Audio morsels from Elsewhere

It's all go in the land of Elsewhere... Not only do we have our very exciting Twitter Q&A with Marcus Sedgwick on Saturday at 1200, we've also got a number of exclusive interviews with our authors talking about how they explored the theme of elsewhere in their stories. Today we feature two of these - but keep checking the blog over the next days as we'll be adding more!

Julia Donaldson's story on the theme of elsewhere, 'The Ballad of Jemmy Button', is really a song but it also works as a narrative poem. It centres on the story of the voyage of the Beagle, on which Charles Darwin was the ship's naturalist, and its mission to take some of the natives of Tierra del Fuego back to England. In our exclusive interview with her below, Julia tells us why she was drawn to write about this episode in colonial history and how it explores the idea of elsewhere.




Gill Arbuthnott's story 'Marilyn's Hands' takes as its starting point the idea of elsewhere being on the outside, of not being quite part of the normal swing of things. Her story is very different from what she normally writes - it is for adults rather than children and has a distinct science fiction theme. She tells us in our interview below how she explored her own background in science and themes of identity and being an outsider in her wonderful story.



Also - we've started releasing audio recordings of some of our authors reading their stories. You can subscribe on iTunes to make sure you get the recordings as they are released. We've already got Anne Fine and Roddy Doyle up and will be adding three a week for the next few months.

Elsewhere Stories Finale on Twitter, 2nd April, 12 noon

In June last year we commissioned fifty leading writers for children and adults to write short stories or essays, all on the theme of ‘Elsewhere’, which we've been releasing over the past few months. As the project draws to a close, we thought we'd celebrate the magnificent stories we've received with a mini online festival featuring exclusive podcasts with some of our Elsewhere authors, interviews, teachers' resources, reading group guides and host our first ever Twitter interview with author Marcus Sedgwick. As Elsewhere is all about trying something new, doing something a bit different, we thought this an excellent way to go out in style.

Elsewhere is about stories - the beauty of the open endedness of the Elsewhere brief is that the only stipulation was that it had to be about somewhere else. It could be a work of poetry, fiction or non-fiction. There's been a huge variety of responses to the brief. Louise Welsh has written about a girl in a coma and what it's like to be trapped in your own body, Barry Hutchison's is about life after death and Joan Lingard's is a piece of non-fiction about her own experience of going into the Soviet Union before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Each story from the fifty manages to capture the idea of being foreign, being different, of being somewhere unfamiliar.

We will be hosting a Q&A with Marcus Sedgwick on Saturday 2nd April, 12 noon on Twitter. That's where you come in! Please send your questions in advance to our @edbookfest account so that we can put them to Marcus on the day. Or, if you prefer, you can pose your queries in real time - and we'll do our best to get through them all. Either way, it's going to be an exhilarating adventure that will bring our Elsewhere journey to a thrilling conclusion.



Thanks to Scottish Government's Festivals Expo fund for making this project possible.

£5000 for your poetry?

Yep – that’s right. The wonderful Edwin Morgan International Poetry Competition is one of the more remarkable poetry prizes around when you actually have the chance to win a lovely cash sum for your efforts to help you on your way… and entries are now being accepted for 2011. Now in its fourth year, the competition is rapidly establishing itself a reputation for being one of the biggest and most-respected celebrations of poetry in Europe.

And the good news is that anyone can enter! So if you fancy yourself as something of a poet then why not try your luck? The first prize is a fantastic £5000 and there’s a second of £1000, a third of £500 and two runner-up prizes of £50. On top of this, the finalists are invited to take part in a special poetry event at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival in August – an experience that money can’t buy!

Last year attracted over 1000 entries so whilst that’s a lot of poems, it isn’t so many that you don’t stand a chance if you’ve penned a great piece of work. The prizes are made available through the generous sponsorship of The University of Strathclyde and we – the Edinburgh International Book Festival – host the annual prize-giving each year during the Festival.

The closing date for entries is 10 June. Check out the Edwin Morgan Poetry Competition website for further info about how to enter.

Maybe we’ll be seeing you on stage in Charlotte Square Gardens this summer!

Fantastic writers, everywhere! And a big orange box.

Just wanted to remind you of (and flaunt) two of this year’s biggest and best Book Festival developments: the Elsewhere project and the Readers’ First Book Award.

Our Elsewhere: New Writing Commissions page is growing by the day, filling with fascinating, entertaining and mad contributions from leading writers. So far we have:

A Flash of Blue Light by Michel Faber
Because it’s a Wednesday by A L Kennedy
Chicago by Allan Radcliffe
Sassuolo by Eleanor Thom
Vanishing Point by Louise Welsh
The Future According to Luke by James Robertson
Puerto Galera by Jason Donald
Surtsey by Doug Johnstone
We Are All Waiting by Denise Mina
From My Vow by Jen Hadfield
The art of elsewhere by Ali Smith
Bain de Soleil by David Vann
Not Scotland by Anne Donovan
Horror Story by Kirstin Innes
Apparently by Karen Campbell
Los San Patricios by Roddy Doyle
Elsewhere, Far From Here by Alberto Manguel
Be Here Now by Miguel Syjuco
Sullivan's Ashes by Alan Warner
After Drink You Can Turn Earth Up Side Down by Rodge Glass
Paper Boat Paper Bird by David Almond
Red Wolves in the Mist by Elizabeth Laird
Welcome to Flaxland by Andy Stanton
Another Country by Margo Lanagan

And there’s even more to come, so stay tuned. A good way to do that is to follow our handy New Writing feed. And if you missed our Elsewhere events at the Book Festival - or just want to revist them - keep an eye on our Media Gallery; we'll be uploading videos in October.

In the meantime, you’ve still got the rest of this month to vote for debut fiction in our Readers’ First Book Award. Fun, frenzy, adventure, danger, darkness, intellect, insight and speculation – the nominated books have it all. Vote for your favourite and be in with a chance of winning a signed copy of every single one of those spectacular new works.

This is a good time to explain, as I promised, why Book Festival staff ended up in a big orange box. Well! If you joined us last month in Charlotte Square gardens you may have noticed aforementioned box… and it had so many Readers’ Award votes in it that we had to get someone in there to fish them out!

Poker-faced professionalism.

New audio recordings

Were there Book Festival events in August that you wanted to attend but couldn't? Or did you go to an event that you'd love to revisit? Either way, our Media Gallery is the place to be. We've uploaded dozens of hour-long audio recordings of events from this year's programme, including Simon Callow, Seamus Heaney and A S Byatt. Our most recent uploads are:

Andrew O’Hagan: the unforgettable tale of Marilyn Monroe, Frank Sinatra and a dog called Maf.
David Vann & Willy Vlautin: two writers with riveting, unique accounts of father-son relationships
Reggie Nadelson in conversation with Ian Rankin: two crime writers discuss one brilliantly believable detective
Philippe Sands: a gripping discussion of war crimes
Joyce Carol Oates: listen to one of the greatest living American writers
Tom McCarthy: major new voice in British literature discusses his second novel
Marina Endicott & Lisa Moore: two remarkable writers discuss life and death
Emma Donoghue & Fiona Shaw: two unique writers as they look at love and trauma through a child’s eyes
Sophia Jansson: celebrating 65 years of the Moomins
Roddy Doyle: join the audience of Roddy Doyle’s popular and fun event

Enjoy them, and don't forget to check back for more.

Booktrust Teenage Prize 2010

There are not enough awards featuring books for teenage readers out there, but here’s a fantastic one: the Booktrust Teenage Prize. And the 2010 shortlist has just been announced! The Enemy by Charlie Higson, Halo by Zizou Corder, Nobody’s Girl by Sarra Manning, Out of Shadows by Jason Wallace, Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick and Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes.

Half of this talented bunch joined us at the Book Festival this month, a source of great entertainment and inspiration for our substantial teenage audiences. We wish the inspiring Sarra Manning, the otherworldly Marcus Sedgwick and the gifted Gregory Hughes the best of luck.

The winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize 2010 will be announced on 1 November.

Booker Prize shortlisters were here!

Did you see the fantastic Emma Donoghue, Howard Jacobson, Andrea Levy and Tom McCarthy at the Book Festival last month? If you didn’t, head over to our Media Gallery and keep a keen lookout for audio recordings of their events. And if you did see them in August you can now proudly claim – as of today – that you saw Booker Prize shortlisters in action.

Today the shortlist for the 2010 Man Booker Prize was announced – Peter Carey for Parrot and Olivier in America, Emma Donoghue for Room, Damon Galgut for In a Strange Room, Howard Jacobson for The Finkler Question, Andrea Levy for The Long Song, and Tom McCarthy for C.

We’re thrilled that we had the honour of welcoming 4 of the 6 shortlisters – and 10 of the 13 longlisters – to Charlotte Square gardens in sunny August, and we at the Book Festival wish them an energetic congrats!

The winner of the 2010 Man Booker Prize for Fiction will be announced on Tuesday 12 October.