Reading & Q&A with NZ writer Frankie McMillan

 I'm so excited about my first event as Arvon's writer-in-residence: hosting an online reading and Q&A on Wed Nov 23 at 7.15pm UK time with brilliant NZ flash writer & poet Frankie McMillan - one of my new favourite writers! Here's the beginning of one of her flash stories, published in Cleaver magazine, to whet your appetite:

 

SEVEN STARTS TO THE WOMAN WHO WENT OVER THE FALLS IN A BARREL
Annie Edson Taylor, 1901
by Frankie McMillan

1

Picture the cold dark inside of the barrel. Annie feeling her way over the padded mattress to a harness hanging from the side. The barrel sways in the water. Picture her fastening herself upright into the harness, pulling the leather strap tight across her chest. Picture Annie flailing about, she can’t find her lucky heart-shaped pillow. Now picture the barrel picking up speed, with the current, heading straight towards the falls.

2

It’s not as if falling was something new. Early on, I fell from my crib, I fell through haystacks, I fell from grace, I fell behind the church to kiss the bridesmaids, I fell between heaven and hell then into marriage

 ...

 

Read the full story here https://cleavermagazine.com/seven-starts-to-the-woman-who-went-over-the-falls-in-a-barrel-by-frankie-mcmillan - book your ticket here https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/how-i-write-frankie-mcmillan/. See you there!

2 free places on Arvon flash & short story course

I had a wonderful time tonight running Zoom flash fiction masterclass for Arvon to raise funds for 2 FREE places on our in-person flash & short story course in January at Lumb Bank. for those from marginalised communities and/or on low income. To apply for one of the free places, email me by Dec 17 tania@taniahershman.com telling me in 250 words or less why you'd like a free place and why this flash & short story course in particular would be valuable for you. No need to disclose financial information. Course info here: https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/flash-fiction-short-story/

Arvon free place!

I've raised funds for 2 bursaries for the Arvon face-to-face week-long Beauty of Brevity writing course I'm tutoring with Niall Campbell for writers who wouldn't otherwise be able to come - writers on low income and/or from marginalised communities. There's one free & one 40%-funded place - email me TaniaH@gmail.com by Oct 15 to apply, we'd love to have you, please don't think you're not worthy of these bursaries! And please pass this on to anyone you think might benefit.

Here's info about the course:

Monday November 29th - Saturday December 4th 2021

The Hurst

We could spin cliches here – less is more, small is beautiful, short and sweet etc… – but let’s waste no time and cut to the chase, because that’s what we will be doing on this course. Without sacrificing depth, richness, story or meaning, we will examine and probe the tiniest works made of words – whether as prose, poetry or other shapes – and take inspiration from other miniatures across all fields, from the microscopic in science and art to the briefest of films and pieces of music, to create our own. Together we will approach the very small from many different angles, cutting down to it, working up to it, weighing it to feel every word, every pause and punctuation mark, discussing what is needed, what can be let go. Come join us in praise of the petite. No miniaturising – or writing – experience necessary!

 

https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/hybrid-brevity/

Zoom online flash fiction workshop

How about a flash fiction online workshop to get the juices flowing? I'm running a 2-hour online flash fiction workshop for Arvon on May 28th, 11am - 1pm. It's open to all, no experience necessary, you'll end up with at least 3 new story drafts, so come and play! Booking details here:  https://www.arvon.org/writing-courses/courses-retreats/arvon-at-home-masterclass-flash-fiction/

Bursaries for Arvon Flash Fiction course for BAME/Low income writers

My crowdfunding campaign went wonderfully -  I can now offer three £250 bursaries for BAME writers or writers on low income who would like to attend the Arvon foundation 5-day residential flash fiction course I am co-tutoring, with the amazing Nuala O'Connor, in Devon in November. More details about the course here - there are only a few places on the course left. This funding is coming directly from me -  if you'd like to be considered for one of the £250 bursaries (you will need to pay for the remainder of the course fee yourself) or you know someone who is not on social media who might like to apply, please email me taniah@gmail.com as soon as possible and let me know why you'd like the funding! It's going to be a wonderful week, come join us!

Tania

Crowdfunding for Arvon bursary

Going on an Arvon residential writing course can be a life-changing experience for both beginner and more experienced writers - I know this from personal experience! However, the costs (£720 -£770 per place) can be daunting, even with the grants that Arvon itself offers, so I am crowdfunding to offer up to four half-funded places for those who wouldn't consider applying or be able to apply - BAME writers, writers on low income, writers from other marginalised communities - on the 5-day residential Arvon Flash Fiction course I am co-tutoring with Nuala O'Connor in November 2018. Every pound helps, if you can spare it! I have raised almost 25% already in only a few days, which is amazing.

When I have raised the funds I will call for applications from writers who would like one of the places.  You can find out more about the course here.

Arvon Starting To Write Course Aug 2017

I am really excited about co-tutoring on an Arvon 'Starting to Write' course for the first time, in August 2017! The three 5-day residential Arvon writing courses I went on over 10 years were quite literally life-changing, and it is a privilege to now be able to, I hope, pass some of that on. I had a great time tutoring Arvon's first flash fiction course this year, with the inimitable Dave Swann.

Next year, why not come and join me and my amazing co-tutor, Jo Bell, a great friend of mine, fantastic poet and teacher, at the wonderful Totleigh Barton in Devon - with our special guest, Inua Ellams, who is hard to describe because what doesn't he do? It doesn't matter what you write or want to write, it's about words in whatever shape they come! We will work hard, but we will also laugh, a lot. And eat clotted cream. It's Devon.

Here's a little more about the course, and we will have some news soon about funding we are organising to assist those who wouldn't normally be able to come on one of these courses...

. STARTING TO WRITE

Jump-start your word-machine

GENRE: Starting to Write
Aug 14th - Aug 19th 2017
Totleigh Barton

Starting to write fiction, poetry or other forms raises questions: Write what? How to write? Why write at all? There are no rules, no simple answers, but during our week together we will write, read, talk and imagine, leaving you with tools to discover how your own peculiar and unique word-machine works, as well as new pieces and ideas to propel you forward.

More details on how to apply here >>

Arvon flash course + new poems

I'm beyond thrilled to be one of the tutors for Arvon's very first course in flash fiction in August 2016! For those of you who don't know Arvon, they are an amazing organisation running 5-day residential creative writing courses at their centres in Shropshire, Devon and Yorkshire, and going on 3 of their courses over the first 10 years of my writing life changed everything for me, each time anew. I can't recommend them highly enough. Now, they are rather pricier than they used to be - £750 for a single room, £700 for shared room - but they do offer grants for those who can't afford this, saying:

"Last year we were able to help more than 90% of all writers who applied. Priority is given to first time Arvon writers. Writers can apply for any amount up to the full course fee, although most receive between £200 and £400."

The range of courses gets wider every year - not just short stories, poetry, novels, but graphic novels, songwriting, memoir etc... Check out what's on offer. If you fancy having fun with me and Dave Swann, my mutli-talented co-tutor (and our special guest, Carrie Etter) then we would love to have you!

That's all to look forward to, but in the meantime, I'm delighted to have two new prose poems in the latest issue, Issue 3, of The Lonely Crowd, a gorgeous print magazine which is stuffed full of so much good writing, it's hard to know where to start.  I've already read two stunning stories by Jenn Ashworth and Jane Roberts, am pacing myself before devouring the rest. You can read an introduction to the issue by editor John Lavin, in which he rather delightfully describes my contribution as "two playfully allusive prose poems that serve to add a dancing-light-like quality" - and can listen to me reading them here!

I also have a new poem in the Winter 2015 issue of one of my favourite lit mags, Stinging Fly, accompanied by what guest editor Billy Ramsell calls a "souterrain", a strange and creative prose piece he asked several of us to write, describing the origins of our poems.

Finally, should you be stuck for festive gifts, Bloomsbury are offering a 40-45% discount on books, including Writing Short Stories: A Writers and Artists Companion - head this way!

And there's our lovely general-relativity-inspired short story anthology too, of course >>
 

I am looking forward to 2016  - which will involve events in Hampshire, Cheltenham, Birmingham, London - as well as the launch of my poetry chapbook in Cork! I am open to other invitations, please do drop me an email.

I will also (I will, I will) be finishing my book for my PhD. Oh yes. And kicking off a few new projects which will require your involvement, funding permitting - so watch this space!

Moments of joy

You never know when they will come - sometimes it's that miraculous email or tweet from a stranger saying "I just had to tell you how much I enjoyed your ....". Today it's this blog post on the Arvon blog by one of the fantastic and delightful participants on the Starting to Write Short Stories course I co-tutored 2 weeks ago with Rob Shearman. When you run a workshop, you cross your fingers that, well, someone might get something, anything, out of it. You hope - you try things you've done before, you try new things. But you never really and truly know.

Until someone writes something like this, and it pretty much makes you cry:

" ... By Penrith I’m convinced that after such an intense week I’ll never settle to everyday life again. By Carlisle I start to worry how to break this awful news to my husband. I want to leave everything, turn my back on our previous life and write on an island retreat somewhere. By Motherwell I’m seriously nervous. The week has been truly intense and something in me feels forever altered.

Between Motherwell and Glasgow Central I take out my notebook and work on some of the pieces begun during my Arvon week.  I jot down a few thoughts and as I do I realise what the change has been. Two weeks ago I’d never have scribbled away on a train like this. I might daydream out of the window, passing the time, losing all those thoughts to the air. But now they’ve become a source of stories. Stories everywhere that only I can capture, only I can tell.

As we pull into Glasgow Central I am relieved to find that after all my marriage is safe, my lovely husband need never hear how deliciously unsettling my week turned out to be. But I also acknowledge this new need to make time and space in my day to write.

Because that’s who I am. I’m a writer.

Thank you Arvon.

by Colette Watson, a writer on the Starting to Write Short Stories week at Lumb Bank 4-9 August 2014" (Read the full post here)
 

Oh, thank you, Colette, for being so amazing and so open to everything, so ready. And thank you Arvon - who did this for me, years ago, and then did it again, and again. And now give me the immense pleasure to be able to attempt to pass some of that on. A joyous moment. 

Arvon and Permissions

I just got back from the most wonderful week tutoring a short story course, together with the fabulous Adam Marek, at the Arvon Foundation's heavenly Totleigh Barton centre! There is always something magical about an Arvon course - after so many years they just have the formula right, the combination of a small group, a focussed five days of workshops and one-to-one meetings, the constant supply of food, including dinner cooked by a different quartet of participants each night, and the remote setting with gorgeous views!

But this time there was an extra special dash of fairy dust - maybe something to do with the group being particularly serene, creative, curious and willing to do any of the crazy things Adam and I asked of them! Many many new stories were begun last week, by the two of us too. And the staff - Claire, Olly, Steph, Eliza, Bridget, Caroline, Huxley - making us feel so at home. And the luminous Helen Dunmore, our special guest, talking to us so candidly about her life and work.

 

Adam's written a brilliant blow-by-pasty account of our week here, (how did I miss the pasties?) so I won't go over that, but I wanted to talk about one concept that kept coming up during the course: Permission. Permission to write about anything you want, in any style you want. And where does that permission come from? 

I have seen this in my own writing career - I can almost pinpoint other people's work that has opened my eyes and allowed me to try something I'd never tried before. Never thought of before.(All Over, a short story collection by Roy Kesey, was a revalation in 2007).

And it really hit home to me, how important this is - and, thus, how vital it is to read everything you can get hold of - when I was talking to undergraduates at Bath Spa Uni, my old alma mater, recently. I talked, of course, about using science as inspiration for fiction. Someone put their hand up and said, "So, do you think it's okay to use anything as inspiration, science, or maybe history?" I said Yes, I do, I think everything is up for grabs, and it wasn't until afterwards that I realised that perhaps I had just given that questioner permission he might have needed, that he hadn't just taken it as a given that a fiction writer can scavenge from anywhere. That really made me think.

This came up in an article in this weekend's Guardian review, a profile of Gerard Woodward:

At the same time, he was encountering the two authors whose work would mold the tone and temper of his own. "I was reading Updike and Nabokov for the first time. Updike showed me it was possible to write in a realist way, with a poetic approach. I'd never come across his blend of poetic sensibility and prosaic imagination in realist fiction before. Nabokov blew me away for the same reasons; not quite as down to earth, but he has the same qualities of poetry and playfulness. I found reading them both incredibly liberating, and permission-giving for what I wanted to do. They were the presiding spirits when I was writing August [the first novel in the trilogy]. Everything fell into place, after years of struggling both with novels and autobiography in poetry. I thought, at last I've found a way of writing about autobiographical material that works for me."

[Read the full article here.]

What has given you permission in your writing? Care to share? A person? A book? A film? A TV show? I'd love to have a discussion about it! The flipside of permission is taboo, and I planted this thought in our Arvon participants' minds on Day One: What wouldn't you write about, whether it's something that society considers taboo or it's personal? And what might be a taboo for you in how you write? No writing from the opposite sex, for example, or the 3rd person plural?

All about flash fiction

I think I may have written a blogpost with this title before but anyway it's still all about flash fiction because next Wednesday, may 16th, is the first ever National Flash Fiction Day! Brainchild of Calum Kerr, he has proven himself not just to be a person of endless creative ideas but also supremely organised and efficient in executing them and inspiring others. NFFD has gathered momentum worldwide, not just in its home country here in the UK.

So, what does it mean? Well, firstly, there is a National Flash Fiction Day anthology of brand new flash fiction, Jawbreakers, which includes stories by these lovely folk - and me!

Ali Smith, Jen Campbell, Dan Powell, Vanessa Gebbie , Amy Mackelden Laura Wilkinson David Gaffney  Brindley Hallam Dennis Rupan Malakin Tania Hershman Nathan Good  Rin Simpson Sarah Hilary Sara Crowley  Jenn Ashworth Bob Jacobs  Ian Rankin Benjamin Judge Mark Sheerin  Nigel McLoughlin Natalie Bowers Alex Thornber Valerie O'Riordan Carrie Etter L.A. Craig Calum Kerr Kylie Grant  Sal Page Jonathan Pinnock Susan F. Giles Martha Williams  Sarah-Clare Conlon  Eli Goldstone David R. Morgan Alison Wells SJI Holliday Nicholas Murray Eunice Yeates Nick Garrard Jay Barnett Kirsty Logan Kevlin Henney David Gilbert  Simon Thirsk  Sue Walker-Stokes Erinna Mettler Emma J.Lannie Jessica Patient  Brian George Trevor Byrne  Sally Zigmond Angela Readman Dan Carpenter Clare O'Brien  Alun Williams Jenny Adamthwaite Tim Stevenson Jason Bagshaw

You can pre-or your copy here, or pop to the official launch of NFFD next Wed in Southampton...

There is also a flash fiction anthology from here, Flash fiction south-west, which I am thrilled to also be included in, along with Sarah Hilary, Pauline Masurel, Martha Williams, Rin Simpson, Debs Rickard, Kevlin Henney and many others ...and the anthology is actually named after my flash, Kissing Frankenstein and Other Stories....

There are events up and down the country - and I'd like to invite you to the event I'm involved in, a flash fiction slam in Oxford organised by the inimitable Dan Holloway of eight cuts at the fabulous Albion beatnik bookstore. Kick off is at 6.30pm, free entry if you bring something to read! Come and entertain us with your flash fiction, or come to be entertained! I'll be reading something from my new book (did I mention I have a new book? :) ) and participating in the general merriment.

As if Calum wasn't busy enough - he's even launching a journal for NFFD entitled Flash Flood and wherever you are in the world, he wants your submissions of flash stories of 500 words or less! Find out more here. 

On the topic of flash, if you're wondering what it is and how to write it, come to Cork in September and join me for four days of flash writing workshops during the wonderful Cork International Short Story Festival (a slice of heaven for the short story junkie), Bath in October for a flash workshop at Mr B's Emporium for Writing Events Bath, or Devon in November for an Arvon Foundation 5 day course with me and Adam Marek in short and very short stories....

And on the topic of short stories, there are still some tickets left for Short Story Big Picture, the discussion in London on May 29th organised by Spread the Word, with an excellent panel including Di Spiers of BBC Radio 4, Ted Hodginkson from Granta, Helen Garnons-Williams from Bloomsbury, and me, talking about short stories. Should be fun! Come ask us some hard questions! (I will be reading a teeny fiction from my book there too.)

Bye for a while

There's no time, there's never enough time - to tell you what an astonishingly good week I had last week tutoring my first Arvon course with Sarah Salway! To tell you how much I learned... how much fun we had. I'm off now to the Hawthornden Castle Writers Retreat in Scotland for 4 weeks, with very very very little Internet access (maybe the odd dribble of it) - taking no fiction with me to read at all, a "short story fast"  -  wish me luck! See you all back here at the end of June, happy writing!

First acceptance of 2011

I had one day in December when I got 4 rejections in 24 hours. That wasn't much fun. I can handle them one by one, but that was a bit like being whacked... and then whacked again, and again! Well, 2011 is off to a better start with the first acceptance, sneaking in just before January ended: my poem, Moss, will be published in the next issue of Alba: A Journal of Short Poetry. So, my 5th published poem, what does this mean?

I've been reading the excellent Rose Metal Press Field Guide to Prose Poetry and feeling very inspired about poems that look a little like prose but aren't. Then J and I went to the TS Eliot prize shortlistees reading and I was blown away by Simon Armitage's odd and darkly humourous pieces from Seeing Stars, and Sam Willett's poems from New Light for the Old Dark (neither of whom, sadly, won). And then I bought Jo Shapcott's Costa-winning collection, Of Mutability, which is astonishing, and which suddenly taught me something about line breaks, the power of the word chosen to end a line, the word chosen to begin the next. Wow.

So I am being beautifully bombarded (by choice) on all sides by poetry, perhaps it's no surprise when sometimes that's what comes out when I write. I am remembering that as a kid it was always easy for me to makes up rhymes to impress classmates (it was the only thing I did that did impress them - my maths skills weren't really very cool). Maybe I am tapping into something that was always there? Whatever it is, I am enjoying playing around with other forms, all other forms. I am going on an Arvon Foundation course in Writing for Radio in the summer - another form that really appeals to me - and one of the tutors is Simon Armitage, so I am very excited about that! The other is Sue Roberts, executive producer for BBC Radio Drama in the North, I am really looking forward to meeting her too.

And on that note - yes, the wonderful Sarah Salway and I are teaching an Arvon Foundation course on the short story in May, and booking is now open! We'd love to meet you...!

A great week

I was feeling a bit bleurgh last week, partly due to feeling a little lost after deciding that I wasn't going to work at night, partly due to a couple of rejections all on the same day, and January looking like a Rejection Zone, what a way to start the year etc... etc... But then on Wednesday I headed down on the train to the Arvon Foundation's beautiful Devon writing centre, Totleigh Barton and things started looking much brighter. I didn't really know quite what I had been invited to do - I knew it was a school group, I knew I'd read and answer questions, but apart from that I wasn't sure.

I discovered when I got there that during the months they are not open to the public, Arvon run courses for many different groups which are similar in structure to the public ones: a group of 16 or so participants live in, with two writers who run a 6 day writing course, and there is a guest writer who comes half way through for one evening's reading. There are workshops in the mornings, and the participants cook dinner!

I have been on two Arvon courses in the last 8 years and it is no exaggeration to say that they were life changing. The first course, in 2002, was Writing & Science, a new topic for Arvon. When I saw it advertised I couldn't believe that there were other people who wanted to do what I wanted to do! The thing was: I didn't know how. And that 6-day course showed me how to let myself be inspired by science fact and turn it into fiction. It also showed me that I could write on demand - the tutors said, "Go off, write something, and come back and read", and what do you know? I could. Amazing. (I also met my partner J there, so it really was life-changing in all respects...)!

The second course, a few years later, was on short stories, and the tutors were Ali Smith and Toby Litt. Ali Smith was one of the reasons I wanted to write short stories in the first place. And so when we had a one-on-one tutorial and she told me to give up the day job and write full time because I was "the real thing", it blew my mind. Another milestone.

Coming back to Totleigh Barton, where this second course was held, was very moving for me. It's amazing to mark the passing of time: 2006 - me paying to come on a course; 2010 - me being invited and paid for, book in hand!

The reading went very well - I think. I say that because it was in a big barn and I didn't wear my glasses (ah, time...!) and so couldn't see the faces of the sixth-formers from 2 Bristol schools who were having a wonderful writing week with their teachers! I talked about my journey, read some flash stories and the beginning of a story from my book that I'd started writing there in 2006, and answered excellent questions, such as "How come you seem so happy?"! I liked that one. "Because I get to come here and talk about short stories," was the simple answer. The students were all very interested in writing, they are writing themselves, and I was really inspired by being with them, by answering their questions and listening to them talk about writing. And -they bought 10 books, all the copies I brought with me, that was quite a surprise too.

I also had a great time meeting the two excellent tutors, playwright Diane Samuels and Bristol-based novelist Chris Wakling, the teachers from the two schools, and Totleigh Barton centre directors Claire and Ollie. Looking forward to seeing them all again. I came back to Bristol the next day feeling re-energised and re-inspired. Hope I get to go back.

And then yesterday, just slipping in there before January left, some very lovely news. I think I mentioned that my play, Exchange Rates, which I adapted from my short story, was shortlisted for the Total Beast 6-Minute Play competition, and that all the shortlisted plays were being performed. We went to London for the performance, and I was really moved by how well the actors performed my play. It was just wonderful seeing it brought to life so well. (Of course I wanted to tweak it a little, but there you are!). After the performances, the director asked any of the writers in the audience to come onstage. I was a little freaked out by that, suddenly getting shy, but then we stood there and he announced the winner.

Me.

Yup! Big big shock. Really. Just having the play performed was a thrill. But a lovely cheque, which is greatly appreciated, as well as a critique of whatever script I choose to give her by a professional editor, which is a wonderful prize.

So now I am doubly, triply inspired! Now I want to write a play from scratch... and, after a fabulous creative brainstorming meeting with Philipa from the University's Centre for Public Engagement today, I want to write a science play, and maybe a film... and maybe something animated... and...

So, February dawns and 2010 is looking brighter. No snow this week, yet. And more inspirational events to keep my spirits up - am going to talk to undergrad Creative Writing students at Bath Spa Uni next week, where I did my MA. Don't tell anyone, but I think I might get more out of doing these events than they do. Shhhhh.