Message-ID: <Pine.NEB.4.56.0308152349050.19115@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.aol.com>,
"WRYTING-L : Writing and Theory across Disciplines" <WRYTING-L@LISTSERV.UTORONTO.CA>
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Nottingham Trent teaches globally to make writing
creative online (fwd)
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 23:49:11 -0400 (EDT)
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 13:05:30 +0100
From: trace@ntu.ac.uk
To: sondheim@panix.com
Subject: PRESS RELEASE: Nottingham Trent teaches globally to make writing
creative online
Most of us enjoyed writing at school but lost confidence in our teens when what was once a pleasurable pastime turned into a stressful academic chore. Courses in creative writing can often provide a stimulus to rebuild that early enjoyment in writing, with positive spin-offs for both workplace and personal creativity. But how do you attend a writing workshop when, like Tracey Martin, you are based in a country like The Gambia where there are no such opportunities?
Tracey, 42, came to Africa from Thailand, where she worked as a teacher and development manager. Now she is a Director of Voluntary Services Overseas and has settled in The Gambia with her Thai husband and their two children. Keen to join a writing workshop but with none available locally, she thought of setting one up herself until she discovered the trAce Online Writing School. Based at Nottingham Trent University in England but offering 100% online courses on the web, the School is ideal for people like Tracey. She enjoyed the mix of nationalities in her Online Workshop, where one tutor logged on from Bucketty, a small bush community in Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, Australia, and another from the suburbs of Nottingham, England:
I felt online I would be exposed to many more different types and attitudes to writing than if I was in a local group.
Working with trAce has opened her eyes to the possibilities:
It has motivated me to continue writing - I now know I can get things published on the web and get feedback from all over the world. It has made me want to learn more about the Internet and how it can help writers.
Uma Girish, 39, a freelance writer with eight years experience and based in Chennai, India, had the same response. She had heard about trAce via The British Council and was keen to try an online writing course to re-energise her professional work:
I felt I might enjoy the comfort of working from home, reading work from other cultures and backgrounds, and for the first time in my life, be tutored by a foreigner!
Uma enjoyed the international variety of a group where the tutor was based in Newport Beach, California, and her fellow students logged on from various parts of the world:
I believe I brought a unique cultural perspective to the group, coming from India, as the others did to me. I like to share the story of the squirrels. In one of my written submissions, I had a phrase: 'timid as a squirrel', and a fellow writer in England simply didn't get it. He said squirrels are bold, daring, and often march up to you and demand food from your lunch box if you happen to be sitting on a park bench. Where I come from, squirrels are frightened creatures and bolt at the slightest noise from humans. So this was an interesting, albeit small, cultural exchange.
The other thing the course did for me was to open the window to a much larger world, in terms of ideas, writing styles, contexts and so forth. But there were barriers too. My fellow writers' references didn't always make sense to me (as I'm sure mine didn't to them) especially when they wrote about old-world traditions or used names to suggest a place or a certain kind of atmosphere. But that prompted an exchange because I asked for clarifications and they always obliged.
Bedfordshire-based Gavin Stewart, 41, turned from an international career as a derivatives trader to studying for a PhD in computer-mediated textuality at the University of Luton. Studying at trAce was part of that change. He says:
I was interested in the trAce format because the course tutor presents a comprehensive package of coursework that provides a much-needed structure which facilitates one to 'take on' the challenge of a new way of working.
He has already created a small multi-participant work called 'Tomorrow' and is currently producing a Multi-user Garden called 'The Castle Gardens' using PHP4.0 and SQL.
Gavin Stewart took Alan Sondheims Experimental Writing course. Tracey Martin attended the trAce Online Workshop which runs continuously with two tutors at a starter fee of £28 for four weeks. Uma Girishs course is not available this year but there are thirteen others to choose from. The next series of nine-week courses starts 15th September with Freelance Article Writing, Poetry, Childrens Fiction, and Writing Crime and Mystery. Courses cost £140 and can be booked online at http://tracewritingschool.com
>From her freelancers study in Chennai, Uma feels very much part of the global professional community. She reports:
I am very happy talking to a variety of editors from overseas magazines, doing query letters, and believing that sitting here in India my writing can make a difference to people a few continents away.
End
Notes to editors
- Texts of email interviews with Uma Girish, Tracey Martin and Gavin Stewart are available on request
- The trAce Online Writing School is part of the trAce Online Writing Centre, based at the Nottingham Trent University. The website is at http://tracewritingschool.com
- Sue Thomas, Director of the trAce Online Centre, is available for interview.
Please contact Rachael Earp. Press Office, The Nottingham Trent University on Tel: 0115 8482259 or email rachael.earp@ntu.ac.uk
PS: apologies if you received a rogue mail from us earlier today with the subject line fdsa - it was one of those annoying little slips of the mouse :)