Award for 'Letters From Yelena'

This week I was very fortunate to be awarded by the Arts Council a grant towards the research and development of my second novel 'Letters From Yelena'. The book in progress contains the letters sent by a brilliant ballerina to ‘Noah’ – a writer who first gave her faith in people after the darkness of her childhood. By chronicling her journey first as an immigrant, then as a rising ballerina, the letters will chart how seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome through the connections people make.


I'm grateful that the award will allow me to spend much more of my time writing, as well as taking me to St Petersburg in Russia in a few weeks time. Whilst there I hope to visit the prestigious Vaganova Academy and world famous Mariinsky Theatre - places where my lead character learnt to dance. I'm also attending a performance of the famous ballet-blanc 'Giselle' at The Mariinsky Theatre. St Petersburg is a city I have been longing to visit for a while and it will be great to go there to work on my second novel. It will be good to flesh out exactly how my character would have lived, and hopefully see her gradually come to life before me.


(Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England. To find out more abut the Arts Council visit http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/)

Comments

  1. Living Reflection Of A Dream11 September 2011 at 09:04

    The Ballet and St.Petersburg? Why yes I am slightly jealous of your situation at the moment. How fantastic for the Arts Council to fund your work and allow you the opportunity to travel to Russia to write and research.
    It's one of my dream jobs to be a writer.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Kristen Pfaff biography: representation for it, my TEDx talk, its first chapter and who has become a part of it...

Image
Now being at the point where the first chapter of this book is finally out in the world it is remarkable to think I was first inspired to write a book about Kristen Pfaff from Hole when I read her mother Janet's book about her daughter's life (available  here ) and it contained excerpts from Kristen's diary. An entry in which she describes as a young girl having a conversation with the sea was perhaps the most beautiful piece of writing I've read and it probably began all this work. I have been working on it with Jason Pfaff after I got in touch with him. Jason gives his side of how we decided to work together on  this  podcast. One reason the book has taken longer to write than anyone might have expected is revelations about Pfaff from people who knew her are still being offered to me. However much I know about Kristen the more news about the book comes out the more people come to Jason and me to talk and open up about their recollections of her. Jason Pfaff and I have
Read more

'Kristen Hovers At The Edge': Excerpt from 'I Know How To Live': The Life of Kristen Pfaff via 3AM Magazine

Image
This is the first chapter from  ‘I Know How To Live’: The Life of Kristen Pfaff  by Guy Mankowski  (with an afterword by Jason Pfaff). It’s 1993, and a teeming English summer afternoon. A crowd sways in front of the stage. The singer wears a guitar over her grey trench coat. Smoke flows through her hair as she waves her lit cigarette at the crowd. A man in the crowd shouts, with contempt, ‘she’s dyed her hair!’ There’s a woman next to her in a black miniskirt, carrying a black bass with the confidence of one who treats it as an appendage. The black hair that obscures her face is somehow more convincing than that of the singer, who doesn’t look at her. The singer strums, her singing inaudible at first and the woman to her right winds her mike stand, plectrum in her mouth. There’s a sense of growing conviction about her. Ear-splitting feedback. A sense of occasion, the clenched body language of a band determined to prove themselves to this huge crowd at The Phoenix Festival. Fatima Mansi
Read more

Update on Kristen Pfaff book

Image
  Just wanted to offer a quick update about the book about Kristen Pfaff. Along with Jason Pfaff, for some years a book about Pfaff has been in development. It has benefited from the input of many parties, not least Pfaff’s exes, Mike Huber and Robert Slammon and many others. It also benefits from access to Pfaff’s unseen archive, Jason Pfaff's video archive, as well as other exciting sources. Pfaff’s 27 years were used fitfully and the book will very much focus on her life rather than her passing. As an academic, activist, counsellor and musician Pfaff packed a lot into her years and this book will very much celebrate her life and her time as a key member of cult band Janitor Joe, putting the spotlight onto the years in which less is known about Pfaff. The book will also celebrate Pfaff and others contribution to the masterpiece that was Hole’s ‘Live Through This’. When there is news on the publication front we’ll be sharing it right away. I’d like to offer my thanks to the Pfaff
Read more