Centre for Writing
The Centre for Writing staff engage in a range of research activities, including fiction, poetry, adapting plays and fiction for BBC radio, song lyric and screen writing, electronic publishing, and academic publications on contemporary British and North American authors, and on the ways in which the teaching of creative writing informs creative practice. Each member has a strong publishing track record: recent publications include Jim Friel's interrogation of national identities in his radio adaptations, and Aileen La Tourette's explorations of memory in her poems and short stories.
The Centre has strong links to the worlds of professional publishing, performance and production, and is supported by an experienced team of part-time tutors and Visiting Writers, Professors and Fellows, including Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sarah Maitland, Jimmy McGovern, Patricia Duncker, Michèle Roberts, Mo Hayder, Terence Davies, Jackie Kay (Visiting Fellow 2000-2002), Bernard Mac Laverty (Visiting Professor 2003-2005), Barry Unsworth (Visiting Professor 2000-04) and Margaret Murphy (Visiting Professor 2007-).
Gareth Creer is an Associate of the Writers in Prison Network; and Jim Friel and Jenny Newman are tutors for the Arvon Foundation and the Taliesin Trust. The Centre for Writing is also involved, through Jenny Newman as a trustee, with the annual Writing on the Wall festival, which hosts events by acclaimed writers (including Noam Chomsky, Stephen Poliakoff, Jean Binta Breeze, Blake Morrison, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Roddy Doyle, Jimmy McGovern and Irvine Welsh). The Centre has edited several collections of poetry and prose by staff, students and internationally-known writers (Pool 1&2, Poetry Pool 1-4, in a Creative Partnership with Headland Publications, which is part-funded by Arts Council England, North West); and In the Red, a literary magazine of poetry by staff, students and visiting writers.
The Centre for Writing supports an active programme of creative output in fiction, poetry, radio and screen writing, and academic publications on the teaching of creative writing.
It is involved, through Jenny Newman as Creative Consultant, with the annual Writing on the Wall festival, which hosts events by acclaimed writers, such as Noam Chomsky, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Roddy Doyle, and Irvine Welsh. The Centre has edited several collections of poetry and prose by staff, students and internationally-known writers (Pool 1&2, Poetry Pool 1-3, in a Creative Partnership with Headland Publications, which is part-funded by Arts Council England, North West), and In the Red, a literary magazine of poetry by staff, students and visiting writers.
There are close research and postgraduate supervision links with colleagues in the Research Centre for Literature & Cultural History.Creative publications, including Jim Friel's interrogation of national identities in his radio adaptations, and Aileen La Tourette's explorations of memory in her poems and short stories, address in fictional and poetic form related literary and historical themes. Staff also research ways in which contemporary critical and pedagogic writing informs creative practice.
Gareth Creer is an Associate of the Writers in Prison Network; Jim Friel and Jenny Newman are tutors for the Arvon Foundation and the Taliesin Trust.
