York Literature Festival 2013

The week of 19th-24th March 2013 was a big week for literature lovers like myself. That week held the York Literature Festival, an event in which many guest speakers come and participate in events like reading from their work and teaching special workshops.

When I first heard about this a few months back, I was very excited. Getting told about writers coming to York and talking about what they do for their living made me feel over the moon. Studying for a joint honours degree in Creative Writing and English Literature, I loved the fact that I was able to take part in this event. I had never been apart of something like this, so as a student, and as someone who loves to read, it made me very happy.

The first event I went to was a workshop called Create Characters Not Caricatures with Kathlene Postma. Kathlene lives in the USA, and teaches creative writing at Pacific University in Oregon. She also writes poetry, short fiction, and non-fiction, as well as being an editor of the literary magazine, Silk Road. Kathlene has recently finished writing her first novel.
The aim of this workshop was to be able to write better characters in your stories, to make them seem more believable and making them more interesting to read about. Characters are one of the most important things when it comes to creative writing, so being able to present them well is a required skill. Giving out useful tips such as all characters have good and bad things about them, even if they only appear to be one or the other, made me realise how much attention needs to go into creating characters.

As well as this workshop, outside of the York Literature Festival, she came into my creative writing lecture and seminar that week to teach us students who were enrolled on the course. The creative writing side of my degree does feature a lot of guest speakers coming in to talk about their work, giving out advice, and allowing any questions we may have for them.
My assessment for this module is formative assignments, and for the week that Kathlene came in to teach us about fiction writing, focusing on the task for this week to write a fairy tale, the fairy tale being re-written in a contemporary form, or inventing a new one. Yet again, she gave us useful tips, which I shall hold on to very tightly.  Like in the workshop, we got to do writing exercises and she gave us useful feedback, telling us how we could improve our characters even more.
I felt like a learnt a lot from Kathlene that week, and I have to say that she has so far been my favourite guest speaker.

Moving on from Kathlene, I went to two other events. The first one of these was Will Self in Conversation. I hadn't read any of Will Self's work before, but knowing that he is such a well known writer and writes for newspapers like The Independent and The New York Times, I knew I wanted to see him. There is also the fact that his latest book, Umbrella, was short-listed for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2012, a definite bonus. On arrival at the event, there was a table selling his books. Judging from past experience, the books would have a few quid knocked off them, and there could possibly be the chance that he might do signings at the end. I eagerly bought Umbrella, with £2 off the original price. Being the huge book worm that I am, I tried to get the best seat I could (fifth row, right hand side, second seat to the left facing the stage, if you're interested).

When the event began, Will was interviewed by someone who helped to organise the York Literature Festival. His questions were mostly about his work but was asked about other interesting things too. I vividly remember him saying that 'Fifty shades is w**k' and that the new university fees which were recently put in place are 'dog-s**t'.
That aside, Will read an extract from Umbrella, explaining before hand where his inspiration to write the book came from. The reading was entertaining to watch, and he did get into the role of the characters.

At the end of the event, he did do signings, but he didn't have long to do this, so this end up leaving me quickly to gather my things, attempt to get out of the room as quick as possible, and rush to get into the queue. Luckily I was first (the lady next to me let me go ahead, thank you whoever you are. I am eternally grateful).

The other event that I went to was Simon Armitage. I knew some of his poetry well from school when I was doing my GCSE's. His poetry was some of the work featured in the anthology, so to be able to see him live in person was something I was very much looking forward to. The same procedure happened again for me: buy one of his books with a few quid knocked off (£2 again) and get a good seat (fourth row, right hand side, first seat to the left facing the stage, this time). I did though keep my book very close by, ready to pick up, along with my other things, if he was doing signings, so I could escape as quickly as possible.
Unlike the previous event, there was no interviewing going on, just him reading several extracts from his works. Unbeknown to me, he also writes fiction, which the book I bought was one of his fiction books. I was a bit disappointed that I wouldn't be able to read more of his poetry, but then I realised that it gave me the opportunity to read another side of his work that I didn't know about.

 Like Will Self did with his book, Simon explained the reasons why he wrote each piece of the work he was about to read out. It helps give a better understanding to the work knowing why it was written. He even read out some poems that I recognised from school which gave me a feeling of nostalgia.
I did get my book signed at the end of the event. I wasn't first in the queue this time, but I was quite close, so I was happy enough. As long as I would get it signed, that would leave me very happy.

 I really enjoyed going to York Literature Festival. I had such a good time. I've learnt new skills that will help me with my writing, and I got to listen to talks from famous writers and get their autographs. It was a brilliant week and I can't wait for next one.

Below are recordings I did of Will Self and Simon Armitage reading out their work if you want to watch it.
I'm not sure why they've turned on the side though and I apologise for the not so good quality. I had to lower it because the original files were too big and wouldn't upload.

Will Self is the top one. Simon Armitage is the bottom one.