This section features news on what’s happening in the UK Literature scene at the moment.
March 2011: Literary Festivals
The UK is home to well over a hundred literary festivals, and the number of festivals and festival-goers grows every year. As well as the important partnerships the British Council has with the Hay-on-Wye festival, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the South Bank Centre festivals, we also work with a number of others in different ways; for example the South Asia Festival, Asia House Festival of Asian Literature and Jewish Book Week, which is taking place this week, 26th February – 5th March. Festivals around the country are becoming more and more interested in working internationally – in the last few weeks colleagues have had conversations with Festival Directors from the Literature Festivals in Bath, Cheltenham, Norwich and Manchester who have all expressed an interest in programming more writers from around the world at their festivals. For a list of literature festivals in the UK, please see our UK website.
Sinead Russell is Senior Literature Adviser at the British Council and a Trustee for Apples & Snakes
December 2010: Speak Out: The UK’s thriving Spoken Word scene
Spoken word has revolutionised poetry events in the UK.
Whether you call it spoken word, performance poetry, or live literature, the simplest way to describe the art form is as poetry written to be performed. Although the work may also be published, spoken word focuses on the way the words are communicated to an audience, and can draw on theatre, music, comedy and even magic.
The spoken word scene in the UK is vibrant and demonstrates that poetry can be accessible, fun, and inclusive. Spoken word nights are bringing new, culturally diverse, young audiences to poetry: Bang Said the Gun describe their events as being ‘for people who don’t like poetry’.
The flexibility of the art form means the events can take place in non-traditional venues – poets often just need a mic and an attentive audience – so events can be organised in spaces where audiences gather anyway. One recent project in the bar Shunt in London involved poet Joe Cohelho serving a menu of poems alongside cocktail orders.
Although Open Mic nights across the country allow anyone to have a go, spoken word by professional artists can fill traditional arts venues: ‘Something I Said’ was a weekend of spoken word at the Southbank Centre organised by Tilt which took place at the end of October. The popular one-person show often works best in a theatre space with sound and lighting, for example the Edinburgh Showcase shows, Something Dark by Lemn Sissay and Inua Ellam’s The 14th Tale.
Poets talk about influences from diverse sources: traditional oral art forms, the Liverpool Beat poets like Roger McGough, and rap and hip hop. Spoken word continues to stretch boundaries and re-invent itself. A new hip hop, graphic novel show called The Rememberers is being produced by Apples & Snakes. The audience is invited into a graphic novel set in the future, post-environmental disaster, to hear a story told through integrated spoken word and illustrations. My Place or Yours is a digital project involving writers from across the country collaborating online as well as at live events. Performance poetry in translation is an area of study for poet Bohdan Piasecki, while Lucy English teaches performance poetry at the University of Bath Spa.
Spoken word goes hand in hand with participation given the appeal to young people, and teachers are drawn to activity which engages students with language, reading, writing and speaking. It can also be an opportunity for less academic students to shine.
Slam poetry is a genre of its own – short poems performed within a time limit, with judges commenting on the work and the audience selecting a winner. Hammer & Tongue is one organisation specialising in slam in the UK. The form is loved and hated in equal measure, and some poets are subverting the concept through ‘anti-slam’ events where poets deliver their best pastiche of a slam poem to get the lowest score or rate the judges for their comments.
Spoken word can work around the world. Talk to us so we can help you design successful events and involve the right people for your project.
Learn more and see videos and biographies of artists at Apples & Snakes.
Sinead Russell is Senior Literature Adviser at the British Council and a Trustee for Apples & Snakes
November 2010: E- Readers
I am a big fan of books. I love their smell, I love the sound of turning pages and, most of all, I love their transience: how they are lent, bent and (certainly true of my books) quite well-worn. This makes me a fairly unlikely champion of the new Sony e-reader, then, my replacement Booky Wook on the train, hanging off tube poles and moving up escalators. I liken the transition to music lovers and ipods in that this is not about the demise of books and the end of folding corners and grubby pages, just as i-pods haven’t ended vinyls and CD collections for people that care about music. I will always collect books. What ipods have done is make music more convenient, more accessible and a more integral part of everyone’s day.
The e-reader makes it easier to multi-task reading on the train; it is a seamless switch from the odd poem to an article to that novel. I can try out authors I might not have invested the money in (at the moment e-books are a cheaper option to new titles and come with a complimentary library) or the space in (my book shelves are over-crowded and beginning to sag slightly). There’s no wait for paperbacks, no prizing open of stiff spines whilst holding coffee and eating breakfast, no extra weight to indecision as you might normally grab two books on your way out. The e-book lies flat and readable as the perfect commuter companion with a silky screen and inky words. No, I don’t like the androgyny, I don’t like the hassle of downloading and coordinating books from my computer and I don’t like the slightly soulless transition from one text to another without front covers or new fonts. I do like the convenience, though, and I really like how reading is now an easier part of my day.
Sophie Wardell, Management and Literature Project Assistant
November 2010: Graphic Fiction
In a recent discussion with a writer taking part in a BC project, I was corrected on my reference to his works as ‘graphic novels’: “They’re really just Comics” he told me, “The term Graphic Novels was just made up by marketing people to make comics seem more respectable”.
In contrast to countries like France where Bande Desinee has long enjoyed both popular and critical acclaim, or Japan where Manga is the leisure reading genre of choice, the UK literary establishment seems to have, until recently, resisted the lure of ‘comics’, relegating them to the world of children and specialist enthusiasts. But in recent years a momentum has gathered so that today, it seems that everywhere you look are new prizes, book shop promotions and programme slots in the mainstream literature festivals suggesting that the UK is finally waking up to the potential of the ‘Graphic Novel’.
Another sector to see the value in graphic fiction are the ELT practitioners who have found that the visual dimension aids comprehension and interest, something picked up by our Teaching English website. Books that work particularly well are adaptations such as the Manga Shakespeare series or Sherlock Holmes series that illuminate popular British classics in a fresh form. These are published by Self Made Hero.
With a growing number of blogs (e.g. bugpowder.com) and dedicated UK festivals, it would seem that the graphic novel genre is one to watch and certainly here to stay.
For more information on the UK scene, you could have a look at the upcoming festivals:
British International Comics Show
Comica Comics Festival
London Comic and Small Press Expo
Writers to give you a taste of what the UK has to offer include:
Posy Simmonds
Sonia Leong
Bryan Talbot – ‘Alice in Sunderland’
Neil Gaiman – ‘Sandman’ series
Tony Lee
Julia Ziemer, Literature Adviser
November 2010: Magazine on vinyl LPs features short stories read aloud.
UK-based Underwood: Stories in Sound (named for the old typewriter company by the same name) is a twice-yearly publication produced on vinyl LPs. The journal comes out every May and November, and each limited-edition issue features two writers reading one of their own short stories. Underwood’s first issue appeared this past May with the works of British writers Toby Litt and Clare Wigfall. Further enhancing the publication’s collectibility, Underwood commissioned LA-based comics artist Jordan Crane to illustrate its cover, according to a report in Publishing Perspectives. A thousand copies of each Underwood issue are produced, with per-issue pricing of GBP 25.
“A vinyl record is a combination of unique sound and beautiful packaging — quite the opposite of digital,” Publisher Nathan Dunn told Publishing Perspectives. “Records are all about the experience: you’ve got to lay them down on the turntable, drop the needle and then change the side when it’s done. A record makes you slow down, sit back and pay attention to the words.”
Indeed, in a world currently dominated by podcasts, e-books and other instantaneous-delivery offerings, it’s intriguing to see the LP brought back as a means of restoring a sense of experience and occasion in story-telling.
Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann on Springwise, one of the world’s leading sources of new business ideas.
