Ruth F. Hunt's Blog, page 2

Number Twenty-Four

I was delighted to have a story on the Stories for Homes online anthology. All supporting Shelter, a charity that with recent events in mind is more needed than ever.

Source: Number Twenty-Four

You can be a change-maker!

Last night as I was watching Newsnight, it was mentioned the miscalculation Theresa May and the Conservatives had made in that they thought this was a ‘continuity’ election, but the public realised it was a ‘change’ election.

We don’t want more of the same, namely Austerity, cuts, caps, the Dementia Tax. Instead, we want more investment in public services, the NHS, schools, the police. Something all* the parties agree with (* except for, yes, you guessed it – UKIP and the Tories).

It’s only Labour who is big enough to take on the Tories, so it is so important turnout is high. Have that conversation with young friends, neighbours, members of the family. It only takes two minutes to actually vote, but the repercussions of a Tory government could be felt for a lifetime.

So we all need to vote, and vote for a change, a better fairer future

In this last full day of campaigning, the Tories and the right-wing press are going to try and paint Jeremy Corbyn as a terrorist supporter. It would be laughable if the stakes weren’t this high, as Corbyn has campaigned for peace all his life (which means sometimes you have to talk with the enemy). If you look at the campaigns he has been involved with, we can see he was ahead of his time and, importantly, on the right side of history. Something that can’t be said of Theresa May.

They are also going to try and bring it back to Brexit, her so-called reason for calling this election, though we all know the real reason was to boost her majority. Jeremy Corbyn has been making alliances throughout Europe . Labour also has the benefit of one of our top legal minds, Keir Starmar the former Director of Public Prosecutions on the Labour team. I would much rather trust them, than Theresa May and David Davis (!) who threaten Europe, trying to grab the UKIP vote, but doing real damage to our ability to negotiate.

In fact her whole ‘campaign’ (if you can call it that) with its despicable dog-whistle name-calling and debate-dodging, deserves to be ignored – just like she has ignored the electorate.

Jeremy Corbyn has shown politics can be better, by rising above this name-calling, tackling the very real challenges in this country seriously.

So, tomorrow Thursday, June 8th – don’t vote for more of the same, vote for change!

Morning Star :: DR JONATHAN TAYLOR: Why I’m backing Labour | The People’s Daily

It was a pleasure to interview Dr Jonathan Taylor on behalf of The Morning Star. He puts forward some very strong arguments why he’s backing Labour.

As writers, readers, students, tutors we should all be concerned at the state of the Arts after 7 years of a Tory led coalition and Tory government, who have neglected and starved the Arts of resources. Labour has included cultural measures in their manifesto to revive the Arts, something that is missing from the Conservative manifesto (along with their costings).

I’m voting Labour, and will be proud to get out and vote. Change can happen, vote for hope.

 

Source: Morning Star :: DR JONATHAN TAYLOR: Why I’m backing Labour | The People’s Daily

Author, Editor, Critic, Dr Jonathan Taylor on his Writing and Teaching at the University of Leicester

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Welcome to the blog. For those who don’t know you, can you tell me about yourself, your writing, and teaching?

I’m Jonathan Taylor, an author, editor, critic and lecturer. I write in lots of different genres (partly because I get bored easily) – particularly fiction, creative non-fiction, poetry and (occasionally) for radio. My books include the novels Melissa (Salt, 2015), Entertaining Strangers (Salt, 2012), the memoir Take Me Home: Parkinson’s, My Father, Myself (Granta, 2007), and the poetry collection Musicolepsy (Shoestring, 2013). I’m editor of the anthology Overheard: Stories to Read Aloud (Salt, 2012).

I teach Creative Writing at the University of Leicester. I also write academically, and (among other things) am currently writing a non-fiction book about the relationship between laughter, horror and violence in nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature. I was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and now live in Loughborough with my wife, the poet Maria Taylor, and our twins, Miranda and Rosalind.

How long have you been teaching for?

Oh, gosh, a long time. I first taught courses (oddly enough) on opera and the symphony in the mid-90s. I’ve been teaching English Literature and Creative Writing since about 2000.

Do you have a title at the University of Leicester?

Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, and director of the MA in Creative Writing.

Do you have a speciality that you teach?

I teach many different things – as with the writing, I’m naturally eclectic, I suppose. But my main specialisms are memoir (and hence creative non-fiction), short stories, writing for voices and sometimes poetry.

How do you balance teaching and family life with your own writing?

Erm … I don’t. It’s something I’ve been trying to balance for years, with varying amounts of failure. Writing is the thing that always gets squeezed out – given that, for me, the thing that pays the bills is the teaching, and the most important thing is obviously the family – so each year for the past ten years I’ve had less and less time to do it. A full-time university job is now hugely demanding, even in comparison to what it was when I first started. Don’t get me wrong: I love the actual teaching, but the soul-grinding bureaucracy … Anyway, at least what it’s meant in terms of the writing is that I absolutely never suffer from so-called “writer’s block” any more. It’s not a luxury I can afford, and whenever I do get a few hours to write, it’s just unadulterated pleasure.

What are the qualifications (and grades of qualifications) needed to get on the course?

For the MA in Creative Writing, prospective students are normally expected to have a first degree (BA) in a relevant subject. But this condition is flexible, if writers can show that they have considerable professional experience instead.

What are you looking for in your students? What would a ‘perfect’ student be like?

I don’t have a “perfect” student in mind at all: what I love about Creative Writing (and, indeed, teaching in general) is that there’s such an infinite variety of experiences, backgrounds, histories, ambitions and reasons for doing the course. Institutions and governments like to draw up patterns for what students are and what they want from a course (hence Careers services); but it’s a very different experience when you’re “on the ground” teaching. What I like is people who are passionate about reading and writing – it doesn’t matter to me if a student dreams of becoming the next J. K. Rowling, or if s/he is just doing the course for a year because they enjoy the subject; both are equally good reasons for doing Creative Writing.

With the cost of courses so high, either via student loans or not – how do you ensure you have a diverse cohort?

I think that’s very difficult. I make no bones about my feelings towards the fee situation: I think it’s wrong, and I believe in a free and comprehensive education system for all. What’s happened in recently years – whatever successive governments have claimed – is prejudicial against students from particular backgrounds. It was hard enough when I did my MA in the mid-90s: even then, it was the time I struggled financially the most. I can hardly imagine how hard it is for some students now. There are, at least, discounts, scholarships, hardship funds at most universities for postgraduates. Personally, I would encourage anyone interested in a course like the one I run to talk to the lecturers and union even before they apply. Thankfully, so far the courses I’ve been involved in over the years have been very diverse in terms of their cohorts – and I think that’s got to do with creating a welcoming and relaxed atmosphere, accepting people who come from lots of different academic and professional backgrounds (whether or not they’ve got the “standard” qualifications), and also something to do with the subject itself: Creative Writing is, I believe, a very democratic and open subject, which anyone can do well in if they’re passionate about it.

With regard to postgraduate studies, do you think enough work has been done in attracting those who may have limited financial resources?

No, I don’t. And I think it’s worse in some places than others. I don’t think the government has ever really cared about postgraduate courses. What this means is that academia is always in danger of being skewed in terms of social class and background: of course people from poorer backgrounds find it harder, have to work harder, and anyone who claims otherwise is living in Daily Mail Cuckoo Land. Having said that, at least postgraduate fees haven’t increased in quite the same way as undergraduate fees, and universities have got much better at accommodating students’ work patterns over the years.

There has been a proliferation of creative writing courses of late, and this has led to the accusation that debut novels are ‘samey’. Is this something you recognise or not and can you explain why?

No, I don’t really recognise that – I think there are lots of different and amazing debut novels out there. That’s not to say that I think the novels which are most lauded are the strongest: there’s a certain poetic earnestness and monotonality about some of the most celebrated contemporary novels. But this isn’t the problem with Creative Writing courses, I think, but with literary prizes and mainstream reviews (and, no doubt, the dominance of the huge publishing conglomerates). In terms of poetry, I think the danger of sameness is slightly more apparent: some of the founding tenets of Creative Writing teaching (show don’t tell, etc.) may be useful for beginning poets, but have a profoundly distorting effect when uniformly applied at a “higher” level. The “show-don’t-tell” thing, for example, has meant that a certain amount of contemporary poetry is in danger of becoming apolitical, gentle, nostalgic, quietist.

As there are so many creative writing courses available, both online and in red-brick universities and colleges, what advice would you give to a potential student trying to find a course?

I think the main piece of advice is to bear in mind that they vary hugely, so spend time looking into the mechanics and details of the course, and deciding which suits you. Some courses, for example, concentrate on particular forms and genres (“Introduction to Poetry,” “Novel Writing,” etc.), whilst some are transgeneric. I like a mixture of both – but, perhaps because of my own eclecticism, generally lean towards the latter. I think it’s better to learn about “writing” in general, not exclusively “how to write a novel.” In fact, I think writers should call themselves “writers,” not “poets,” or “novelists” – the forms and genres aren’t mutually exclusive. There are differences, but there are also major overlaps, and people who class themselves poets can learn things from novelists, and vice versa. It’s a kind of openness which I think is vital. I’m always suspicious of poets who only ever read other contemporary poets: you need experience and knowledge of other fields too, or you just end up writing poetry about poetry.

Many people equate qualifications in creative writing with an increased chance of getting a publishing deal. How do you manage expectations from your students?

I actually think the idea that people have – that students have unrealistic expectations of a course like an MA in Creative Writing – is wrong. It’s an out-of-date illusion: one that my generation had, to some extent, but which isn’t necessarily shared by the younger generation. In fact, what I’ve found over the last few years is something which is a bit disturbing, and it’s the opposite: too much realism (so-called) among younger students. They have no illusions about what they’re doing and where they may be going. Post-2008 particularly, students have become “realistic” or “pessimistic” about the future, because of successive governments and economic policy. I think we should allow the young to have their illusions, their world-changing ambitions and aspirations; I don’t think it’s my job to destroy these (as I know some Creative Writing lecturers believe), but to encourage students to think about the first steps they might take. Why do the older generation so begrudge the dreams of youth? Because they never realised their own.

To find out more about Jonathan, and his work, please visit his site:http://www.jonathanptaylor.co.uk

Vote Labour – Policies uphold the rights of disabled people

Source: Vote Labour – Policies uphold the rights of disabled people

The Lottery of Life…it might be YOU.

For someone reading this blog, their life is going to change. It’s a brutal fact, but disability can happen at any time, at any point in life, no matter how well off or comfortable you are. 

It happened to me. I certainly didn’t expect to be disabled. I had detailed plans up my 40th birthday. According to my plan, by now I should be a senior manager, maybe working from home with two children and a loving husband. 

 Instead at the age of 18 on a holiday before I was due to go to university, I was in an accident and it changed my life.  Not all of it was bad. Before it happened I had no knowledge of how society (if the politicians let it) can work against the disabled, and I had no idea of just what it was like to struggle.  I have that knowledge now.

Since 2010 politicians began to demonise disabled people, and the right wing media was happy to join in. You may remember George Osbourne talking about the people who get up early for work, and the ‘shirkers’ who still have the curtains closed. This was a coordinated, cynical move, they knew there would be an outcry if they attacked disabled people, without preparing the ground first.

The disabled and poor were made out to be the cause of the financial crash and our income was to be slashed because the deficit was too high.

Hopefully, nobody believes we caused a crash in the sub prime mortgage market in America.  We also now know for these past six years, the deficit has actually got higher, so even that was a sham. 

Thersa May is going in to the General Elections without confirming that she wouldn’t cut disabled benefits even further. 

 Due to that, it’s a sad fact that anyone who votes Conservative is helping to push many to their deaths. Just  google benefit deaths. They are also helping put a stranglehold on disabled people, isolating them, taking away their independence and money, with no recognition of the average £550 extra it costs each month to pay for  a disability such as accessible housing, buying equipment, and transport etc. We continue to have a target on our backs, treated with hostility and suspician, no matter that more disabled people are contributing to the economy than not.  For lots of us we feel as if we are treated like foxes, with a pack of vicious dogs waiting, drooling for the kill. 

There has been more objections to the Conservatives wanting to bring back fox hunting than the continued attacks against the disabled. Can you imagine how that makes us feel? You may be one who will experience this for yourself. [image error]

If so, I hope you survive. 

Please register to vote, you have a week left to do it. 

Homeless in Hospital

My story, along with a plea for more accessible homes!

 

Source: Homeless in Hospital

Morning Star :: Pushed to the brink | The People’s Daily

Alice Kirby tells Ruth Hunt how DWP benefit assessment practices contribute to the deterioration of claimants’ mental health, causing an increase in suicidal feelings

Source: Morning Star :: Pushed to the brink | The People’s Daily

Blog Series on Creative Writing Courses.

After 3 rather hectic years I’m now thinking post-dgree as in 8 weeks it will all be over. To fit in with this I’m doing a blog series on Creative Writing courses – the good, the bad, the rip offs and the inspirational. 

The aim is to create a sort-of database where potential students can read about potential courses, but even if that doesn’t happen I think it will be interesting hearing what has worked well and courses that perhaps you should avoid.

Do get in touch if interested in joining in. Personal, professional and promotional links (to a point) will be allowed. [image error]

Morning Star :: A multitude of hidden hits | The People’s Daily

The government u-turned on the NI increase for the self-employed, but why did they try this in the first place? Who else is targeted and what and why was this hidden from view?

Hammond’s Budget sticks the sick, disabled and poor with the bill for the Tories’ ideology, writes NICK DILWORTH and RUTH HUNT

Source: Morning Star :: A multitude of hidden hits | The People’s Daily