27 January 2012
Posted in
Books and Poetry
Off
the Shelf at Black’s is a literature collaboration between Black’s
members’ club and the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain books committee
that organises a series of monthly, one-day residencies for fiction
writers, held on the last Monday of the month.
The next writer-in-residence 0n Monday 30 January is Carol Topolski (pictured left, and author of Monster Love and Do No Harm) and will be followed by:
- Lucinda Hawksley (Lizzie Siddal, 50 British Artists You Should Know), 27 February
- Owen Sheers (Resistance – from novel to movie), 19 March
- Alan Franks (Going Over, The Sins Of The Sons), 30 April
The writer will read from published work as well as works in progress. The audience will then discuss the work and writing processes, chaired by Jan Woolf of the WGGB books committee. After lunch, there will be an open mic session during which participants can read short extracts from their own work. This is an opportunity for established authors to receive mature critical feedback and for the audience to get some guidance.
The event will run from 11am-4pm. The cost is £25. This includes coffee, two-course lunch, and all-day and evening membership of Black’s. You will also get an automatic reference for club membership.
To book a place at the latest event, email daisy@blacksclub.com. For more information, email Jan Wolf (janwoolf@hotmail.com) but hurry – there are only 23 places for the event.
27 January 2012
Posted in
Theatre
A statement from the Writers' Guild of Great Britain
The Writers' Guild is alarmed by the Hungarian government's imposition of a far-right director on one of Budapest's leading theatres, and supports the campaign for a statement to be made in support of tolerance in theatre on 1 February, the day when the theatre changes hands.
Following the election of the right-wing Fidesz Party, the Mayor of Budapest sacked the director of the New Theatre, and appointed actor Gyorgy Dorner in his place. Dorner is a supporter of the anti-Roma, anti-gay and anti-semitic party Jobbik. Jobbik's militia, the Hungarian Guard, was recently forced to disband but its presidential candidate recently stated that Jews were 'liice-infested dirty murderers'. The party has 47 members of the Hungarian parliamentn and one of its members is president of the Cultural and Media Committee.
The New Theatre presents both Hungarian plays and the international canon, from Schiller to Shakespeare. Dorner's policy is to stop the production of 'foreign garbage'entirely and present only Hungarian work. He is proposing presenting the plays of his friend and advisor Istvan Csurka, of the Hungarian Truth and Life Party. A number of Hungarian writers have withdrawn their plays from the theatre in protest.
The change imposed on the New Theatre may not be the last. Jobbik is campaigning and demonstrating against the Hungarian National Theatre, calling its work "obscene, pornographic, gay, anti-national and anti-Hungarian".
There is an international campaign for actors to read out a statement condemning the appointment and resserting the importance of tolerance and diversity in the arts, which the Writers' Guild supports.
Guild President David Edgar commented: 'The forced imposition of a far-right nationalist as director of a major theatre in a contemporary European capital is a highly sinister development. We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Hungarian theatre-makers in opposing this decision and calling for it to be reversed'.
See also a letter in The Guardian from a wide range ofUK theatre-practitioners.
Writers often feel that their books are their mythical, and in some cases actual, children; creations that spring from and are woven into their DNA. Whatever you might, in hindsight, wish to have written differently, there is no way to relinquish your progeny’s claim on you. For better or worse, your book, like your child, is part of you, and always will be. 
