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First ever Writer-in-Residence for University

03/11/2017
First ever Writer-in-Residence for University

Each year the University welcomes working artists under the Artists Access to Art Colleges scheme in the Faculty of Arts, and this year it has been extended to include a writer, a dramatist and a media artist.

Louise Palfreyman, the Faculty of Arts' first Writer-in-Residence, told us more about how she is planning to spend her time with us…

"This residency is a fabulous opportunity to realise our collective creative potential with access to all the great facilities here at the University. I also get to share my professional experience with students, and will hopefully pass on some of my knowledge of the media and publishing industries. I’ve launched the Black Country Arts Foundry to publish a wide range of perspectives coming out of the region: themes include place and displacement, identity and belonging, and gender and language.

What does it mean to feel at home, and what happens when we are uprooted? How do we approach issues of gender, sexuality, race and identity? What are your perspectives as BAME or LGBT students, mature students, or Erasmus students?

I’m looking for strong narratives and bold contemporary art to bring together a set of creative responses on the Black Country.

I’ll be putting an editorial team together to bring our ideas to life, both at the Arts Foundry website and an arts journal. And I’ll be in the library offering sessions and readings through the year. The blog and journal sections at the Arts Foundry site will feature regular posts featuring visual arts, poetry, fiction, essays and life writing. And next year, there will be a beautiful journal published in a limited print run and at Issuu.

But it won’t happen without the involvement of students! Submissions are now open!

Are you a student wanting to see your fiction or poetry, blog posts or life writing published? Perhaps you’re an artist seeking a wider platform for your work. Submissions are open for the Black Country Arts Foundry! Check out the site and send in your work via the submissions portal.

Editorial Team

I’m looking for an editorial team, led by the Writer-in-Residence as we move through all the exciting stages of bringing a new publication to life! You could gain valuable professional experience as:

• Fiction Editor
• Poetry Editor
• Art Editor
• Illustration Editor
• Production Editor

The end result will be a beautiful arts journal and website, featuring work from across the University and the wider Black Country community. To get involved contact me via the Arts Foundry, or email: artsfoundryeditor@gmail.com

About the Writer-in-Residence

Louise Palfreyman writes short fiction and her work has been published in a variety of journals and anthologies, including Best British Short Stories.

Louise is a Room 204 emerging writer with Writing West Midlands and was recently digital writer-in-residence at the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists. She has 20 years' experience in journalism, communications and marketing, having worked for the Birmingham Post and Mail group, and as a freelance journalist, PR and copywriter.

Her time at the University will include informal sessions in the library on short fiction, self-editing, and (for art students) how to bring writing into your practice.

Her goal is to publish a journal and showcase students’ work at the annual ArtsFest, offering a creative response to contemporary issues and the heritage of the area.

For more information please contact the Corporate Communications Team.

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