Fractals: Live reading event

[dropcap]E[/dropcap]arlier this month, the Warwick Writing Programme’s MA Creative Writing students presented an evening of readings in order to raise money for their upcoming anthology Fractals. All readers were tutors on the MA programme; novelists Sarah Moss (Cold Earth, Bodies of Light, Night Waking), Tim Leach (The Last King of Lydia) and David Vann (Goat Mountain) all read sections from their most recent projects, while poet and current Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the university, Mahendra Solanki read a selection of poems from his collection The Lies We Tell.

“Tonight is important because supporting the MA work is something that vitally needs to happen in the Warwick Writing Programme,” said Jack McGowan, Writing Programme tutor and compère for the evening. “They do a fantastic job – often a thankless job – and they need financial backing. They also need to improve the visibility of the anthology. A lot of work has gone into it, with the contributions, the organising and the editing, so it would be lovely to see that work come to fruition. This years’ crop of MAs are both fascinating writers and just lovely people. The MA programmes across the university have taken quite a hit recently, levels of applications have been very down, so it’s wonderful to see that, despite that, there’s still this concerted group of writers, willing to step up, produce anthologies and nights like this event.”

Thursday’s evening of readings was the first of three fundraising events

Similar evenings will take place in terms two and three before the anthology is released at the end of this academic year. Aside from raising money for an innovative project, these readings allow audiences to listen to the impressive work of the Writing Programme tutors, giving them a glimpse of the genius that resides behind the doors of Milburn House. It is easy to become desensitised with such talented writers as tutors and these evenings serve as a reminder of how skilled the Warwick Writing Programme’s teachers are.

“It’s remarkable thinking back to just ten weeks ago when term began,” says Jimmi Sharpe, MA student and member of the Fractals team. “Particularly when I think about how much I thought I knew about writing. When you get to be around these incredible lecturers who are also professional writers, you end up completely re-evaluating everything you knew about your own abilities and your own potential and talent. I think that’s the important thing. Community is also such an important thing to add – people pushing against each other and building connections in order to push forward. I think change can only happen in a group – it rarely happens with individuals – and I think that’s what’s so crucial about the MA. It puts you in a real close-knit family.”

The close-knit family of MA students have big plans for their anthology. Thursday evening, although impressive, marks only the beginning.

“Fractals is our manifesto,” says Alexandra Payne, MA student and fellow Fractals teams member. “We are the new, young writers of today. Warwick Writing Programme is a real hub for the fresh talent that’s coming through. We’re one of the best-regarded programmes in the country so it’s amazing to think that we really are on the brink of this industry and we are the new faces, I guess… Fractals is what we’re doing to get out there for the first time. It’s our voyage into the publishing world so it’s really, really exciting.”

Tim Leach is living proof of the success of the MA programme. Tim graduated from the Warwick Writing Programme having written the draft of his first novel and has now returned, novel published, to teach. The MA course experience has been instrumental in his career.

“The MA anthology is a wonderful culmination of the work of the MA students,” Tim says.  “It’s such a useful experience, both in terms of writing to deadlines and creating a piece of work that they’re proud of and willing to share publicly, but also for the whole experience of the publication process. They develop skills in editing, marketing, design and organising events like this one. It’s almost a crash-course in publishing.”

Although Fractals is an exciting beginning for the MA students, Thursday evening was also about celebrating the work of already-established writers, sharing parts of new projects, setting out of voyages of their own. It is clear that the Warwick Writing Programme, no matter which stage of your writing career you may be at, is a wonderful community of which to be a part.

Image Credits: Header (Flickr/Renaud Camus), Image 1 (Fractals)