Fri 2 Apr 2004
Issue number 31 of NAWE's magazine is published today, including advanced notice of 'Moving Stories' - an online writing project on which NAWE is collaborating with the National Railway Museum.
Editor Liz Cashdan writes:
"Appropriately, in the run-up to our conference on writing and location, this edition of the magazine includes a number of articles which figure place - and journeys from one place to another - as part of the literary make-up of many writers.
"Marianne Wheelaghan's article, 'Writing Home: Reflections on place' does exactly that, while David Orme's article, 'The Strawberry Trail' describes a project linking local tourism with local writers. The links between internal and external geographies and histories are made clear in two articles describing projects which encourage readers to take part: Hazel Moffat's request for 'Letters from the Future' to be written back to her great-great Uncle in the USA; and the request for 'Moving Stories' - submissions on railways, as part of the two hundredth anniversary of the first steam locomotive in this country, organized by the National Railway Museum in conjunction with NAWE and KMA Interactive Media. As an example, we publish Simon Sweeney's account of a journey by train in Bulgaria back in 1979, 'Through the Iron Curtain on a Train'.
"If self and place are closely linked, then we have a third dimension, foreign language, as explained in Margaret Clarke's article, 'Creative Writing Across Languages'. It is encouraging to see a Chinese student coming to grips with English, as it is to read the poems in French and Spanish by students whose mother tongue is English. Equally, it is good to hear from new readers and writers like Jenny Webb, getting school children to illustrate her books; and Fiona Coe, exploring a new situation on an internship at Lancaster Litfest. As ever, Bryan Podmore has been chasing established writers to winkle out of them advice/information for the rest of us, this time on what risk-taking can do for your writing. And Ade Solanke explains how fellowships can help aspiring writers. Meanwhile, exciting projects are continuing in schools: teacher Mike Ferguson and writer Rupert Loydell discuss what a writer can bring to classroom teaching; Fred Sedgwick uses the unlikely Larkin as stimulus for children writing, with impressive results.
"But of course, for the writer, teacher/tutor or administrator, things do not always run smoothly. We start a new column in this issue, hearing from a creative writing tutor in Higher Education who has experienced difficulties with mature students. While not wanting to turn NAWE into an agony aunt, it would be foolish to dismiss these problems, and it could well be that students sometimes have difficulties with tutors/teachers. In either case, airing and sharing problems brings relief in itself, and there may well be readers who would be prepared to comment or offer advice."
Writing in Education is automatically mailed to all NAWE members.
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