New Writing North

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

Set off on this newly commissioned self-guided literary walk and discover Durham’s beautiful Heritage Coast! The UK is hosting the international community in Glasgow in November for COP26 – a United Nations conference where world leaders will discuss how to combat the climate emergency. Spend time walking in the lively harbour town of Seaham and along the Durham Heritage Coast enjoying the built and natural environment. Explore issues of climate change through the written word set against the backdrop of the former coal mining town, its surrounding landscape, seascape, and history. The walk lasts approximately half a day, longer if you include a meal break on the way. Please dress appropriately for the weather, ensuring sturdy footwear. The walk involves steep slopes and steps. This walk is created by Ruth Robson and includes material researched as part of Writing Durham, a partnership between Durham Book Festival and Durham University. Ruth Robson grew up in Sunderland, part of the historic County of Dur

In this episode of the Northern Bookshelf podcast, Grace, Rebecca and special guest Anna Disley treat us to some uplifting reads for Spring - whether that's a thriller with a deeply satisfying ending, or a novel that makes you laugh until you cry. Books mentioned in the podcast can be found here on our affiliate link Bookshop list: https://uk.bookshop.org/lists/northern-bookshelf-podcast-spring-2021 How to Stay Calm in a Pandemic by Dr Emma Hepburn can be downloaded here: https://www.hachette.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/How-to-Stay-Calm-in-a-Global-Pandemic-Free-ebook.pdf Frank Cottrell Boyce on funny books here: https://twitter.com/frankcottrell_b/status/1362357860496248832 Chill Soul Rap Instrumental by Nkato https://soundcloud.com/nkato Creative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported— CC BY 3.0 Free Download / Stream: https://bit.ly/chill-soul-rap-instrumental Music promoted by Audio Library https://youtu.be/sdfcUBhRlgs

Join the Durham Book Festival team, as they discuss some of the books they recommend cosying up with over this winter. In this episode, Grace, Rebecca and Will treat us to their book highlights along with their favourite Christmas songs and films. Books mentioned in the podcast can be found here on our Bookshop list: https://uk.bookshop.org/wishlists/28e190a66be39c45e840ea54843c7fd0c6bf2034

A special round-table discussion where New Writing North’s Chief Executive, Claire Malcolm talks to writers Lisette Auton, Carmen Marcus and Mim Skinner about the approaches that they took to creating their pieces of work. All three writers chose to collaborate with other creatives and communities to make their work. The podcast explores how they did this and what writing collaboratively with others enables. New Narratives for the North East is a New Writing North commission with the North East Cultural Partnership supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund. This series is produced for Durham Book Festival, a Durham County Council festival supported by Durham University and Arts Council England. The series was made in York by Sonderbug Productions with music specially composed and recorded in Newcastle by Jayne Dent.

In this episode Laura is joined by Mim Skinner, author of the poignant and darkly funny  Jailbirds and co-founder and director of Chester-le-Street’s multi-award winning community interest company REfUSE, which works to intercept food that would otherwise go into landfill. Mim has spent years delivering arts courses in prisons throughout the North East, and talks here about the women she met, their stories, and the systemic problems that underpin their experience.

Gillian Allnutt has authored nine major collections and was awarded the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry in 2016. She was born in London but spent half of her childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne. Kayo Chingonyi is a poet and critic whose collection Kumukanda won the 2017 Dylan Thomas Prize. Like Gillian he spent some of his childhood in Newcastle, and in this episode the two poets discuss how their shared experience of leaving and then returning to the North East has shaped their work.

In episode two Laura McKenzie talks to Anne Stevenson, a major voice in British and American poetry. Born in Cambridge, UK, and brought up in New England, Stevenson lived a variously transatlantic life before settling in Co. Durham in the 1980s. Laura joined Anne in her home to talk about Durham’s shifting nature, and the different ways in which County and City have worked their way through her poetry. Anne Stevenson died in 2020.

For the first episode of Writing Durham, Laura McKenzie is joined by two of Co. Durham’s leading literary figures, Pat Barker and Benjamin Myers. Booker Prize winner Pat Barker has lived in Durham for the past forty years, while Myers – who won the 2018 Walter Scott Prize – grew up in Belmont, a suburb of Durham City. Listen in as they discuss place, memory, and what calling Durham home means to them as writers.

The Magdalene Steps, named after a medieval hospice, lead onto Saddler Street which in turn is the route up to the centre of the Durham World Heritage Site. Elvet Bridge, to the east, is home to several independent shops and two branches of Oxfam, one specialising in vintage clothes and the other in second-hand books. A Literary Pilgrimage of Durham is written by Ruth Robson and was commissioned as part of Durham Book Festival 2020

‘To me the Gala is the most joyous and emotional day it’s possible to have. I was taken to my first Gala when I was eight years old and I marched behind the band and the banner of Fishburn Colliery with my mother and Great-Uncle Wilf and Aunt Lizzie. It was always a wonderful day out, with three great emotional moments in it. First, there was the pride you felt at marching behind the lodge banner towards the racecourse, then there was the moment when we stopped outside the County Hotel and the band played their serenade to the big shots on the balcony, and finally there was the parade to the cathedral for the miners’ service.’ This description of the Miners’ Gala, which always takes place on the 2nd Saturday in July, is by Booker Prize-winning author DBC Pierre, whose mother is from Durham. He lived in Durham as a child in the 1960s. A Literary Pilgrimage of Durham is written by Ruth Robson and was commissioned as part of Durham Book Festival 2020