Birmingham Writers’ Group

The New Writer has now relaunched and the whole of the latest issue can be viewed at http://www.thenewwriter.com/launch-issue/
while elsewhere on the site you can order a half price print copy.

£9,000 bursary for current arts students and recent graduates

Uni Fee Fund

Saddled by student debt? Whether you’re a first-year student or a graduate, if you embarked on a BA or BMus in 2006* or later, you could benefit from having £9,000 wiped off your Student Loans Company balance by arts charity IdeasTap.

For a chance to win, simply tell us in 100 words or less what you could offer to IdeasTap’s network in exchange for the money.

It could be an idea or a service, for example “This is how you could improve your site…” or “I’ll run this Spa event for your members…” ­

the more imaginative, original and feasible the idea, the better!

Find out more and apply by 29 March at www.ideastap.com/unifeefund

Members might be interested in the unusual way Mark Woodward is launching his new novel, Mouseman. While most readers simply read a book, Mouseman offers readers a chance not only to voice their opinions directly to the author, but to influence the development of the book through their comments and criticisms. The book will be published initially in five weekly episodes, available both from Amazon and as free PDF from his website. As the story progresses, readers will be invited to post their questions, comments and criticisms on the Mouseman Facebook page, and he will post his responses in return. The page will reflect the whole range of opinion - he won’t censor it to remove the comments that are less than complimentary! When all five episodes have been posted, the book will be revised and published as a single-volume ebook and paperback.

Book description:

Mouseman is a comic, dark and unsettling novel, exploring the social and sexual dysfunction of men through the life of MM, its obsessive narrator. MM’s only relief from the strange world of Beech Brothers, the eccentric tenants of Mrs Flynn and the mice that keep him awake at night are his visits to the mysterious Roseanna. He lies on her couch and tells her about his first and only girlfriend, Suzanne, his schoolfriend, Nick, and his troubled boyhood. But his stories grow darker and more disturbing, and start to seep into the real world…

The first three chapters of Mouseman were shortlisted for the 2012 Yeovil Literary Prize.

Mouseman is being published in five weekly episodes available from Amazon and as a free PDF from the Writing Idol website.

Tell the author what you think – post your comments on the Mouseman Facebook page!

Brian Grove, a UK author based in Stourbridge, has a helpful website with lots of help for writers.

He lists publishers who are open to submissions, do take a look:

http://myperfectpitch.com/book-publishers-accepting-submissions

Job title: Publicity and Marketing Assistant / Officer
Location: Birmingham
Closing date: 25 May 2012

Please see the website for details

We’re IdeasTap: an online platform that helps young people break into the creative industries. We offer advice, a space to network, funding and workshops to enable emerging artists to develop their talent. We’re also a charity – so we offer all this for free.

 We wanted to let you know about a rather special opportunity for young creative folk in the West Midlands that we currently have on our site, which we hope will appeal to some of the talented people you work with.

 Future Poets Festival

Along with Writing West Midlands and the Midlands Arts Centre, we’re looking for 8 creative individuals aged 16-19 to work together over five months to create a one-day Future Poets Festival.

 They’ll get to attend workshops with poets, artists, theatre-makers and performers,where they’ll learn how to run a festival and will get mentoring on their own work too. They will then curate a mini-festival at mac on 4 August. Find out more and apply.

 Please do pass this information on to anyone you think might be interested.

 If you’d like to learn more about IdeasTap and how we can help emerging artists, visit us as www.ideastap.com. You can also get in touch with us on Facebook and Twitter.

We will need: 

Would you like to volunteer for Alt.Fiction? 

If you’d like to gain excellent work experience with a well respected festival, either in marketing, events organisation or photography, we’re always looking for volunteers to help with the smooth running of the weekend. We offer all our volunteers a reference and can provide lunch for you on the day. You will of course gain free access to the festival across the weekend, and get the opportunity to see some of your favourite authors in action.

If you’d like to apply, please contact Catherine@writingeastmidlands.co.uk

Last September, Birmingham Writers’ Group took part inArtsfest, Birmingham’s free arts festival.

There is a Youtube video available of one of these events, a performance called “John Bull on the Slab”

“Gallows humour as organs tell their tales at the autopsy of John Bull.
Warning: contains unrealistic scenes of human dismemberment.”

This runs for 30 minutes, so is split into two parts.

Friend of Birmingham Writers Group Leslie Tate has released an ebook of poetry.

Head and Heart tells the story of two lovers and their escape from empty marriages into passionate fulfilment. From nervous first meeting to deep involvement, exploring divorce, alopecia and the language of love, these poems will surprise, delight and challenge. Presented in themed sections with short, helpful introductions they offer a new take on boy meets girl. Enjoy them as original lyrics or an A-Z of modern love; learn how to “stay in the bubble” and keep the love light alive; share love’s unseen presence in cities, galleries, parks, gardens and nature ? or go with the poems to explore the raw, rich power of Eros in words, with expression, as song.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Head-and-Heart-ebook/dp/B007671C70/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1328607228&sr=1-1