Writing in Practice - Principal Editor’s Column

NAWE NEWS

Welcome to NAWE’s new Participation Producer

Bea Colley is a freelance Literature Programmer and Producer. She has worked in the literature sector for over 15 years, supporting writers in their careers and programming and producing literature and poetry festivals. She worked at Southbank Centre in London for 10 years in which she set up numerous projects alongside underrepresented writers and also worked at the Poetry Society and the Reader Organisation. She has strong connections with many of the UK’s literature development agencies and was Co-Chair of New Writing South until 2020. Bea is really looking forward to getting to know the members at NAWE and will be working on an exciting new programme of activities to support the professional development of creative writing facilitators.

Writing in Practice Principal Editors’ Column

Principal Co-Editors’ Column Kate North writes: I have been working on compiling Writing in Practice 8 alongside the wonderful Issue Editors, Andy Melrose, Sue Dymoke and Michael Green. It is set to be an exciting issue with a guest article from the Costa Book Award winning poet Mary Jean Chan. Issue 8 will be out in early summer and submissions for issue 9 are now open until Monday 5th September. Please find a link to the submissions portal here: (Lisa, could you add a link?)

It is my pleasure to also announce that Francis Gilbert will be joining me as Principal Co-Editor from Issue 9 onwards. I am grateful for his willingness to take this on and the journal will benefit greatly from his experience. We have recently grown our college of Peer Reviewers also, which has been very helpful in terms of widening our pool of expertise. We are still open to accepting more Peer Reviewers, so please get in touch if you are interested in this.

Francis Gilbert writes: ‘I’ve been a long-standing member of NAWE, and have always loved its inclusive, rigorous, imaginative approach to the teaching of creative writing. I have published three novels, a number of memoirs about teaching, and many educational articles, both academic and more journalistic. I am honoured to co-edit the academic journal for NAWE along with Kate North, and hope to bring my experience as a creative writer, editor, teacher and fan of the journal to bear upon my joint editorship. I think Kate and I are very much on the same page about what we are looking for: sparky, original articles which challenge and provoke. We’re both avid creative writers, so we are keen to see some creative writing woven into the articles, or possibly pieces which use creative writing as a form of research (Cowan 2020), which is a burgeoning area. I have just changed the assessment rubric for my MA in Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths so that it embraces the idea of ‘creative writing as research’; using poetry, plays, stories and even multimodal forms such as podcasts/films to delve deeply into a topic, to answer research questions. This said, we are going to be sticklers for things being suitably referenced and research-informed. I mention this because it indicates where my thinking is at with the journal, which aims to be cutting-edge and research-based. But do get in touch with us if you have any questions.’

Reference

Cowan, A. (2020). ‘No additional information required’: Creative writing as research writing. TEXT: Journal of writing and writing courses, 24(1): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.52086/001c.17723

NAWE NEWS

Writing in Practice - Volume 7 published January 2022

Principal Editor: Derek Neale, Volume 7 co-editors: Derek Neale and Josie Barnard Issue editors: Josie Barnard, Yvonne Battle-Felton, Oz Hardwick, Amy Spencer ISSN 2058-5535 www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-practice

The journal publishes scholarly articles about practice and process that contextualize, reflect on and respond to existing knowledge and understanding. Volume 7 is a Special Issue on Multimodal Writing with guest co-editor Josie Barnard. This issue’s guest article is by Maggie Butt.

Volume 8 - submissions are now closed with publication due in late 2022 This volume will contain articles on the writing process, practice led research in creative writing and interdisciplinary research. It includes a guest article from Costa Award winning poet Mary Jean Chan.

Volume 9 - A call will go out in late Spring, to be published in Winter 2023 We are looking for academically rigorous research into creative writing, appropriately referenced and engagingly written. We are happy to receive articles that reflect on practice and process, explore writing research in interdisciplinary contexts, engage in critical analysis of writing pedagogy, explore cultural and global challenges such as diversity and inclusion and ecological sustainability through creative writing.

Creative Writing itself is welcomed when integral to an article. Submissions should be 4-10,000 words long and include an abstract of up to 200 words. All submissions will be anonymously peer reviewed. See the contributor guidelines to submit your work via the submissions link: www.nawe.co.uk/writing-in-education/writing-at-university/writing-in-practice.html If you are interested in acting as peer reviewer for the journal, please send details of your expertise to the editorial board, c/o: admin@nawe.co.uk Writing in Practice is an open access, online journal that complements Writing in Education, the NAWE magazine distributed to its members. As the UK Subject Association for Creative Writing, NAWE aims to further knowledge, understanding and support research, teaching and learning in the subject at all levels.