By Michael Nott
Students in Creative Writing at Strathclyde are set to be major contributors at Glasgow’s signature book festival Aye Write!
Write Now, Strathclyde’s fledgling conference for creative writers, will be an official part of the Aye Write! 2012 programme.
This year, Write Now achieved huge inaugural success in securing Louise Welsh, author of The Cutting Room (2002) and, most recently, Naming the Bones (2010) as its guest speaker, where an audience of literary enthusiasts listened to her speak on whether creative writing as a discipline can be taught.
Write Now will return on the 9th and 10th March next year, bringing together leading experts in creative writing to deliver an expanded two-day programme to include conference, skills sessions, and speakers such as Christopher Brookmyre designed to attract academics and people from the broader writing community.
The programme will boast an array of exciting skills sessions, including screenwriting, writing for graphic novels, and developing an online profile as a writer. Another innovation is The Marketplace, an environment where writers will have the opportunity to network and interact with independent publishers.
Dr David Kinloch, poet and creative writing tutor at Strathclyde said:
“The successful partnership with Aye Write! demonstrates the culture of innovation and enterprise that exists within Strathclyde’s postgraduate creative writing community.
“Our students will add value by helping to break down barriers between popular and academic audiences for new writing and offers an important literary festival new forms of outreach activity”.
Dr David Goldie, Head of the School of Humanities is in agreement:
“If this year’s conference is anything to go by, next year’s Write Now is going to be a landmark event for aspiring creative writers in the West of Scotland and beyond.”
Tickets for the conference are available now through the University’s Online Shop and the festival box-office opens in January 2012.
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