www.grahamgreenefestival.org

____________________________

03 November 2009

Rebekah and Bill launch Creative Writing Awards at new workshops




In Deans’ Hall, Berkhamsted School (UK), on Saturday 3rd October 2009 a new and alternative event --- Creative Writing Workshops in prose and screenplay writing --- ran parallel with the main events of the Graham Greene International Festival. They were practical one-day courses for aspiring adult writers of all ages, and they appealed to those who had aspirations to write or to have some writing published or broadcast --- and also to those who were simply curious or who wanted a change from the mainstream of the Festival.

The leaders, Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone (above, left) and Bill Ivory (above, right), are experienced and successful writers who willingly shared their experiences and offered tips and guidance. They asked their participants to write to particular purposes, and they helped them to look positively and critically at what they had written on the day. They also gave them valuable insights into the lives of professional writers.

Rebekah, who was educated at Oakham School and Cambridge, was awarded a Graham Greene Birthplace Trust grant in 2004 and was the co-founder and joint editor of Tales of the Decongested. She is a partner of Apis Books, and the published author of short stories and a novel.

Bill Ivory, who was awarded an honorary D.Litt. by the University of Nottingham in 2009, writes drama for BBC television, film and stage. He won The Edgar Allan Poe Award in New York presented by The Crime Writers Association of America for Best Television Drama Series.

The Festival director, Dermot Gilvary, commented, “I hope that the creative event has added a fresh, strong and permanent element to the Festival, and one would like to think that Greene himself would have approved of the enterprise.”

At the Workshops another exciting aspect was added to the work of the Trust and the Festival, when Rebekah and Bill launched the Graham Greene Birthplace Trust Creative Writing Awards 2010. Members of the public --- including equally those who attended the Festival and those who did not--- were invited to submit creative writing pieces under one or more of the following headings: fiction writer, thriller writer, travel writer, screenplay writer, writer under twenty-one years of age, Berkhamsted School writer and Old Berkhamstedian writer.

Each entry must be written mostly in the English language. The word limit for each prose piece is eight hundred words. The limit for screenplay writers is four pages of text in a normal font size on A4 paper. The deadline for submission of entries is 1st April 2010. Entries must be typed, and sent on pdf files to the Awards’ Secretary: RGuy@berkhamstedschool.org

Prose writers must begin with the following line, and continue from there:
“A whistle blew, and the train trembled into movement….”

Screenplay writers must embed this line somewhere in their texts:
“A whistle blew, and the train trembled into movement….”

Full details of the Awards are also available on the website. Click here for a pdf version of the rules and practices.

Good luck to all you writers!

Followers

Blog Archive