By Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone
The event that showcases City’s Short Course Creative Writing talent is back on Zoom. After our successful virtual City Writes in the Summer Term, we are delighted to be returning with another City Writes via Zoom this term on:
Our professional writer this term will be the fabulous Novel Studio and Short Courses alumna Deepa Anappara, whose debut, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, was longlisted for the Booker Prize earlier this year. A wonderful novel about child disappearances from the outskirts of a large Indian city, Deepa will be reading a short extract and answering questions from host, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone and audience.
“In 2012 I’d been working on One Scheme of Happiness for about a year; I could tell a story with a beginning, middle and end but what I had wasn’t a novel. I’ve always read a lot and studied literature at university so I knew what a novel could be like. I knew I could write but I didn’t know how to structure a novel, how to write effective dialogue and many things I didn’t even know I didn’t know (voice, point of view, first person or third person…)
Then I saw an open evening for the Novel Studio (arts council website). By the end of the course I not only had a structure I was happy with, I also knew how to write a letter to an agent and how to submit my work. I also had a group of friends who would give valuable, objective feedback on my work. Seven years later we still meet regularly to write, share work and celebrate successes. Even in this time of self-isolation we’re Zooming together. It’s been amazing to be friends with other writers who are also balancing writing with work and childcare.
After the course I kept going until I had a draft of my novel that I was happy with, then started:
It’s a lot of work and a lot of rejection and costs money (some courses and competitions have subsidised places).
But it all helps, and in 2015 I was taken on by Emily Sweet Associates; it was wonderful for a professional to ‘get’ my novel and to validate my writing. Emily suggested editing and redrafting – more work – but the new draft led to some long and short-listing in national competitions. To minimise the angst of waiting for more rejection from publishers (easier if your agent can soften the blow!) I drafted a new novel and set up a WordPress blog to review new books. I also signed up to NetGalley – a brilliant way of reading new books as digital ‘galley proofs’ before they’re published. For free. All you have to do is write a review after you’ve read them. I’ve read books by Kamila Shamsie, Linda Grant, Kit de Waal and many more. Reading is vital for any writer.
Finally in 2018 an indie publisher, Retreat West Books, wanted to publish my novel. Again I had more work to do on the novel itself as well as promoting it on social media, but Amanda Saint has been a great editor. On 27 Feb 2020 my debut, One Scheme of Happiness was published. Just before lock down, I had a launch and signed copies of my book like a proper author!
I’m now working on my next novel: The River Brings the Sea (third in the First Novel Award, 2019).“
Congratulations, Ali!
You can follow her on Twitter @alithurm
Or her blog on WordPress https://alithurm.com
For anyone interested in The Novel Studio, applications are now open for entry in October 2020. Further details here.
Two deadlines are fast approaching for all you brilliant writers out there.
City Writes: Deadline for submissions 6th March
This term’s City Writes, an event showcasing the best writing from City’s Creative Writing Short Courses, will feature the fabulous Shahrukh Husain. Editor of The Book of Witches, as well as screenwriter, playwright, fiction and non-fiction writer, Shahrukh will be sharing this wonderful collection and exploring the ongoing relevance of myth and fairytale.
For your chance to share the stage with Shahrukh, enter your best 1,000 words of fiction or creative non-fiction by midnight Friday 6th March. You can find all the submission details here.
The event will take place on Wednesday April 1st in City’s 125 Suite at 6.30pm and you can buy tickets to hear Shahrukh and the competition winners here. Details of the competition winners will be announced in week 9.
Already excited? Prepare for the event by reading Emily Pedder’s interview with Shahrukh Husain here.
Ruppin Agency Full Mentoring & Editing Scheme: Deadline 9th March
If you’ve made good progress with your book, fiction or non-fiction, and are looking for a breakthrough that will make your writing stand out to agents and publishers, apply for the Ruppin Agency’s Full Mentoring & Editing scheme.
The scheme consists of six monthly sessions with a mentor and a full developmental edit by The Book Edit.
An additional session with a literary agent will give you some invaluable DOS and DON’TS specific to your book.
You can choose from their team of over 30 mentors, all published writers and experienced creative writing teachers, based across the UK, meeting up in person or via videocall. For more information contact: studio@ruppinagency.com.
City, University of London were proud to host our winter Open Evening on Tuesday 10th December 2019.
Our Open Evenings are a great opportunity to visit our campus and meet out tutors – and this December we had a great turnout of guests, looking to find out more about all the evening and weekend courses that we offer at City. We offer light refreshments and some free gifts to take away with you.
City Short Courses also offers a range of taster sessions – 40-minute classes to give you a flavour of what it is like to study at City. We are hosting our next Languages Taster Event on Wednesday 15th January 2020. We will be running taster sessions in seven languages – Arabic, Chinese Mandarin, French, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish. Find out more and book your place on the webpage.
We have over 120 courses across subject areas – business, computing, creative industries, languages, law and writing. Next term starts Monday 20th January 2020, enrol online!
City, University of London proudly hosted our first ever open evening and taster sessions event on Thursday 11th July 2019. Thank you to everyone who made the evening such a success and to all of our attendees – we hope that you found it interesting.
Throughout the evening we offered a series of 30-minute taster sessions in a select number of our short course programmes to give students a feel for what it is like to study a short course with us.
We started the evening on a high with a taster session in one of our most popular courses, Introduction to Programming with Python. Lead by programming expert, Philip De Grouchy, this session was packed out with young professionals looking to try their hand at coding.
Our digital guru, Elliott King, ran a parallel session in Strategic Digital Marketing, combining theoretical knowledge with step-by-step guidance on delivering online marketing campaigns.
Katy Darby lead an interactive session in Short Story Writing, for those looking to nurture their creative flare while Marian Wancio delivered a more practical course in Project Management.
We also ran sessions in Immigration Law, Adobe InDesign, JavaScript Programming, Writing for Business, Writing for the Web, Curating & Exhibition Management, Japanese; and Chinese Mandarin.
Feedback from our attendees was overwhelming positive, with the vast majority stating that their questions were answered adequately by our staff. Our taster classes were also well received, rating the quality of the sessions highly.
However, there is always room for learning and improvements! As a result of our feedback, we intend to replace the current format with two separate events. In December 2019, we will be hosting a ‘meet our tutors’ open evening, an excellent opportunity to speak to our experts one-to-one about the wide variety of courses we offer at City. In the summer of 2020, we will be continue to run a full evening of taster sessions, offering a glimpse of what is it like to learn at City.
We will also be extending out taster sessions from 30 to 45 minutes to allow more time for learning. See the Visit Us section of our blog to find out more about our visitor events or book your place on our December open evening.
© 2021 City Short Courses
Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑
Recent Comments