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Showing posts from 2013

Dual celebration

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Exeter Writers' Elizabeth Ducie has two reasons for celebration at the moment. She has just completed the NaNoWriMo challenge at the third time of trying, writing more than 50K words during November. Her resulting 20+ short stories are in draft form and will be edited and submitted to magazines or competitions from January 2014. At the same time, she has published her third anthology which grew out of a writing challenge she set herself earlier this year. Parcels in the Rain and Other Writing is a collection of thirty-one short stories, travel writing and childhood memories which was produced in just one month. Elizabeth chose 10th April — her late parents’ wedding anniversary — as the e-publication date. By 31st March, the anthology was completed and on 10th April, Elizabeth held a virtual launch party for the ebook (her fourth). Now, just in time for Christmas, the book has been brought out in print form. Parcels in the Rain and Other Writing is out now and will be availabl

Cardiff Women's Aid Creative Writing Competition

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Daniel Knibb writes: 25th November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. At Cardiff's Chapter Arts Centre last week, Cardiff Women's Aid held an event to celebrate their inaugural short story and poetry competitions. I was delighted to be asked to attend and read my winning story, 'Soft Tissue', to an audience of writers, people working with survivors of violence, and Cardiff's Assembly Minister Julie Morgan who presented me with this lovely trophy and a copy of the competition anthology. The theme of the competition was 'domestic violence'. It was sobering to be confronted with so many different accounts of abuse, control and (sometimes) survival. The work collected in the anthology is funny, sad, moving and well worth seeking out. Cardiff Women's Aid Creative Writing Competition 2013 , ISBN 9781291615722, available from Lulu.com.

Exeter Writers 2014
Short Story Competition

The Exeter Writers Short Story Competition 2014 is now open for entries. Due to the success of the 2013 competition, this year we are able to offer a First Prize of £500, Second Prize of £250, and Third Prize of £100 - and there is an additional prize of £100 for a writer living in Devon See the Competition page for the rules and entry details.

Brass Monkeys

Clare Girvan's take on the problems of the legendary Three Wise Monkeys for the Gi60 International One-Minute Play Festival .

Three go to Sheffield

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Exeter Writers members Margaret James and Su Bristow Cathie Hartigan writes: There’s something about the word ‘conference’ that sounds very dull to my mind. I immediately think of business suits, lanyards, flipcharts and graphs. But the Romantic Novelists’ Association annual conference is a very jolly affair. This year was my third. I went with my fellow Exeter Writers: Margaret James, a long-standing member of the RNA with a string of very successful novels behind her and Su Bristow, a first-timer. Su and I were on a mission. We wanted to interest a publisher in our novels. Apart from the fun of the conference, the squeals and smiles, the frocks and the photos, there is a very serious side to it. For a whole weekend, authors and publishers come together. The industry is discussed. How is it doing? What succeeded and what didn’t? Where to next? Who will be the next Dan Brown or E.L James? I imagine that commissioning editors dream of such a find, but they’re too canny to rela

Winners: short story competition 2012/13

Short Story Competition 2012 – The Results The stories have been read and the judging is completed. We thank all of you who entered and commiserate with those who were not placed. There were four prizes this year – the usual first, second and third prizes, plus the Devon Prize; we congratulate you all. First prize The Right Time to Fly , by Shirley Golden from Hampshire Second prize I Am My Brother's Keeper , by Michael Powell from London Third prize The Incident on the Number Thirty-Six , by Ceri Lowe-Petraske from Bristol Devon Prize Saving the Goss , by Ian Chamberlain from Teignmouth Runners-up: (in alphabetical order) See no Evil by Christian Cook Icarus and the Cautious Man by Paul Green Miles from Home by Sue Hoffmann Poetman by Neil Howell Sofa by Harriet Kline Sisters by S.G. Norris Jellyfish and Rice by Tracey S Rosenberg

Book Aid International

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Registered Charity No. 313869 Exeter Writers has made a donation of £100 to Book Aid International . This is a ‘reverse book club’ which uses donations to buy and send books to readers of all ages in Africa and beyond. They have told us that they can buy around 50 books with our donation and send them to some of the poorest communities in the world. For more information go to www.bookaid.org .

Exeter Novel Prize

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Creative Writing Matters is very proud to announce the inaugural 2013 Exeter Novel Prize . This is for a novel that has never been published in any form, although the competition is open to all authors whether or not they have been published. Literary agent Broo Doherty has agreed to undertake the final judging and Exeter Writers has generously donated the First Prize. The official launch will be on June 27th at Exeter Central Library. First Prize £500 (sponsored by Exeter Writers); five runner up prizes of £50. Closing date 31st October 2013. See Creative Writing Matters for further details and rules .

1st Place (2012/13) - The Right Time to Fly by Shirley Golden

The Right Time to Fly by Shirley Golden ‘She’s back,’ Marcus says.  He claps his hands and waves.  ‘Whoa, stop.  Stop.’         Owen brings the crane to a halt.  He leans from the open window and shouts, ‘There a problem?’        ‘Wait here.  Don’t aggravate the situation.’  Marcus frowns.  He heads around the bank of rubble.  ‘Damn it,’ he mutters and yanks off scratched goggles and shoves the hard hat back from his forehead.  He walks past moored barges, awaiting their scrap pile destination, same as everything thing else in and around the yard. 

2nd Place (2012/13) - I Am My Brother’s Keeper by Michael Powell

I Am My Brother’s Keeper by Michael Powell I knew that he was dead before the phone call.        Now I sit staring at the handset on the kitchen table in front of me. February snow floats lazily past the window. The washing machine starts the spin cycle. The towels inside smack against the metal drum.        Yes, I’d known. Memories of my brother are already drifting through my mind. Soon they will swell and drown out all other thoughts.

3rd Prize (2012/13) - The Incident on the Number Thirty-Six by Ceri Lowe-Petraske

The Incident on the Number Thirty Six by Ceri Lowe-Petraske It’s been six days and ten hours since it happened. The Thing . It happened on the forty first day and forty-one is not a good number. But I’ve started taking the bus again and things are almost back to normal. I like it when things are normal. Things are normal but not the same because I take a different bus now, not the thirty-six. But the seventy-five is okay. Both buses go to

Devon Prize (2012/13) - Saving The Goss by Ian Chamberlain

Saving the Goss by Ian Chamberlain You shuffled the final canvas into the back of the car and pulled a strap across them. At the traffic lights you twisted and checked again. They looked safe enough. Waiting for the green you noticed a man on a bike, looking at your car. No – looking into the car, at you.

Competition closed

The 2013 Exeter Writers Short Story Competition is now closed, and judging in progress.  

Creative Writing Matters

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Just in: a flyer for The Creative Writing Student's Handbook , by Cathie Hartigan and Margaret James.   How do you become a successful writer?   You’ll need commitment, passion, determination and a good teacher. But you’ll also need to be a good learner. As teachers of creative writing, we have had the huge pleasure of seeing our students achieve publication, win or be shortlisted for prizes. They have become confident, articulate writers who have learned to use their own special talents to their maximum potential. The Creative Writing Student's Handbook is a distillation of our joint teaching experience and we are sure it will be of use to all students of creative writing. The book will be published as successive chapters on the first day of each month: chapter 1 is online now . See creativewritingmatters.co.uk for further information on courses, workshops, mentoring and other services by Creative Writing Matters.

The Art of Impossibility

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left: front cover / right: author photo with Sappho What would you do if every piece of your identity was stolen? This is the fascinating premise of Exeter Writer member Bill Wahl's debut novel, The Art of Impossibility . We loved hearing extracts from this prior to publication and are convinced that this compelling and quirkily comic novel will be a big hit. How do you know who you are? For many years Michael Wilson had managed to disregard the emptiness of his life, until one day every piece of his identification is stolen. His farcical attempts to renew his identity expose him to a world of relationships he can no longer avoid – a world where Mary Magellan, an unpredictable conceptual artist, becomes important in ways Michael could not have imagined. A world where Michael must rely on Larry, a disgraced professor of logic, Sam, a lonely metal head living in his basement, and Julie, a manager of the Vital Records Department who takes a VERY personal interest in Michael

Margaret Starks 1913 - 2013

Teignmouth-based writer and Exeter Writers member Margaret Starks has died at the age of  ninety-nine. Born in London in 1913, she lived an active and adventurous life. In the 1930s, she travelled by bicycle through northern France. In the 1950s - after her marriage to Devon-born Naval Architect John Starks - she moved (with her two young sons) to the United States, and then in the 1960s to Scotland where she wrote the first two of her books. In the 1970s she and her husband moved again, spending five years in Rio de Janeiro, giving Margaret the material she needed for her third book, 'Candles on the Pavement'. When the two of them retired to Teignmouth in 1977, Margaret joined the Exeter Writers Group where she is remembered as "quiet but very friendly, a wise person, fair-minded and always good with her advice".  Later, she joined the local Probus Club and the Teignmouth Reading Group.  She was active in all of these organizations until well into her nineties.