It’s Never too Late to Write!

2.30pm

Writing, including learning to write well and then finding opportunities to be published, is not restricted to those with youth on their side. Writing is for us all - but sometimes, you’d be forgiven for thinking it isn’t.

Join us for a fascinating look at how one of our very first Writers in Residence cracked the age issue in her writing career - not starting until well into her 50s, and having books published every year since - from novel, to short fictions, to poetry and non-fiction.

Maybe much has to do with gently breaking the unstated rules of writing and the writing world - come along and find out!

Vanessa Gebbie’s first book, Words from a Glass Bubble (Salt Modern Fiction), containing many of her prize-winning short stories, was published in 2008. Her books since include The Coward’s Tale (a novel, Bloomsbury UK/USA 2011) which became a Financial Times Novel of the Year and won her a Gladstone’s Library Residency; two further collections of short stories (2010 and 2017); and two collections of poetry, the first of which, a pamphlet entitled The Half-Life of Fathers (Pighog Publishing), was chosen by the TLS as one of the best of 2012. She was also commissioned to create a textbook on writing - the result, Short Circuit: Guide to the Art of the Short Story, including craft chapters by 26 acclaimed writers of the form, is recommended reading on many Creative Writing courses in the UK and beyond. Her 10th book, a collection of short, short fictions entitled Nothing to Worry About, is forthcoming in 2018 from Flash International at Chester University.

She particularly enjoys where her writing has taken her: into teaching and mentoring widely, passing on her love of writing to both young people and adults, to different places both in the UK and abroad, and into creative collaborations with other artists. A particular interest is the Great War and she organises visits to the Western Front every year. Her collection Memorandum: Poems for the Fallen (Cultured Llama Books, 2016) inspired three visual artists to create artworks in response in painted glass, photography and letter-cutting on Welsh slate. The resulting exhibition: Reflections, the response of four women artists to the Great War centenary, has been touring venues in Sussex, where she lives.

She is hugely grateful that her work has been supported by The Arts Council Grants for the Arts, residencies at both Gladstone’s Library and Anam Cara Writers And Artists’ Retreat in Ireland, and a Hawthornden Fellowship.

Tickets are priced at £8.

Food for Thought will also be open for Sunday Lunch before the event (booking advisable).

For more information or to book, please call 01244 532350 or email [email protected].