Manchester is home to
one of the biggest Fiction and Poetry prizes; with £10,000 up for grabs. Ready
to investigate why writing matters so much here is Emily Oldfield…
Oh Manchester, so much
to answer for...
Manchester is a city known for its wordsmiths. The lyrics of
Morrissey come close to poetry, as well as so many other musicians, and the
city has been home to a number of authors including Elizabeth Gaskell, Anthony
Burgess and Howard Jacobson. The Manchester writing Competition seems proof of
the literary legacy of this place. With a prize of £10,000 for each category –
The Fiction Prize and The Poetry Prize - it is one of the biggest celebrations of
writing around.
Established by Carol Ann Duffy in 2008, this competition
attracts entries from all over world, and encourages new writers. The writing
can be as experimental and expressive as people want; something I believe
Manchester upholds more than many other cities – writing that gets close and
personal.
For example, poetry and prose enter the streets – literally.
Have you ever seen the Lemn Sissay poem ‘Hardys Well’ on the side of the
Wilmslow Road pub of the same name? Plus
the sheer number of ‘writing workshops’ and ‘spoken word’ events show how the
written and spoken form is well alive here. I’ve already discovered poetry
nights as wackily named as ‘Transdimensional Space Goats’ and the ‘Fuel Word
Cup’. Commonword organises many similar events; and as one of the largest
community writing and publishing organisations in the North West based here,
upholds Manchester as a place where people can find ‘common’ ground through writing.
Because here writing has been used to portray the plight of
the ‘common’ man – think of Friedrich Engels’ (with input from Karl Marx) work
on ‘The Condition of The Working Class in England’ in Chetham’s Library, as
just one example, back in 1845. Writing has been used as a social tool both
historically and for humour – take John Cooper Clarke’s ‘Beasley Street’. He’s
the self-proclaimed ‘Bard of Salford’ and performance poet with lines like ‘The
Hipster and his hired hat/drive a borrowed car’; mocking inner-city culture in
a meaningful way.
Poets and writers are capable of giving voice to the
otherwise unspoken in society after all – they uncover the layers, and add so much
to the discovery of the metropolis which is Manchester. This especially applies
to poetry - as Dr David Cooper, senior English Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan
University, reflects…
“'From Mrs Gaskell to
Mike Garry, Manchester has long been perceived, represented and – crucially -
reimagined by a diverse range of literary voices. Poetry (in particular) has
played a prominent role in this multi-layered literary geography of the city.
This seems to be particularly true right now as, every week, we learn of an
imaginative new project, event or happening which celebrates poetry's potential
to reconfigure our sense of what it means to be in the world.”
Poetry and creative writing has been standing out in a
number of public ‘projects’ ; one of I Love Manchester’s recent stories showed
how writer and performance poet Tony Walsh penned a poem to
Writing is part of the infrastructure of this place it
seems, even at an institutional level. The chancellor of The University of
Manchester is after all the outstanding performance poet and writer Lemn
Sissay, whilst Carol Ann Duffy, the current Poet Laureate, is based at The
Manchester Writing School – the host institution of the competition. In light
of The Manchester Writing Competition, YOU can be next in terms of making sense
of the city and connecting yourself to it, through writing. As David Cooper
says:
“Clearly, we’re living
through a period of great change in Manchester. For me, then, it’s more
important than ever that we listen to what poets – ‘the unacknowledged
legislators of the world’, according to Shelley – have to say about the places and
spaces in which we live, work and play.”
It seems fitting then that there is separate Poetry Prize
and then a Fiction Prize; though in previous years the competition has
alternated between the two, rather than having them as stand-alone. That means
even more opportunity to express yourself – thanks Manchester. Entries are
possible by post and online.
For more information about the Manchester Writing Competition
2016, you can visit the website: http://www.manchesterwritingcompetition.co.uk/
No comments:
Post a Comment