Monthly Archives: December 2019

 

 

In this white time of year our thoughts drift out of the window looking for snowflakes. We rub our hands together for heat when our bones are cold and our minds are dark.

The stillness of winter and the quiet of snow can make us more receptive to new stimulus. The landscape is changing and there is a sense of anticipation in the air. A sense of waiting. Now is a perfect time to write.

Here are some ideas for triggering your winter writing. To me, winter is a beautiful but bleak time of year. I find this poem, ‘Winter’ by Billy Collins, very evocative of the bleak qualities of winter. This poem was published at: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/57444/winter-56d23af926a87

 

Winter

 

A little heat in the iron radiator,

the dog breathing at the foot of the bed,

 

and the windows shut tight,

encrusted with hexagons of frost.

 

I can barely hear the geese

complaining in the vast sky,

 

flying over the living and the dead,

schools and prisons, and the whitened fields.

 

 

 

Having read this poem, you could consider these questions:

 

Does this poem stir any emotion in you? If so what kind of emotions?

 

Do you think Collins enjoys the winter season? If not, how does he view winter?

 

What do you think about the winter season?

 

Does this poem remind you of any memories in your mind from past winters?

 

What poetic devices does Collins use in his poem?

 

What poetic devices would best express your own winter memories?

 

To aid the drafting of your poem you could turn to visual inspiration. I often find that paintings or photographs give me more interesting ideas for poetry than words or memories.

 

This featured painting is Winterlandschaft by Caspar David Friedrich (1811)

 

What can you see in this painting?

Does this painting raise any questions in your mind?

Who is the mysterious character in the painting?

What might you feel, see, hear, smell or taste if you were in the painting?

 

 

 

Now write your own Winterland.

 

 

 

 

 

By Natalie Nera

Naturally, before you do that, you have to experience a climax. Mine happened last week when graduating from Newcastle University after two years of grueling years of hard work, victories, and disappointments (yes, why is my best, not the best?), I finally made it. And it was paired with our fabulous book launch of the anthology that we link with the support of National Literacy Trust.

My anti-climax were several comic relief moments of mistaken identities and failing to operate self-service machines at the Post Office with any degree of success. Then I arrived back in the beautiful city of Prague only to fall ill, instead of continuing with celebrations with my Prague family. The bottle of rosé bubbly still sits in the fridge, waiting for me to stop shivering and sweating, feeling achy and miserable.

As I try to recover from my viral infection, I ponder over the fact that it is sometimes good to go through these things even if they do not make for an exciting plot in a story. You have to live it to understand it. Then step back and become an observer who can entrust stories to paper.

 

Photos by Jiye Lee, Frances Mulholland and Natalie Crick

 

On Monday 2^nd December 2019 we celebrated the creative work of students of MA in Creative Writing and MA in Writing Poetry at Newcastle University and Poetry School London, with the launch of the Bridges Anthology 2019.

The Bridges Anthology 2019 was edited by Rue Collinge and Fragmented Voices co-editors Natalie Nera and Natalie Crick. Rue Collinge designed the striking cover and typesetting inside the book. Newcastle University Fine Art students India Hibbs and Amy McCartney worked hard to create the beautiful illustrations for this anthology.

Contributors to the anthology, guests and students from various disciplines in the university gathered in the Old Library building to enjoy drinks, nibbles and a host of wonderful readings of poetry and prose from contributors to the book.

Each contributor was given a copy of the book and guests were invited to make a small donation to the National Literacy Trust upon purchasing the anthology. The National Literacy Trust is an independent charity working with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life.

Pippa Little, an award-winning poet, translator, reviewer and editor, wrote about the book: “This rich sparky collection showcases the best writing from Newcastle’s MA. It’s a delight to come across so many strong voices.”

Cherise Saywell, novelist, short story writer and winner of the V.S.Prichett Memorial Prize, added: “Ambitious in scope, at turns moving, disturbing, funny – the work anthologised here engages and delights.”

The Bridges Anthology 2019 will also be published with Bandit Fiction, a new voice in digital publishing with the goal of offering additional opportunities to new and emerging writers.

All profits raised from the sale of Bridges Anthology 2019 will go towards the National Literacy Trust charity.

Thank you to everyone who attended the event to launch this beautiful book with us, particularly the readers, illustrators, contributors and their guests; some of whom travelled from London to enjoy the evening with us.

The week was also a time to celebrate winter graduations for some of our writers. Huge congratulations to all MA Creative Writing and MA Writing Poetry students who graduated in Newcastle this week.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Natalie Nera

 

I have spent a life time of not belonging so when I became an immigrant in the United Kingdom, it was not a new experience for me. I spent years not fitting in, being different, not by choice but by the nature of my being, feeling lonely and unhappy, misunderstood.

It is not an act of self-pity; it is a statement of a fact. It is also the reason why my teenage years and my twenties were utterly miserable, the time I would not want to go back to. I understand today that I have always lived in exile of some sort, be it an inner exile or becoming one of the life’s nomads without a home. I also used to long for roots, for being accepted for I thought it was important. I believed you could not exist without it.

Jungian scholar Bettina Knapp[1] talks about two different types of exiles. Refugee writers are forced to leave, I never was. All of my exiles have been self-imposed although I could argue that in a way, I did not have much choice. This is who I am. I live in my head, exhausted from the effort of pretending. It is much more natural to be an observer, to watch and remain on the outside.

This week I am on my ‘return’ trip to the place and country that was my home for fifteen years, and these questions seem more relevant, still open-ended like an oozing wound.

Where’s your home, little swallow?
It’s with my husband and my kids.

I wrote these lines some years ago in my early attempts in English but they still hold true. I am home where the people I love are. It is all right not to belong, and it is pointless wasting years of pondering over the fact that you were born weird. Or at least I am. I am all right with it now.

I realise there is more significance to this journey than I originally appreciated. It has been six months since I became an exile in Prague, my home city, after twenty years of being “the foreign woman” in other countries. The collection of friends who were desperate to meet me upon my flying visit involve a German, a Spanish, an American, a New Zealander and about ten born and bred Brits.

Somehow, they all are part of my tribe, and we all belong to each other. My tribe has other people in Bucharest and Krakow, as well as Hong Kong. My friend Natalie Crick, the breathtakingly talented Newcastle poet you know from our blog posts, is a lot younger than me, she is English, yet, whenever we speak, it feels like we grew up together.

When you speak to most creative people, they will probably tell you similar stories of being the ones who do not fit. What I am trying to say is that it is all right to be that way because there are people out there who are just like you. They are your tribe so go and find them.

[1] Bettina Liebowitz. Knapp, Exile and the Writer: Exoteric and Esoteric Experiences: A Jungian Approach (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1991)

 

P.S.: I apologise to professional photographers for the quality of the photo, yet it is dear to me. I used to live in Haydon Bridge, a Northumberland village who gave residence to two famous personalities of the creative world – artist John Martin and poet Philip Larkin. I snapped this on my mobile phone on the way from switching on Christmas lights, an annual event on the first Sunday of December, during which community gets together.