Fiction: Joanne Harris & Naomi Alderman, Guest: James Runcie

Date/Time
Date(s) - Mon 21st Aug - Sat 26th Aug, 2017
5:00pm - 10:00am

Location
Moniack Mhor, Kiltarlity, Inverness-shire , IV4 7HT

The bricks and mortar of fiction.

Writing convincing fiction is not unlike building a house. You need a solid foundation, good craftsmanship and the finishing skills to make it feel like yours. This course will outline the elements of fiction with sessions on plot, characterisation, dialogue, creating atmosphere and a session on how to edit once you have put it all together. You will come away equipped with the skills to build your own.

Joanne Harris (MBE) was born in 1964. She studied Modern and Mediaeval Languages at Cambridge and was a teacher for fifteen years. Whilst teaching she published three novels, including Chocolat (1999), which was made into an Oscar-nominated film starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp. Since then, she has written 15 more novels, two collections of short stories and three cookbooks. Her books are now published in over 50 countries and have won a number of British and international awards. She is an honorary Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, has honorary doctorates in literature from the universities of Sheffield and Huddersfield, and has been a judge for numerous prizes. She works from a shed in her garden, plays bass in the band she first joined when she was 16, is writing a novella for Dr Who and lives with her husband and daughter in a little wood in Yorkshire.

Naomi Alderman is a novelist, broadcaster and videogame designer. Her novels, which include Disobedience and The Liars’ Gospel, have been translated into 10 languages and have won numerous awards. She is co-creator of the hit fitness game and audio adventure Zombies, Run!, which has sold more than 3 million copies around the world. She broadcasts regularly on BBC radio, and presents Science Stories on Radio 4. In 2013 she was selected by Granta for their once-a-decade list of Best of Young British Novelists, and in 2012-13 she was mentored in the Rolex Arts Initiative by Margaret Atwood. Penguin published her latest novel The Power in October 2016.

James Runcie is a writer, director and literary curator. He is the author of The Grantchester Mysteries, Visiting Professor at Bath Spa University, and the Commissioning Editor for Arts on BBC Radio 4. He was born in 1959, educated at Marlborough College, Cambridge University and Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He was a founder member of The Late Show, and made documentary films for the BBC for fifteen years. He then went freelance to make programmes for Channel 4 and ITV. He was Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Festival from 2010-2013, and Head of Literature at the Southbank Centre in London from 2013-2015. James Runcie lives in Edinburgh and London

On this course, tutors will read a sample of your work ahead of time to get a feel for your work. Details of how and when to submit this will be sent to you in the course notes upon booking.

Bookings