Inkerman Writers
a showcase of our work
Writing competition launched as part of festival
Cafe Create in Darlington has launched a short story writing competition for all ages, sponsored by the Richmond-based Mad Hatter Tea Company as part of Darlington’s forthcoming Arts Festival.
The theme for the competition, part of the Literary element of the month-long arts festival in May, is The Riddle, inspired by the riddle ‘Why is a raven like a writing desk?’ from Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, who lived in Croft near Darlington.
The maximum word limit is 1500 words but there is no minimum. A variety of prizes are up for grabs, plus the chance to appear in a forthcoming anthology of work from the Literary Festival.
The competition is open to writers of all ages. There are two free categories for the children’s competition; under 11 and 11-16. For teachers or librarians wishing to support classes or school groups working on their entries, there is a suggested lesson plan and resources available free for use with young writers. For more details, to be sent the free resource pack and for entry forms, visit
www.cafecreatedarlington.org or email traceyiceton@hotmail.co.uk
There’s also a category for stories by over sixteens (entry fee £4).
To enter the competition and find out more, visit
www.cafecreatedarlington.org or email land.joanne@gmail.com The closing date is 14th June.
Joanne Land, who set up Cafe Create in 2011 as a social enterprise supporting arts and community groups, said: “Since the closure of the Arts Centre, we have been doing our best to support arts and cultural activities alongside Darlington for Culture.
“We’re particularly keen to support writers and we are pleased to be working with another local business to promote creative writing in Darlington, one who takes their inspiration from Lewis Carroll and celebrates the writer's links to the area.”
* Mad Hatter Tea is available from Cafe Create on Parkgate and from The Cheese & Wine Shop in Clarks Yard.
NB Editors
Co-ordinated by Darlington for Culture (DfC), the group which speaks for arts and culture in the area, Darlington Arts Festival now has more than seventy events on its programme. Many of the organisations and individuals supporting the event are reflected in the programme.
It includes:
* A month-long literary festival based at Café Create and other venues, featuring readings, writing workshops and a book launch
* Art-based events involving a wide range of artists and including exhibitions, workshops and similar events
* A Fantastic Film Festival to be run by Darlington Film Club, which is based at the Forum in Borough Road
* A series of music events
* Darlington for Culture will be working in partnership with Darlington Borough Council as part of the Markets Department’s Love your Local Market event in the Market Square on Sunday May 19. The event, which will run between 10am-3pm, will include an Arts Showcase designed to celebrate the variety of arts and cultural activities in the borough as part of the Darlington Arts Festival. Co-ordinated by DfC, the Showcase will include stalls, workshops and entertainment , including music and dancing.
*Creative Darlington, Darlington Borough Council and Darlington Rotary Club are among other organisations supporting the festival.
* DfC’s website
www.darlingtonforculture.org has in-depth profiles on the festival and a brochure is being distributed around the town.
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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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