Writing prompt – red

Tile at Ethographic Museum, Antalya_Photo by Judy Darley

While visiting Antalya, Turkey, in September, we explored the excellent Ethnographic Museum. One of the displays shows a series of ceramics, including the 17th century tile shown in my photo.

The reason this is remarkable is because of secrecy. An information plaque beside the tiles mentions that the craftsmen kept their ways of creating and obtaining colours a closely guarded secret, to the extent that the knowledge about how to make the lovely coral reds has now gone forever.

Imagine if a crucial piece of contemporary knowledge was lost in this way. What aspect of cultural or comfortable modern life would impact you most if it disappeared? Can you use this perturbing thought in a work of fiction?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Celebrate writing at Manchester Literature Festival

The-Royal-Exchange-Manchester-cr-Judy-Darley

This year’s Manchester Literature Festival promises a programme of buzzing, thought-provoking events celebrating writing in all its forms from 7th-22nd October.

Curated by Manchester Literature Festival Co-Directors Cathy Bolton & Sarah-Jane Roberts, this year’s programme aims to revel in imagination, creativity and ideas, offering new perspectives from which to view a fast-paced and shifting world. 

Taking place at an array of Manchester venues, from Manchester Art Gallery and International Anthony Burgess Foundation, Central Library to Contact, HOME and The Lowry, the line-up this year includes Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Simon Armitage, Natalie Haynes, Annie Macmanus, Afua Hirsch, George Monbiot, Gaia Vince, Lemn Sissay, Lisa Nandy and artist Jeremy Deller. 

Author and founder of the Women’s Prize for Fiction, Kate Mosse will hold a special ‘How to Write Historical Fiction’ Masterclass for the festival,l sharing what drew her to the genre, the inspiration behind her bestselling novels like Labyrinth, Sepulchre and The Burning Chambers, how she evokes convincing historical details and how to balance factual research with compelling characters and storytelling. 

Kate will also discuss her new novel, The Ghost Ship, and the real 18th century female pirates that inspired her in an In Conversation hosted by novelist Beth Underdown (The Key in the Lock). 

Novelist and memoirist Deborah Levy (The Cost of Living, The Man Who Saw Everything, Hot Milk) will be in conversation about her forthcoming novel, August Blue. Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing & Creative Manchester. 

Author Max Porter (Grief is the Thing with Feathers, Lanny) will perform a dramatic abridged reading from his new novel Shy with a live electronic score by musician Roly Porter. Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing & Creative Manchester. 

Turkish-British novelist Elif Shafak (The Island of Missing Trees)will discuss some of the writers and poets that have influenced and inspired her, some of the books she returns to regularly for pleasure or guidance and her own life-long passion for reading, writing and storytelling. 

There will also be new commissions to experience.

To mark Manchester Art Gallery’s 200th anniversary, MLF and the gallery have co-commissioned award-winning poet Jason Allen-Paisant (Thinking with Trees, Self-Portrait as Othello) to create a new trio of playful and sensual poems inspired by paintings and garments in the gallery’s collection. 

Icelandic novelist, poet and lyricist Auður Ava Ólafsdóttir (Animal Life, Hotel Silence, Miss Iceland) returns to the city to share new fiction inspired by her recent Writer’s Residency in Manchester. Presented in partnership with Manchester UNESCO City of Literature, John Rylands Research Institute and Library and Creative Manchester. 

Talented young writers from Manchester, Aalborg and Aarhus, Billie Meredith, SAF-S2E, Cassandra Marie Geyti, Silas Toft, Marie Laurberg Nielsen and Selina Rom Andersen, will present new poetry inspired by explorations of each other’s cities as part of the Cities Untold residency project. 

Find the full MLF line-up and download the brochure at manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – tense

Tents by Judy Darley

The rising cost of living in my home city is pricing people out of their houses and into tent villages. It’s a phenomenon I’ve seen before, both here and abroad, but never on this growing scale. Local parks are becoming homes for residents with few other options.

These are often people with jobs forced out by rocketing rents.

Can you write a tale that examines this problem and finds some kind of solution? How would it feel to be in this position? How would you retain your equilibrium in this situation?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Brooklyn Book Festival celebrates literature city-wide

Brooklyn. Photo by Miltiadis Fragkidis on UnsplashBrooklyn Book Festival (BKBF) returns with a hybrid offering in 2022, with online and real world events to choose between from 24th September to 2nd October.

The Brooklyn Book Festival was launched in 2006 as a one-day event to address the need for a free, major literary event that embraced the diverse constituencies of New York City. It has since grown to include city-wide Bookend events, its flagship Festival Day with 300 authors and a Literary Marketplace with 250 independent and major publishers, and the BKBF Children’s Day that celebrates childhood reading. The Festival’s credo is “hip, smart and diverse”.

There are three elements to the festival. Citywide Bookend events bring poetry, film, performances and more to all five New York City boroughs – the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

On September 24th, Virtual Festival Day welcomes authors and audiences who can’t attend in person to get involved from around the world and enjoy compelling author conversations.

On Saturday, September 30 at Brooklyn Commons, Metrotech, Children’s Day celebrates childhood reading with workshops, performances, readings from popular and emerging authors, and more.

They say: “The mission of the Brooklyn Book Festival is to celebrate published literature and nurture a literary cultural community through programming that cultivates and connects readers of diverse ages and backgrounds with local, national and international authors, publishers and booksellers.”

They add: “The Brooklyn Book Festival is New York City’s largest free literary festival and connects readers with local, national and international authors and publishers.”

Find the full line up here.

Sign up for their newsletter to discover information on highlights as it becomes available.

Find full details here: brooklynbookfestival.org.

Photo of Brooklyn Bridge by Miltiadis Fragkidis on Unsplash.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – yellow

Brush cr Judy Darley

On one of the sunniest mornings of the season, I saw this paintbrush on a wall.

Nothing I could see nearby had been painted yellow. It’s a shade that reminds me of butter, lemon curd, sandy beaches and the sun.

Could this brush have been used to paint summer?

Can you turn this into an intriguing tale that veers away from the saccharine sweet to explore something about childhood or growing up?

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Dive into Bath Children’s Literature Festival

Child reading cr Julian Foxon Photography

© Julian Foxon Photography

Hungry for writing inspiration or simply got young book-worms to entertain? Bath Children’s Literature Festival returns this autumn with ten days of fantastic, imagination-stirring events.

The festival runs from Friday 29 September – Sunday 8 October, with events for all ages.

Look out for workshops, talks and performances with exceptional authors and illustrators including Katherine Rundell, Sir Lenny Henry, Cressida Cowell, Robin Stevens, Rob Biddulph, Holly Jackson, Dapo Adeola and Nathan Bryon, Nikita Gill, Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, Holly Bourne, Chris Riddell, Tom Holland and Tracy Darnton.

Not sure what to book your spot at? The team at the Festival have created a trailer to whet your appetite. Click here to view it,

Image supplied by Bath Festivals. Photo by Julian-Foxon-Photography.

Find details at bathfestivals.org.uk/childrens-literature.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – pasture

Staden Grange, our home in Buxton, VW Beetle car in green field. Photo by Judy Darley

I spotted this vintage VW Beetle resting in a field near Burton. I rather like the way looks like it’s been put out to pasture after a hard working life. It certainly has views worth pausing to soak up now. I can envision it trundling around on the grass admiring bumblebees nosing in buttercups and generally enjoying some relaxation.

Imagine the people who might have driven or ridden in this vehicle. You could put a sinister twist on a tale by imagining they travelled here for a picnic. What occurred that led to them abandoning their car? Bucolic scenes like this are ripe for uncanny happenings!

Whether you choose to go dreamy, comic or scary, turn this scene into a tale.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Submit your words to the Moth Nature Writing Prize

Moth by Judy Darley

The Moth Magazine invites you to enter the Moth Nature Writing Prize. The deadline for entries of nature-inspired short stories, non-fiction and poems is 30th September 2023.

The judge is Kathleen Jamie. Kathleen published her first collection of poetry at the age of 20 and is the author of numerous collections since, as well as three works of non-fiction, an acclaimed travel narrative and the essay collections Findings and Sightlines, both hailed as ground-breaking nature books.

She says: “To produce work I’ve walked and sailed many miles, and benefited from the company and expertise of visual artists, pathologists, curators, ornithologists, and from encounters with other species too, especially birds and whales.”

The Prize will be awarded to the writer of the short fiction, non-fiction or poem that the judges deems to best combine exceptional literary merit with an exploration of the writer’s relationship with the natural world.

The prize is open to anyone over the age of sixteen, as long as the work is original and previously unpublished. Your submitted work must be no longer than 4,000 words.

Prizes

The winning entries will appear in the Irish Times online.

The winner will receive €1,000 and a week-long stay at Circle of Missé creative retreat in the most southern part of the Loire Valley.

Second prize is €500.

Third prize is €250.

There is a fee of €15 per entry.

Prizewinners will be notified in writing by 15th November 2023.

Visit www.themothmagazine.com for full details.

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw my attention to? Send me an email at judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.

Writing prompt – waft

Caterpillar_JudyDarley

Turning on to a path in my favourite urban wilderness, I almost walked directly into this levitating caterpillar. It looks like a box tree caterpillar. Intriguingly the plant it’s hanging from seems to be a box tree that’s growing through a sycamore, with the trunks winding around each other.

I thought they might dangle from threads to evade predators, but apparently the thread is their version of an escalator. It helps them ascend to fresh tasty leaves and catch the breeze to nearby plants once they’ve stripped all the box leaves (or simply made them all curl up and die) from their home.

Imagine if our chosen transportation was to emit a silky thread and catch the next waft of wind! What chance encounters might occur?

Can you explore this idea in a story? It could even turn into a #clifi tale, examining how we could escape once we’ve stripped our planet of its resources.

If you write or create something prompted by this idea, please let me know by emailing judydarley (at) iCloud.com. I’d love to know the creative direction you choose.

Writers! Enter Mslexia Fiction Competitions 2023

Mum's eye view cr Judy DarleyThe Mslexia Fiction Competitions are open for entries.

There are threecategories this year: Novel for Adults, Short Story, and Flash Fiction. The deadline for each is 18th September 2023.

Submit the first 5,000 words of your novel for adult, or young adult, readers; a complete short story of up to 3,000 words; and a flash fiction no more than 300 words.

Prizes include manuscript feedback and agent introductions, plus publication.

Mslexia Novel for Adults competition – everything you need to know

  • Judged by author Sophie Hannah, Natasha Onwuemezi of the Bookseller) and Sophie Lambert, literary agent and MD of the C&W Literary Agency, will choose the winner. This competition is open to women who are not yet published as novelist – self-published authors are eligible providing you’ve had fewer than 500 sales.
  • Submit first 5,000 words only in the first instance. Longlisted entrants will be asked to submit finished manuscripts later in the judging process
  • Your novel must be at least 50,000 words long
  • Entry fee: £26
  • 1st prize £5,000.
  • Finalists receive manuscript feedback from The Literary Consultancy and personal introductions to literary agents arranged in partnership with New Writing North.
  • Previous winners and finalists include Imogen Hermes Gower with The Mermaid and Mrs Hancock, Polly Clark with Larchfield, Frances Perkins with The Seven Imperfect Rules of Elvira Carr, Laura McVeigh with Under the Almond Tree, and many more.
  • Read an extract from the 2021 winning novel, Taint, here.

Mslexia Short Story competition 2023 – everything you need to know

  • Judged by Deborah Moggach, this competition is for unpublished complete short fiction of up to 3,000 words in any genre and on any theme.
  • The entry fee is £12.
  • 1st prize £3,000.
  • Three additional finalists will each receive £100
  • The winning entry and three finalists will be published in Mslexia.
  • The winning entry and finalists will be published in Issue 100 of Mslexia, with eight additional finalists, along with the four winners, appearing in Mslexia’s ebook anthology Best Women’s Fiction 2023.
  • Find out how 2022 winner Mónica Ibarra Parle did it here

Mslexia Flash Fiction Competition 2023 – everything you need to know

  • Judged by Tania Hershman, this competition is for unpublished complete short fiction of up to 300 words in any genre and on any theme
  • Entry fee: £6
  • 1st prize £500
  • Three additional finalists each receive £50
  • All four winning entries will be published in Issue 100 of Mslexia
  • Winning entries plus eight more shortlisted entries will be published in Mslexia’s ebook anthology Best Women’s Short Fiction 2023.
  • Find out how 2022 winner Karen Arnold did it here

Visit Mslexia’s entry instructions for a more comprehensive guide on how to enter.

Find full details at www.mslexia.co.uk. Good luck!

Got an event, challenge, competition or call for submissions you’d like to draw attention to? Send an email to judydarley (at) iCloud (dot) com.