fed up with the weather/the recession/spring cleaning/all those roadworks/the dwindling value of your pension/love, sex, death and other trivia? Then join Mike Webster and his guitarist pal Chris Taylor at Café Create on Tuesday 13 May for a session called Sunny Side Up, a celebration of the brighter side of life in poetry and song. Starting at 7.00, they’ll be offering a few humorous reflections on life as many of us know it.
The inflation-beating news is that it will only cost you a round pound to get in. Even better, give us a preview of George Osborne’s new coin design, bring a threepenny bit and get in FREE!
And, if you wish, bring along a poem of your own to share. For more information email
land.joanne@gmail.com or see www.cafecreatedarlington.org
Wednesday May 14 Cafe Create, 93-97 Parkgate Chambers, Darlington (next door to the Civic Theatre) Defence Against the Dark Arts - Writers' Block and How to Beat It - 7pm
What stops us from writing? It’s more than just a search for the right words – it can also be an issue of the mind. In this practical, hands-on seminar, York novelist N.E.David will help you formulate a strategy for overcoming those inner weaknesses. Nick is a founder member of York Authors and currently presents 'Book Talk' on BBC Radio York. His debut novel, BIRDS OF THE NILE, is published by Roundfire.
Price £3. Tickets and arrangements: £2 on the door or pre-book at
May 16-18 Hotel to stage writing course
Creative writing tutor John Dean will run a weekend residential writing course at The Blackwell Grange Hotel, Darlington. The weekend includes:
* Two nights Accommodation (Friday 16th and Saturday 17th May 2014), two breakfasts, two dinners and one lunch
* Day-long workshop on Saturday followed by a morning workshop on the Sunday, including how to create characters, structure stories and invoke sense of place.
The cost is £205 per person based on double for sole occupancy, including VAT. To reserve your place and book your accommodation, call the hotel on 01325 509955 or email
reservation.blackwell@forestdale.com Bookings must be made by Friday 18th April and paid in full by Friday 23rd April 2014.
Thursday May 22 7pm Voodoo Café, Skinnergate
. A Night with the Inkerman Writers. Readings of poetry and prose. Free entry. More information from
deangriss@btinternet.com
Friday May 23, Cafe Create, 93-97 Parkgate Chambers, Darlington (next door to the Civic Theatre) 3-6pm Short story masterclass given by Pauline Plummer
Pauline Plummer has had two previous collections of poetry published and two pamphlets that were collaborations with an artist based on journeys in W. Africa. She tutors creative writing at
Northumbria and the Open University , and has been a writer in residence at Woodhorn Colliery Museum and Poet Laureate of Middlesbrough (2000). Some of her short stories have been published by Comma Press, Biscuit Publishing and Orbis magazine, New Writing North (Platform), or performed at Northern Stage. She is an editor with Mudfog Press (http://www.paulineplummer.co.uk/)
Participants in this workshop will examine and unpick one short story and, from there, consider how they will develop an idea to structure a narrative within the constraints of the genre. Tickets are £10, please pre-book at
6-9pm Readings by Mudfog published writers
Mudfog Press has been publishing pamphlets and books for 20 years. It is a community-based press which works with, and publishes, writers across the Tees Valley, from Whitby up to Hartlepool, from Middlesbrough to Darlington and North Yorks. Funded by the Arts Council and Middlesbrough Council, Mudfog has a good record of publishing first time writers who have gone on to develop their writing careers. The majority of publications have been poetry but they also publish short stories and books that are not limited by genre. Readers may include recently published poets such as Tom Richardson, Jo Heather, Mel McEvoy, Natalie Scott and also writer Mike Pratt (names yet to be confirmed). See the website:
http://www.mudfog.co.uk/
Admission is free.
Saturday May 24
Children’s Writing Masterclass
John Dean presents a day-long workshop at the Friends’ Meeting House, Skinnergate. Time 10am-4pm
Fancy writing for children? Learning the dos and don’ts? Then this masterclass from the creator of Haghir the Dragon Finder is for you.
Tickets £25. Places can be booked in advance by contacting John Dean at
deangriss@btinternet.com, tel 07889 554931
Tuesday May 27 Writing for Stage and Screen: Introduction to Script Writing
4-6pm Venue
: The Health Warehouse Cafe, 15 Post House Wynd (entrance through the shop).
Tickets: £6 per person, to book please contact Tracey Iceton
traceyiceton@hotmail.co.uk 07773 797817
Wednesday May 28 Fact or Fiction: Writing Historical Novels
4-6pm Venue: The Health Warehouse Cafe, 15 Post House Wynd (entrance through the shop).
Tickets: £6 per person, to book please contact Tracey Iceton traceyiceton@hotmail.co.uk 07773 797817
Wednesday 28th May, 7pm The Stars Are Falling Pre-Launch Event, Cafe Create, 95 Parkgate.
Meet the author of this Young Adult novel, out on July 3rd. Jenny’s life revolves around surviving university, watching the stars, and staring at her house mate, Dale. But as the night sky glows with the light of falling stars, Jenny’s classes and crush seem unimportant. The Stars are retaking the Earth, saving mother nature by eliminating the problem. Together, Jenny and Dale can save the world and the human race, but surviving long enough to convince the Stars of that is perilous and may kill them both. Wednesday 28th May, 7pm, admission free. For more information email
land.joanne@gmail.com or see www.cafecreatedarlington.org
Thursday May 29 Open Mic for authors
. 7pm Voodoo Café, Skinnergate. £3 on the door. Come along and read some of your work or simply sit back and listen. More information from
deangriss@btinternet.com Supported by Darlington for Culture.
Sat 31st May. 12-2pm Darlington Literary Festival Anthology launch at Voodoo Cafe, 84 Skinnergate
Join us for the launch of the Literary Festival Anthology 2013, which features the winning entries from last year's short story writing competition, plus prose and poetry from the participants in last year's festival. The anthology features including Jo Colley, Tracey Iceton, Ira Lightman, Pauline Plummer, Inkerman Writers and Vane Women and many more. All proceeds from sales of the anthology go to Darlington For Culture. Free Entry. For more information email
land.joanne@gmail.com or see www.cafecreatedarlington.org
Further literary events at Café Create
There will be many more literary events at Cafe Create in May which are still to be announced. See
www.cafecreatedarlington.org or www.darlingtonforculture.org for details. Café Create is a social enterprise supporting arts and community groups which has hosted many literary and other Arts events over the last two-and-a-half years.
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About
DfC
The Inkerman Writers are members of Darlington for Culture (DfC), which was set up in 2010 to help save Darlington Arts Centre from closure.
Its members include representatives of arts and community groups.
DfC was established after the centre’s owner, Darlington Borough Council, announced that budget cuts meant that it would have to withdraw its subsidy from the Arts Centre.
Although the centre closed, the organisation remains active - more at www.darlingtonforculture.org
Publications
Welcome to the site created by the Inkerman Writers to showcase our work.
Based in Darlington, North East England, and having celebrated their tenth anniversary in 2013, members have enjoyed success in a variety of arenas, including winning, and being shortlisted and highly commended, in short story competitions, having novels published and publishing the short story anthology A Strawberry in Winter, which can be obtained by visiting the website www.blurb.com
The group's second anthology of short stories, Christophe's Farewell and Other Stories, can be obtained, cost £4.95 plus postage and packing, from
The Inkerman Writers’ latest book, Out of the Shadows, which was launched as part of the 2013 Darlington Arts Festival, is on sale. The book can be ordered direct from
http://www.blurb.co.uk/b/4204019-out-of-the-shadows
The group also produced The Last Waltz, a double CD of short stories, available by contacting deangriss@btinternet.com, cost £5 plus p and p.
Several of our writers wrote original one-act plays in a collaboration with the Green Theatre company, which were performed at Darlington Arts Centre early in February, 2012.
Darlington-based Inkerman Writers have produced their latest anthology of short stories, Inkerman Street, based on the demolition of a fictional northern street and the stories of the people who lived in it.
The book, which features a variety of stories ranging from horror to comedy, was launched to a large audience at the Darlington Arts Festival Literary Day on Saturday May 26 and begins like this:
“Inkerman Street is still and graveyard-hushed tonight, the terraced houses cold behind boarded-up windows, silent sentinels among a sea of wasteland. No one lives here now and tomorrow the bulldozers will move in to flatten the houses to make way for the Council’s Grand Plan.
“Although the people are long gone, the houses still have life. Peek into one of the bedrooms and see on the wall a painting of a seaside scene, brightly-coloured boats bobbing in the harbour, fishermen pipe-smoking in the noonday sun and seagulls wheeling high above the choppy waters. In the roaring silence of the night, you can hear the screeching of the birds and taste the salt air, acrid and herring-sharp at the back of your throat. It is an illusion; the bedroom is empty and the blooms on the faded wallpaper have long since wilted.
“The air in the houses is musty with neglect yet but a few months before, these were bustling homes filled with frying bacon and steaming irons, whistling kettles and playing children. The houses witnessed all these scenes for more than 150 years. Behind their curtains were enacted a thousand stories but tomorrow they will be destroyed because Inkerman Street is the last of its ilk.
“Now, on the eve of the street’s death, the people who once lived here have returned, gathering solemn and silent in the mist, the ghosts of the past come to pay final tribute….”
The anthology can be purchased at http://www.blurb.co.uk/bookstore/invited/7524452/bae89c993c98ec8c8b37b12d6b9b37ecced5dec3
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