Ray Givans hails from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland but teaches English in County Down. He’s also a very gifted poet. He has published four pamphlet-length collections, most recently Going Home (2004) from Lapwing Publications. He has been awarded prizes for his poetry in Britain, the US and Australia and was the first recipient of the Jack Clemo Memorial prize for poetry. Tolstoy in Love, published by Dedalus Press, is his first full-length collection. BBC Writer in Residence Ian Sansom describes it as ‘a true poetic achievement … a work of great human value.’ I would agree with him. So after reading this interview, get the book and judge for yourselves.
Continue reading ‘Poetry: Tolstoy in Love’
Archive for the 'Author interviews' Category
All writers struggle to ‘make it’ in the commercial world of publishing, but none more than poets. So it is always heartening to hear of publishers investing in emerging writers and new collections. Scotland’s Andrew Philip has published two poetry pamphlets with HappenStance Press – Tonguefire (2005) and Andrew Philip: A Sampler (2008) – and was chosen as a Scottish Poetry Library “New Voice” in 2006. The Ambulance Box (2009) by Salt Publishing is his first book of poems. In this interview he discusses writing as therapy, writing in Scots, the effect of the credit crunch on new poets and the business of getting your poetry into print and trying to earn money from it.
Continue reading ‘The Ambulance Box – getting your poetry in print’
Rosalie Warren was born in West Yorkshire but lived for many years in Scotland before moving to Coventry in 2002. She has two grown-up children, a PhD in cognitive science, and was a university lecturer before taking early retirement to pursue her lifelong dream of being a writer. She has had two novels published. The first, Charity's Child by Circaidy Gregory Press; the second, Low Tide, Lunan Bay by Robert Hale. We asked her to talk to us about writing romantic suspense, a genre she said she ’stumbled into’.
Continue reading ‘Writing Romantic Suspense – When Love Gets Mysterious’
Some visitors to The Crafty Writer who have been following the non-fiction history writing series have been asking for something similar on writing historical fiction. So we asked Ruth Downie, author of Ruso and the Disappearing Dancing Girls (‘Medicus’ in the USA) to chat to us about writing historical crime novels. Ruth is married with two grown-up sons. She was born in North Devon and now lives in Milton Keynes. Her first book featuring Roman medic Gaius Petreius Ruso was published in 2006, and became a New York Times bestseller (albeit briefly, she reminds us!). Her second book Ruso and the Demented Doctor (‘Terra Incognita’ in the USA) is now on the shelves.
Continue reading ‘Writing historical crime novels – interview with R.S. Downie’
There’s a new writer in the world of children’s fiction and her name is Kelsey Drake. Kelsey’s first published book is Scordril, a novel for the 9 – 12 age group. It’s the story of a lair of dragons who are under attack from the sinister ‘night dragons’, wielding an ancient and dangerous magic. But what the readers of ‘Scordril’ may not realise is that Kelsey Drake is actually two people: Eleanor Patrick and Sue Brownless. The Crafty Writer asked Eleanor and Sue about their experience of co-authoring and self-publishing their first novel.
Eleanor Patrick
Sue Brownless
I love it when I come across a genre niche I’ve never heard of and I love it even more when I find a writer as savvy in marketing as he or she is in writing. I found both in Joanna Campbell Slan and her debut novel Paper, Scissors, Death. This was my first introduction to the ‘craft cozy’ mystery genre and though talk of scrapbooking and other activities that an already overworked woman and mother ’should’ partake in normally turn me cold, this was strangely compelling. However, if I’m honest, my interest is more to do with the business and craft of writing than in scrapbooking or ‘cozy’ mysteries. But hey, that’s me; as Joanna shows, there are millions of readers out there who will lap this up. Go for it Joanna!
Continue reading ‘Craft ‘cozies’ – mysteries for crafters’
The internet makes our world smaller. It’s thanks to social networking sites like Inked In that I’ve met other writers from around the world. One of them is American playwright Joseph Hayes who has had his work performed in the UK and the USA – an incredible 10 plays and 18 productions in seven years. I decided to ask him about writing for theatre on both sides of the Pond and whether American audiences are different from British. Continue reading ‘When Theatre Crosses the Pond’
I recently read and enjoyed the debut novel of American author, Julie Compton, called Tell No Lies. It’s billed as a legal thriller, but, as Julie tells me, she never actually intended to write one! Nonetheless, The Crafty Writer persisted in asking her about writing (and not writing) legal thrillers and her road towards publication with Pan MacMillan. Continue reading ‘Legal thriller by name, but not by nature?’
I’ve just come across a website that features interviews with authors. This one caught my attention immediately as it is an email conversation between Markus Zusak, whose book The Book Thief was recently featured in our Book Club, and non-fiction history writer Susan Campbell Bartoletti, author of Hitler Youth. It makes fascinating reading into the respective processes and world-views of two very different authors: one a middle-aged American woman (sorry Susan!) and the other a young Australian man. Continue reading ‘Writers in conversation’
In this fourth session on writing for performance our guest is Jeremy Herrin, who will be chatting to us about New Writing for theatre. Jeremy is Associate Director at Live Theatre in Newcastle upon Tyne as well as running the New Writing department. He has directed productions at the National Theatre, The Royal Court, in the West End and at The Market Theatre in Johannesburg. He has also enjoyed directing short films and radio plays. Continue reading ‘New Writing for theatre’
Welcome to The Crafty Writer, published by Fiona Veitch Smith, a freelance journalist, editor, author, playwright, screenwriter and writing teacher. This site is full of information and resources to help you to become a better writer. 
