New Writing North

This New Writing North podcast was recorded at Durham Book Festival 2018. In this episode, New Statesman editor Jason Cowley and Sky News Correspondent Lewis Goodall introduce their new books, and discuss one of the most turbulent periods in UK political history – from the fall of Blair to the rise of Corbyn and Brexit. This discussion is chaired by Dr Claire Sutherland of Durham University. Durham Book Festival is commissioned by Durham County Council and produced by New Writing North. Find out more about the festival at durhambookfestival.com.

This New Writing North podcast was recorded at Durham Book Festival 2018. In this episode, Booker-prize winning author Pat Barker introduces her new book The Silence of the Girls, in conversation with Dr Anne Whitehead of Newcastle University. The Silence of the Girls is a brilliant reimagining of the legendary Trojan War told instead from the overlooked perspective of Briseis, one of many women silenced by history. Pat talks about the importance of female perspectives in history, the parallels between The Silence of the Girls and her award-winning Regeneration and the relevance of reimagining the classics for modern day readers. Durham Book Festival is commissioned by Durham County Council and produced by New Writing North. Find out more about the festival at http://durhambookfestival.com.

For Crime Story 2018 award-winning writer Denise Mina was commissioned to write a thrilling crime story about murder, trafficking and the drug trade. The story was the focus of a series of panel events in which real police, lawyers and criminologists explored how they would have approached solving the crime in real life. Here she talks with Professor Katy Shaw of Northumbria University about her work and writing life, how to write a truly interesting victim and just how to solve her intriguing mystery. Crime Story is a unique event for crime writers and readers, produced by New Writing North and Northumbria University. Find out more about Crime Story here: https://bit.ly/2tGQNSD

In this episode we join two former recipients of the Northern Writers’ Awards, Yvonne Battle-Felton and Laura Steven, in conversation with our Senior Programme Manager for Writing, Awards and Libraries, Will Mackie. In this episode, we find out just how the Northern Writers’ Awards work, from tips on how best to apply to the impact of winning an award. Yvonne and Laura both explain how crucial the Northern Writers' Awards were to their writing development and how winning helped to further their writing careers. We also cover the value of a good pen name, the importance of diversity in writing, dealing with rejection and how to get the best out of agent-author relationships when you’re about to publish your work. There’s still time to submit to the 2019 Northern Writers’ Awards, which are open for submissions until midnight on Thursday 7 February. Apply and find out more at northernwritersawards.com.

Ten years ago, the late Gordon Burn took the events of 2007 and during that year wrote and published Born Yesterday: The News as a Novel, an ambitious and experimental novel about the way news is made, and the way the media creates and manipulates the stories we see before us. In the spirit of this fine literary experiment with fact and fiction, we have commissioned four outstanding writers to produce a piece of work in response to the extraordinary unfolding news cycle of 2017. Alexei Sayle was the first MC of the Comedy Store and later the Comic Strip. After years of stand-up, television, sitcoms and films, he published his first highly acclaimed collection of short stories, Barcelona Plates, which was followed by two novels. The second volume of Alexei’s memoirs, Thatcher Stole My Trousers, is out now.

During a morning of coffee and cake at Durham Book Festival 2017 with Rachel Joyce, author of the international bestselling The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, she discussed her heart-warming new novel The Music Shop.

Malika Booker reads two poems at the Rich Seams Poetry Gala at Durham Book Festival 2017. Introduction by Andrew McMillan.

In Becoming British, citizenship expert Thom Brooks explores the big questions rarely answered by the politicians, examining the relationship between immigration and citizenship in order to challenge the popular and political myths that surround this topic. Thom Brooks is Professor of Law and Government at Durham University. He is a dual citizen of the UK and United States. Gulwali Passarlay left his home in Afghanistan when he was twelve years old, enduring a terrifying journey across Europe in the hands of people smugglers. The author of The Lightless Sky, Gulwali has written a piece, especially for Durham Book Festival, about his experiences of arriving and living in the UK as a teenager. Go to http://durhambookfestival.com/commissions to read more.

Each year Durham Book Festival works in partnership with Durham University to invite an acclaimed poet to become the Festival Laureate. In 2017, we welcomed Andrew McMillan to the role. Here, Andrew reads his specially commissioned poem. Andrew McMillan’s debut collection physical was the first ever poetry collection to win The Guardian First Book Award. The collection also won the Fenton Aldeburgh Award and a Northern Writers’ Award.

Kim Moore reads two poems at the Rich Seams Poetry Gala at Durham Book Festival 2017. Introduction by Andrew McMillan.

Helen Mort performs a new poem written for Durham Book Festival 2016 inspired by the history of boxing in the North East.

There Is a Light that Never Goes Out tells the story of a Durham pit village from the 1950s to the present, and shows how its peoples’ memories, beliefs and ghosts still influence life there today. Author Richard Benson (The Valley, The Farm) and photographer Keith Pattison spent four months recording stories and conversations with people in Easington Colliery, focusing on the Handys, a well-known local family. In this piece he tells tales of tragedy and heroism, love and loss, and the fight to build a better world. Here, too, are everyday stories of a unique way of life; stories of children growing up in a tight-knit community, of tough men and of the invincible women who sustained the village in the hardest of times. Told largely in the family’s own voices, There is a Light is unflinchingly honest about life in these world-famous villages, which contributed not only the energy that built Britain, but also important ideas about how communities can work together. Looking at life there since the closure of t

We were thrilled to welcome screenwriter and film director Peter Straughan to the festival to talk about the challenges and rewards of adapting well-known novels into film and television scripts. Here, Peter discusses the work involved in taking on the adaptation of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall for BBC television and his BAFTA-winning and Academy Award-nominated work adapting John le Carre’s Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

In association with Sage Gateshead. Performed by Matthew Gundel, Calum Howard, Samantha Morris and Claire Tustin

Why does the literature of the fantastic continue to be so enduringly popular? Why are both child and adult readers so drawn to stories of magic, the supernatural and the strange, set in worlds other than our own? And what might such stories tell us about our everyday lives, and the world around us? As part of Durham Book Festival’s celebration of 2015’s Big Read, Northern Lights, a panel of researchers from Durham University consider these questions in this podcast. Experts from Literary Studies, History and Theology consider Northern Lights, and other stories of the fantastic.

Completing the trilogy she began with Life Class and continued with Toby’s Room, Booker Prize-winning novelist Pat Barker introduces Noonday, which is both a stand-alone novel and the climax of the trilogy. Writing about the Second World War for the first time, she brings the besieged and haunted city of London during the Blitz into electrifying life.

Each year, our Durham Book Festival Laureate takes part in Durham Book Festival, works with young people in local schools and students at Durham University, and writes an original commission inspired by County Durham. Here Sinead Morrisey reads from her specially commisioned poem.

Listen to a selection of the shortlisted authors for the 2014 Gordon Burn Prize read extracts from their work at this special event at Durham Book Festival 2014 announcing of the winner of the 2014 award, including winner Paul Kingsnorth, whose extraordinary historical novel The Wake imagined an England in turmoil in the years immediately after the Norman Conquests. For more information, see http://durhambookfestival.com/programme/event/the-announcement-of-the-gordon-burn-prize/

Every year Durham Book Festival works with Durham University to appoint a leading poet as Festival Laureate. In 2014, Paul Farley fulfilled the role and wrote a new poem especially for the festival. At this exclusive public event, Paul read from his commissioned poem for the first time. Paul Farley is a multi-award-winning poet, author and broadcaster. He has published four poetry collections with Picador, most recently The Dark Film, which was shortlisted for the 2012 TS EIiot Prize. His book, Edgelands, a non-fiction journey into England’s overlooked wilderness (co-authored with Michael Symmons Roberts) was published in 2011 and received the Royal Society of Literature’s Jerwood Award. Paul Farley is a professor of poetry at Lancaster University. Introduced by Professor Stephen Regan

Zaffar Kunial won a Northern Writers’ Awards in 2013 and was subsequently selected to be part of the Faber New Poets 2013-14 scheme, alongside Rachael Allen, Will Burns and Declan Ryan. Backed by an innovative publishing programme and funded by Arts Council England, Faber New Poets aims to identify and support emerging talents at an early stage in their careers. To celebrate the publication of their poetry pamphlets, the four poets read together at Durham Book Festival 2014 at an event presented in association with the Centre for Poetry and Poetics, Durham University.