Projects
In addition to it’s core
night, WORD! has an expanding portfolio of literature based projects -
delivered independently, or in association with others. Read on for more
information...
WORD!Shops.
WORD!
is currently delivering a series of monthly workshops, cunningly named
‘WORD!shops’. Sessions take place 4-6pm on the same day as the main WORD!
event. Facilitated by the evening’s booked act, sessions focus on developing
skills, in writing or performance and on generating new material.
Grassroutes £1000 Creative Writing
Commission
WORD!
is proud to be a delivery partner for this brand new and exciting commission...
GRASSROUTES:
Contemporary Leicestershire Writing, is an Arts Council funded project based at
the School of English in the University of Leicester.
GRASSROUTES
promotes public knowledge of Leicestershire’s diverse literary cultures. It
fosters local, national and international appreciation of quality transcultural
writing in the county.
We
are now inviting applications from writers living in Leicestershire for a
£1,000 creative writing commission, which will take the form of a short story,
long poem, poem sequence or performance piece that is also suited to the page.
The work should be a maximum of 5,000 words or should take up no more than 5
pages in the case of poetry.
The
commissioned work will be featured at two GRASSROUTES exhibitions of creative
writing in Leicestershire Libraries and in the David Wilson Library at the
University of Leicester (to coincide with the Literary Leicester festival).
The
commissioned work should take ‘transcultural Leicester’ as its central theme.
The
successful applicant will receive £1,000 for their work, including all
expenses.
Applicants
should submit the following in electronic form:
•
A CV detailing your writing experience
•
A publications list
•
A sample of creative work (3 pages max)
•
An outline proposal for the commission
These should be sent to Corinne Fowler
at csf11@le.ac.uk no later than 20th April
2011.
The
application will be considered by a panel drawn from the project partners and
will be chaired by Professor Graham Mort from the Centre for Transcultural
Writing & Research at Lancaster University. All applicants will be informed
of the decision by June 10th 2011.
For
information about the project see:
http://www2.le.ac.uk/departments/english/research/grassroutes
The Lyric Lounge
‘The
Lyric Lounge’ is a ‘site specific touring festival of poetry, spoken word and live
literature’.
The first ‘Lyric Lounge’ took place in July 2009, at The Y Theatre,
Leicester. Here it ran for 7 days and 7 nights, 11am-11pm. It resulted in over
30 new writing commissions and engaged just under 2000 people, across a
programme of: workshops, shows, open mics, one-ones and general ‘loungings’. It
was the first event, of it’s kind, on it’s scale, in the region, ever.
The 2009 festival was directed by Lydia Towsey, WORD!s Chair and
compere. It was managed by Writing East Midlands, in association with WORD! and
2Funky Arts. The festival was funded by MLA (Museums Libraries and Archives),
with further support from Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, Leicester
Libraries, Phoenix Square and Leicester Arts & Museums Service. Its
delivery group included: The Literature Network, Find Your Talent and 2Funky
Arts.
In 2010 ‘The Lyric Lounge’ was rolled out across the East Midlands,
staged at Derby, Nottingham, Loughborough and Leicester. It was again directed
by Lydia and managed by Writing East Midlands. In Leicester and Loughborough it
was association with WORD! and again funded, supported and steered, by all of
the above.
The Lyric Lounge is currently touring across Northampton, Lincoln
and Rutland. Watch this space for more information. Here’s the official blurb...
‘’The Lyric Lounge’ is part of
‘Igniting Ambition,’ the East Midlands' contribution to the Cultural Olympiad.
The Lyric Lounge is a Writing East Midlands’ project. It has been artistically
developed by Lydia Towsey. It is funded by MLA (Museums, Libraries and
Archives), Arts Council England, and Igniting Ambition’.