Workshops
CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: THE LONG FINISH
Tutored by Jackie Kay (SOLD OUT)
9.30am – 5pm at Charleston
£65 (£55 students) including lunch, tea and coffee
The short story is frequently described as the most testing literary form: subtly nuanced and allowing for minuscule and transient shifts of perception, a timely and resonant ending is particularly hard to achieve. Jackie Kay will explore the art of endings and ways in which a story can continue in the reader’s mind long after it has finished. ‘You can carry the story around with you in your head and if you put it down in a large field it should still glow because of its intensity‘ she says of the form.
Jackie Kay has published three collections of short stories, the most recent of which is Reality, Reality. Her novel, Trumpet, won the Guardian Fiction Prize, and her autobiographical Red Dust Road won the 2011 Book of the Year in the Scottish Book Awards. She teaches creative writing at Newcastle University. Read an interview with Jackie Kay here.
Supported by the Booker Prize Foundation
SOLD OUT
To be placed on waiting list contact festivals@charleston.org.uk
CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP: SONGS AND LYRICS
Tutored by Ben Watt
CANCELLED
9.30am – 5pm at Tilton House
Some of the most memorable songs have the narrative drive of stories and pack a similar punch. Ben Watt says: ‘There is not much room to get it right in good song lyrics. In a short space of time you have to invite the listener in with a sense of killing familiarity and then exceed their expectations‘. He looks at the tools needed to write a lyric, examining storytelling, authenticity, phrasing and musical context, encouraging participants to draw sharply from their own experience and understand their listener.
Ben Watt is best known as the lyric and music writing partner of Tracy Thorn in the pop duo Everything But The Girl, whose albums Eden; Love Not Money; Baby, The Stars Shine Bright and Idlewild have just been reissued. He runs two independent record labels – Buzzin’Fly and Strange Feeling – guiding young artists and advising them on their music and writing. As a club DJ and remixer, he has experimented with writing spoken word lyrics over electronic music and re-editing songs of other artists. He has also published an acclaimed memoir, Patient.
Requirements: Portable instrument, e.g. guitar or laptop, desirable but not essential.
Book online or call Charleston on 01323 811626
