I get to start this post with some good news which I have been sitting on for a while now. As of later this year I will be taking over as Course Director for the Certificate in Creative Writing at the Institute of Lifelong Learning, University of Leicester. I was extremely excited to be offeredContinue reading “Some thoughts on teaching creative writing”
Author Archives: Damien Walter
We need a National Library Service
I know the political climate is not good for encouraging large new public initiatives, but the current problems facing our local, community libraries, with an estimated 500 facing closure this year as a result of government spending cuts, needs to be seriously addressed. As today’s National Save Our Libraries day protest demonstrates, libraries are amongContinue reading “We need a National Library Service”
The now of the book
Since I began writing, the book has been dying. No one has time to read any more. In our busy digital lives prose needs to readjust itself to fit in. It needs to be sliced in to ever tinier sections. The blog-post. The status update. The tweet. These things have their purposes, but they doContinue reading “The now of the book”
Is speculative fiction poised to break into the literary canon?
The Booker prize judges have yet to acknowledge the flowering of British SF and fantasy. Will 2011 be a breakthrough year? Speculative fiction has produced many great works of literature. Even a partial list of SF’s canonical works could fill many blogposts. It would be difficult to talk seriously about the last century of literatureContinue reading “Is speculative fiction poised to break into the literary canon?”
My Love Sick Zombie Boy Band
My Love Sick Zombie Boy Band is published in the special double issue of Electric Velocipede #21/22. This story started life as the memory of having my heart pounded to bits when I was a teenager. I really did give the young woman a silver ring, but whether it had any magical properties or not isContinue reading “My Love Sick Zombie Boy Band”
Momentum in StarShipSofa
My short story Momentum is featured in the Hugo award winning audio magazine StarShipSofa this week. This story was originally published in Electric Velocipede #13 and has been reprinted twice since. It’s great to hear it in audio, and the narration by Victoria Kelly is really good. Thanks to Tony and StarShipSofa for producing this,Continue reading “Momentum in StarShipSofa”
Five lessons learnt at Clarion
The Clarion Writers workshops http://clarion.ucsd.edu/ and http://www.clarionwest.org/ are now taking applications. At the suggestion of Jim Kelly, former Clarionauts are sharing five things we learned at Clarion as a Facebook meme. Here are my five for non FB people. I want to be a great writer. Which is a real bummer, because being a greatContinue reading “Five lessons learnt at Clarion”
Do not judge genre by its covers
Science fiction and fantasy book cover designs are as fashion fickle as an emo kid’s dress sense, and produce the same kind of response. Like some sober-suited middle manager tutting over his son’s electric blue spiky haircut, the literary reader sees the genres’ gaudy covers and wonders how they can go out in public lookingContinue reading “Do not judge genre by its covers”
Are you ready to enter Stapledon-Woolf space?
Jim Worrad returns to this blog in the latest of a series of guest posts. Jim is a member of The Speculators writing group, a writer of weird and wondrous Space Opera stories and an interviewer for Interzone magazine. Here Jim has done no less than identify a new literary element – are you readyContinue reading “Are you ready to enter Stapledon-Woolf space?”
Story Sale to Dark Fiction
My Love Sick Zombie Boy Band, very soon to be published in the Hugo award winning Electric Velocipede magazine, has been accepted by Dark Fictions podcast magazine for their April issue, which will be on the theme of The Waste Land (Death, Living Death and Moral Decay) inspired by the TS Eliot poem. In onlyContinue reading “Story Sale to Dark Fiction”
Perform the injunction!
Writers block. Most suffer from it. Many deny its very existence. Some of us manage to do both at the same time. Writing is a complex and demanding mental, emotional and physical task. It’s hardly surprising that even the best of us sometimes fail to muster the necessary forces to support our cause. Having arguedContinue reading “Perform the injunction!”
Locus Round Table Group
Locus discuss my suggestion that to be true, Science Fiction must be beautiful in their Round Table feature. Thanks to Karen Burnham for starting this conversation. Other participants include Paul Graham Raven, Gary K. Wolfe, Andy Duncan, Russell Letson, John Clute, Cheryl Morgan, Paul Witcover and Terry Bisson. You can read the full conversation here.Continue reading “Locus Round Table Group”
Damien Walter 