Words Unlimited

Beginnings and Endings

I’m teaching two courses away from Goldsmiths this autumn. One for those starting to write and one for those who’ve finished their novel and need start the process of final revision.

Write Time, Write Place, a one-week course in October, is based in a gorgeous old town house in Sineu, country town and old Roman capital at the heart of rural Mallorca.

Is Your Novel Really Finished? Is a workshop for writers of children’s novels, part of the British SCBWI's 2nd Conference for Writers and Illustrators in November.

Sharon Olds

              

Sharon Olds is over from the States this month with readings in Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and London. I’ll just miss the Aldeburgh Poetry Prom, as I must leave my house by the sea on that day to be back in London. If you haven’t seen Olds read it’s worth the journey! 

The essay I wrote for Magma 44 had me re-reading all of her books earlier this year, including the stunning new collection, One Secret Thing. My respect for her grew. 

Readers are rarely indifferent to her work. Pouncing on individual poems or the latest book the verdict is usually either love it or hate it.  

Reading such a body of work I could only admire her journey, her tenacity in the search, through writing, for ‘truth.’ Outspoken, of course, but look at the multi-perspectives she brings to the same material – her difficult childhood, her troubled relationships with her parents, her sexuality. There is compassion, searing honesty, but no self-pity.  And, always humour. See her if you can.