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COURSES FOR WRITERS EVENING, SHORT AND HOME-STUDY

We offer specialist home-study and online courses with personal tuition from experienced authors.

Novel Writing

Freelance Writing

Short Story Writing

Writing a Best-seller

Writing for Children

Poetry

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Creative Writing Workshops

Evening classes in London

For a free prospectus contact:

THE LONDON SCHOOL OF JOURNALISM

126 Shirland Road London W9 2BT

Phone 0800 838216 or email info@lsj.org Full details: www.learntowrite.org The LSJ - teaching success since 1920 Specials

AGENDA 8 The Dragonesses Awaken! Welsh women writers are in the spotlight, regionally, nationally and internationally. Susie Wild tracks their progress

INTERVIEW 13 Maggie O’Farrell

FEATURES 16 Follow the Money Inspired by the research for her latest novel, Jill Dawson explains the ins and outs of successfully accessing arts grants

The Insider: Amanda Ross

Heart and Craft Novelist Beth Webb on the joys of writing for pleasure (rather than for the publisher!)

PHOTO: P HYLLIS CHRISTOPHER

‘A lot of writers underestimate readers and I hate that; if I have everything handed to me on a plate, I lose interest automatically.’

Maggie O’Farrell, Interview, page 13

Contents: issue 40

Regulars

STARTERS 4 Contributors, Letters, News and Views

INSPIRATIONS 22 Including: Bernardine Evaristo, Kate Summerscale’s first draft, making a poem: Ruth Padel talks to Colette Bryce, Kathy Reichs’ bottom drawer, write your self with Roselle Angwin, keep going with Bekki Hill

NEW WRITING 31 Lavinia Greenlaw introduces her selection of prose and poetry on the theme ‘The Four Elements’

BOOKS 47 How to write a bestseller: Thanks for the Memories Literary landmarks: Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Independent press profile: Beautiful Books Writers’ bookshelf by Jay Griffiths

GUIDELINES 57 The lowdown on comedy writing The joy of…interviewing

DIRECTORY 61 Opportunities: competitions, submissions, retreats, grants Out and About: events and workshops

AND FINALLY 74 Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s bedside table

Ring in the new: 2009 is here!

Anew year, a new start and we’re kicking it all off with our brand new Short Story Competition, the wonderful Helen Simpson presiding. If you haven’t done so already, send your submission(s) in to us by January 23rd! For full details – and a special set of writing exercises from Margaret Wilkinson to start you off – visit www.mslexia.co.uk. We’re also running our first-ever cover competition: For our next issue – and in time to celebrate Mslexia’s 10th anniversary! – we’d like to see your artwork (including photography). The winner’s work will run on the cover, and will earn

the artist £500. Visit our website for all the relevant information. Wales is undergoing its own literary Renaissance as women writers, veterans and newbies alike, take centre stage. In the current Agenda, Susie Wild introduces us to some of those writers – and finds out what’s generating all the excitement. Have you decided that getting an arts grant is one of your New Year’s resolutions this time around? Let Jill Dawson’s Follow the Money feature serve as your guide. Want to revitalise that passion for writing as a creative force? Beth Webb’s feature will take you there. Discover what’s on

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown’s Bedside Table, and let Kate Summerscale take you though the whys and wherefores of her editing process in First Draft. Elsewhere, Kathy Reichs rummages in her Bottom Drawer and unearths an early incarnation of Temperance Brennan, and JK Rowling’s debut lands on our list of Literary Landmarks. We have a few copies of our 2009 Diary left if you’re looking for a long-lasting gift for a friend – or for yourself. Inspiring, innovative, instrumental and fun – enjoy the rest of the year with us. Daneet Steffens, Editor