Short Story Recommendations

At our short story evening, Sara Maitland and Linda Cracknell both gave recommendations of their favourite short stories. Please see below.

If you have a favourite short story or short story writer please send your recommendations to me at catriona@dgaa.net and I will put them up on the blog as part of this list. It would be fun and interesting to create a list of lots of stories for everyone to share.

“Blue Juice” by Margo Lanigan
“Collected Short Stories” by GracePaley
“In the Blue Fields” by Claire Keegan

Linda recommended: "Writing Short Stories” by Ailsa Cox and anything by either Janice Galloway or A.L. Kennedy.

Here is our first recommendation! Thank you Jim.

I saw on the 'Writer in the Storm' blog you were looking for short story recommendations and I thought I'd suggest 'Death of a Spinster' by William McIlvanney from his collection 'Walking Wounded', a wonderful piece of concise writing.

Jim Murdoch
Linda Cracknell has added a non- Scottish reccommendation - Collected short Stories by Lorrie Moore.
Shug has reccomended "Moveable Feast" by Ernest Hemmingway
titus reccomends: " A Visit from the Footbinder" by Emily Prager
Labels: Short Story Recommendations

Short Story Evening Event Review

The Robert Burns Centre saw the welcome return last week of two well-kent writers who took part in a Short Story Evening. Linda Cracknell, who has been involved with the CREATE Team doing workshops in Dumfries and Galloway schools, and Sara Maitland, Galloway’s own homegrown writer who grew up near Dalbeattie. Sara recently returned to live in Galloway with her husband who is a dairy farmer.

Sara and Linda are also well- known to each other as Sara was Linda’s tutor when as a young writer she embarked on an Open College of Arts course. They also worked together again on a British Council led project, pairing established British writers with young African writers being mentored and tutored through email.

The Short Story Evening was extremely lively and enjoyable, chaired with great skill and dexterity by local writer and lecturer Tom Pow.

The writers began by reading from their new collections of short stories, The Searching Glance by Linda Cracknell and Far North and Other Stories by Sara Maitland. One of Sara’s stories has been turned into a major film starring Sean Bean. Sara noted that publishers found it prudent to advertise such facts on the front covers of their books!

Each writer demonstrated a very different style; Linda’s story – And the Sky was Full of Crows was a densely crafted love story with tragic implications full of colourful, visual imagery. One phrase that stuck in my mind was “the glamorous colours of pheasants”. She explores themes of loss and abandonment and laughingly described the stories as her misery stories and said that she found it hard to get away from these themes.

Sara’s story “Swans” is rooted in the Galloway landscape. In it she explores the theme of silence using the framework of the traditional fairy tale Seven Swans.
Tom asked her why she used this tradition and she replied candidly that as she is very lazy and these stories had persisted for two thousand years in many cultures, it meant she knew they worked and therefore didn’t have to come up with a new one.

Tom Pow commented that Linda’s influences are from a naturalistic/Chekhovian line, but that Sara uses sources of fairytales and myths and her work is derived from the oral tradition. There was no shortage of questions from an interested and enthusiastic audience, but Sara summed up the short story most succinctly:
“ a short story is a poem that doesn’t have to scan and a novel that doesn’t have to bother with the characters’ psychology.”

The evening finished with recommendations of the panel’s favourite short stories, and included titles by Janice Galloway, A.L. Kennedy, Ailsa Cox, Grace Paley and Clare Keegan.

Reviewed by Catriona Taylor

Rab Wilson, Alexander Anderson & Kirkconnel

On Tuesday night Rab Wilson and I went to Kirkconnel for the celebration of the opening of the specially commissioned St Conal’s Square Public Art Project
Artists Jim Buchanan and Emma Varley had been commissioned, through DGAA and Dumfries and Galloway Housing Partnership to do a landscaping project for a new square of houses.
For an evening that was supposed to be a to celebrate a visual arts project it became remarkably literary one.
The two artists Jim and Emma through their research had uncovered Kirkconnel’s own forgotten poet – Alexander Anderson and had incorporated quotes from his poetry as text pieces for the walls.
Rab had been asked to give an address about Anderson at the event.

He gave a succinct and illuminating account of Anderson’s unusual life. Rab told us with great warmth that Anderson was born in the 19th Century in Kirkconnel and had become a Railway Surfaceman on leaving school. A Surfaceman was someone who maintains the railway tracks and track bed.

He was a self taught poet, using all his spare time to read the classics and poets such as Shelley and Keats. He also learnt enough of European languages so that he could read their masterpieces, such as Racine in their own languages.
In 1870 he began to submit poems to the Peoples Friend. His first collection was published in 1873, “A Song of Labour and Other Poems. He also published collections entitled “Songs of the Rails 1878, and “Ballads and sonnets” in 1879.

In 1880 he left Kirkconnel to become Assistant Librarian at Edinburgh University, finally to become Chief Librarian, a post he held until his death in 1909. After becoming the Librarian he didn’t publish any more collections but he did continue to submit poems to newspapers and journals.

Rab said that he had a unique quality in his poetry that reminded anyone from the area of home. He also said that Anderson never forgot Kirkconnel or his deep love of it. He told a lovely anecdote of an eminent Edinburgh gentleman bumping into Anderson one day in Edinburgh and was surprised to see him not wearing his Library Frock coat. Indeed Anderson was wearing an old tweed jacket and a bonnet and his face was wreathed in smiles, the eminent gentleman was slightly startled and asked him how he was, Anderson relied with a beaming smile and said “I’m going on my holidays, I’m going to Kirkconnel.
Apparently when he talked about Kirkconnel it was like Leonardo talking about painting.

Rab said that it was time to reappraise Anderson’s place in Scottish literature and said that part of Anderson’s obscurity was because DC Thompson had held the copyright to his literary estate and they had never been keen to let anyone tamper with the work. As the work is now out of copyright, the time is right to bring Kirkconnel's poet out of the literary shadows.

Here is a poem by Alexander Anderson about the problems - and the pleasures - of trying to get lively children to settle down to sleep.

Cuddle Doon

The bairnies cuddle doon at nicht
Wi muckle faught and din.
"Oh try an' sleep, ye waukrife rogues,
Your faither's comin' in."
They niver heed a word I speak,
I try tae gie a froon,
But aye I hap' them up an' cry
"Oh, bairnies, cuddle doon!"

Wee Jamie wi' the curly heid,
He aye sleeps next the wa'
Bangs up and cries, "I want a piece!"
The rascal starts them a'.
I rin and fetch them pieces, drinks,
They stop a wee the soun',
Then draw the blankets up an' cry,
"Noo, weanies, cuddle doon."

But ere five minutes gang, wee Rab
Cries oot frae neath the claes,
"Mither, mak' Tam gie ower at aince,
He's kittlin' wi' his taes."
The mischief in that Tam for tricks,
He'd bother half the toon,
But aye I hap them up an' cry,
"Oh, bairnies, cuddle doon!"

At length they hear their faither's fit
An' as he steeks the door,
They turn their faces tae the wa'
An Tam pretends tae snore.
"Hae a' the weans been gude?" he asks,
As he pits aff his shoon.
"The bairnies, John, are in their beds
An' lang since cuddled doon!"

An' just afore we bed oorsel's
We look at oor wee lambs,
Tam has his airm roun' wee Rab's neck
An Rab his airm roun' Tam's.
I lift wee Jamie up the bed
An as I straik each croon,
I whisper till my heart fills up:
"Oh, bairnies, cuddle doon!"

The bairnies cuddle doon at nicht
Wi' mirth that's dear tae me.
But soon the big warl's cark an' care
Will quiten doon their glee.
Yet come what will to ilka ane,
May He who rules aboon,
Aye whisper, though their pows be bald:
"Oh, bairnies, cuddle doon!"

Les Murray opens Poetry Doubles Monday 9 June

Internationally acclaimed Australian poet Les Murray will open the 2008 Poetry Doubles series on Monday 9 June at the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre at 7pm. He will be reading with Nicola Black, who will sing her musical settings of McDiarmid poems. Tickets for this exceptional event are £7 (£5 concession) available from Catriona Taylor at Dumfries & Galloway Arts Association on 01387 253383, or email catriona@dgaa.net.

Les, who was born in 1938, grew up on a dairy farm at Bunyah on the north coast of New South Wales. Since 1971 he has made poetry his full time career, and, as he puts it, he was the first Australian poet to achieve international acclaim without expatriation. Carcanet publish his Collected Poems as well as his individual collections, including Subhuman Redneck Poems (1966, awarded the T S Eliot prize) and his essays and prose writings in The Paperback Tree (1992). His verse novel Fredy Neptune appeared in 1998 and in 2004 won the Mondello Prize in Italy and a major German award at the Leipzig Book Fair. Les Murray received the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 1999. His most recent publication is The Biplane Houses (2006).

“There is no poetry in the English language now so rooted in its sacredness, so broad-leafed in its pleasures, and yet so intimate and so conversational.”
Derek Walcott, The New Republic

“It would be as myopic to regard Mr Murray as an Australian poet as to call Yeats an Irishman. He is, quite simply, the one by whom the language lives.”
Joseph Brodsky

New Opportunity for Applied Artists and Creative Writers

New Opportunity for Applied Artists and Creative Writers

The pupils, staff and parents are keen to design a new environment that will incorporate words and be an active learning space for young people. Themes will focus on the natural environment to complement work already undertaken in the school grounds.
Shawhead Primary School Garden Development 2008
Supported by CREATE (Creative Education Arts Team) & Awards for All


Artist
We are looking to appoint an artist with experience of working in a school/community context to develop an outside space within an existing garden as a place for learning and play. The materials to be used are undefined but the whole design process must be made transparent for the pupils so that they learn in and through the arts practice. The finished ‘built’ environment may or may not involve pupil participation at all stages.

Writer
We are looking to appoint a writer to extend vocabulary and confidence in pupils through the creation of new writing. The writer will work with pupils in the classroom and non classroom environment. The pupils would like their work (words) incorporated into the landscape therefore the writer will need to work in conjunction with the artist on the site development. We will look at prose and poetry.

The artist and writer will be required to work with the pupils to produce a blog of the commissioning process in the school. CREATE will provide training for the school and the artist/writer on how to do this.

The Clients and the School
The successful candidates will ultimately be working with 26 pupils from 19 families and 3-4 staff members and representatives from the village. The project is being led by the young people of the school with guidance from teaching staff, parents and other partners as identified by them.

The Spaces
Shawhead Primary School located just outside Dumfries has a well developed garden area. “At the rear of the school we have a large playing field, and between this the school building is the garden area. The layout of the garden is basically set out in 4 circles. We would like to develop the areas marked 1 predominately and 2 if possible by combining the work of the visual artist and creative writer.

Area 1. The area will be used for sitting, relaxing, talking and learning and at times may be used as outside performance space. We would like the boundary/wall to incorporate some new writing (text) that will be produced by working with the writer. We would like it to have interactive elements related to words and our writing. Ideas and suggestions
already identified by the pupil clients include; lift the flap for words, words on a rotating spindle, sliding words, pull a lever for words, etc. The space would require some ‘architecture’ in terms of seating, platform or covered space.

Area 2. We also have a second area which is in the form of an inverted snail. It has worn away over the years but we wish to preserve this and add to this with our current commission. This is currently a play area and it would be kept as a play/relaxation area”.

The Timeframe
Shawhead Primary school wish to start the development this term in June-July however as this will depend on the selected artist and writer’s availability the programme of work is open to negotiation and will be discussed as part of the interview process.

Fees
The selected artist and writer will be paid a daily fee of £250 and will have 10 planning/contact days working with the clients.
(this will include some early evening work or weekends)
In addition a budget for the following has been identified:
Materials for ‘built’ environment £6,000
A publication for new writing £1,400 (design and print)
Travel for pupil visits £700

Submission Details
Please send a CV or professional profile
Slides of work or copies of previous publications
Cover letter of why you would wish to work with Shawhead
Please send all information marked for the attention of
Pupil Interview Panel , Shawhead Primary School,
Shawhead, Dumfries, DG2 9SL
Deadline Date: 28 May 2008 – you will be notified on this date if you are to be called for interview.

IMPORTANT please note interviews will be held on:
Friday 30th May 2008

For more informal information please contact Sybil Williamson (Headteacher) on 01387 730240 or Vanessa Morris, Creative Education Arts Team, CREATE on 01387 720774

New Radio Play from Jules!

An eerie tale of childhood possession and the dangers of playing with marbles...
Look out tomorrow for Jules Horne's latest radio play, "Small Blue Thing" on BBC Radio Scotland, Wednesday 14th May, 1130am.

An eerie tale of childhood possession and the dangers of playing with marbles...



Directed by Rosie Kellagher, produced by Turan Ali for Bona Broadcasting Ltd.
Stella ...... Clare Waugh
Rob/Optician/Father ...... James Mackenzie
Mother ...... Molly Innes
Young Stella ...... Isla Cowan
Studio Manager ...... Stuart Hamilton
Studio FX ...... Doreen Birkeland