Tuesday 29 July 2008

A useful round up of writing links

They're right here, courtesy of Paul Raven's Velco City Tourist Board. Some excellent and very useful stuff there. Give them a read.

Thursday 17 July 2008

New Writing Prize - £50,000!

The University of Warwick has just launched the Warwick Prize for Writing, with a purse of £50,000. A panel of five judges, headed by China MiĆ©ville and including mathematician Ian Stewart and literary blogger Stephen Mitchelmore, will announce a list of 15 to 20 titles in October. A short-list of six titles will follow January 2009, and the winner will be announced the month after.

While the award describes itself as focused on innovative writing on a theme - this year's in Complexity - it's interesting to see it embrace genre fiction. Not all such prizes do... unless of course the writer doesn't identify as a genre writer. Like Jeanette Winterson, or Margaret Atwood, or PD James... Of course, it remains to be seen if MiƩville's leadership, and Stewart's presence, will result in a list which includes science fiction or fantasy works. I expect we'll see something not unlike this year's Arthur C Clarke Award shortlist.

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Something Worth Reading...

There's an interesting article on making writing groups work here on The Fix review site. It's all very much common sense, of course - or at the very least common courtesy. But it's worth reminding ourselves sometimes what it is we ought to be doing, both in our writing and in our commenting on others' writing.

Monday 7 July 2008

July Meeting

Bit late posting this. Sorry.

This month's meeting - Monday 7th July. Old Queen's Head, upstairs, 7:30 pm.