A while ago, I wrote a novel – a ghost story… Lilian’s Spell Book was written compulsively, under the power of the story, which was – at the same time – very complicated and very simple. I was hoping to publish it under a pseudonym – Alex Warden. And it went out to editors, […]
As part of the Birkbeck Summer lecture series, the wonderful Lara Pawson came along to talk to Birkbeck’s Creative Writing MA students, and to me, about writing and other things. It was one of the best events we’ve ever hosted. Lara was extremely open and full of insights. You can listen to the podcast here: […]
What can writers and teachers of Creative Writing learn from psychiatry, neuroscience, and other medical disciplines about the links between creativity and mental illness? The podcast from the fourth Friday evening event, which took place on Friday 19th May 2017, can be listened to here: http://backdoorbroadcasting.net/2017/05/writing-well-and-writing-to-get-well-nathan-filer-and-agata-vitale-in-conversation/ Nathan Filer, author of The Shock of the Fall, and Agata […]
What can writers and teachers of Creative Writing learn from psychiatry, neuroscience, and other medical disciplines about the links between creativity and mental illness? The podcast from the third Friday evening event, which took place on Friday 12th May 2017, can be listened to here: https://birkbeck.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=c5377e27-5648-4bae-afe6-0b3e2d5b2072 Dr Suzanne O’Sullivan and Professor Rodrigo A. Bressan discuss Creative Writing and Mental […]
What can writers and teachers of Creative Writing learn from psychiatry, neuroscience, and other medical disciplines about the links between creativity and mental illness? The podcast from the second Friday evening event, which took place on Friday 5th May 2017, can be listened to here: https://birkbeck.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=b9b08fdf-01ad-4cda-baa7-c2e852cd9405 (Just audio, not video.) Here’s a little information about it: Dr […]
What can writers and teachers of Creative Writing learn from psychiatry, neuroscience, and other medical disciplines about the links between creativity and mental illness? The podcast from the first Friday evening Writing Well and Writing to Get Well event, which took place at Birkbeck on Friday 28th April 2017, can be listened to here: https://birkbeck.hosted.panopto.com/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=bb301555-e337-4bd1-961a-fe1163bea178 […]
I wrote an article titled ‘Sourcedness’ on Amy Jump and Ben Wheatley’s adaptation of High-Rise for Critical Quarterly. It’s here. (It’s also here, until Critical Quarterly say no.) A Facebook post by Adam Roberts on 20th April 2017 seemed to be thinking along the same lines: The Alec Guinness/BBC “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, set in the 1970s, […]
EUSTON STATION A year or so ago, inside Euston Station, I bumped into a former student from the Birkbeck Creative Writing MA – Nicole Burstein. Since I first met Nicole she had gone, I hope she won’t mind me saying, from submitting some very angsty, introspective, scrappy prose for her first Writing and Reading workshop to […]
Normally, when people come along to a creative writing class, they are hoping to learn how to write better, not how to save the planet. A couple of years ago, I was teaching a Guardian Masterclass on ‘Storytelling Secrets’. Among those attending were three representatives of an international environmental activist network. They were young, casually […]
Along with my colleagues at Birkbeck College, Richard Hamblyn and Lily Dunn, I have been organising a big series of events to deal with this question – What can writers and teachers of Creative Writing learn from psychiatry, neuroscience, and other medical disciplines about the links between creativity and mental illness? We are delighted to announce […]
