Pushing Boundaries, Flying Higher

It was such a great privilege to run this again and it is certainly one of the highlights of my job. This conference is about the young adult novel and attracts a mixed audience:

• Academics
• Writers
• Educationalists

 Some delegates happen to be all three at once and many, myself included, are members of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. (SCBWI)

Once again Melvin Burgess talked about his work and provided the “pushing boundaries” talk.  My own research establishes that young adult novels frequently push boundaries. Junk, My Life as a Bitch and Doing It are good examples.

Sara Grant, a long-term member of SCBWI, one of the founders of the Undiscovered Voices anthology, gave the “flying higher” talk.  She had the after lunch slot but kept us on our toes by making us create a story. It was good to see Sara again. She and I have history: we used to meet regularly to share work and critique in the back room of the Sherlock Holmes hotel on Baker Street. In fact, when I started reading Dark Parties, I recognised a scene. This was from the very last critique session we held before I came up north.

The second half of the morning was taken up with some in-depth critiquing. Three SCBWI groups met together. Melvin and Cornerstones / independent editor and author Debz-Hobbs Wyatt led a joint critique session with four people who had submitted some work. Sara saw another four one-to-one. 

Whilst the critiques were going on, the academics and those not involved in critiquing discussed a possible manifesto for the Young Adult Novel. We debated the following questions:

Questions to consider

1.       Who are the gatekeepers?

2.       What are the ingredients?

3.       What are the characters like in the stories?

4.       What type of stories are / should, be being produced?

5.       Is the young adult novel relatively new or has it always been there?

6.       What is its relationship between it and teen novel and new adult novels?

7.       Is the young adult novel always a story of growth?

8.       Is the upbeat ending from children’s books still there?

9.       What sort of bonds are there between reader and narrator in YA literature?

10.   Why do adolescents read fiction? Do they read fiction? Which ones?

11.   Is there a need for the novel to teach? Be moral? Have something to say?

12.   What about issues?

13.   What about diversity? Is it there? Should it be there? What else might be done? 

14.   Is it making use of new technologies?

15.   How do young people consume story?

16.   What are the pressures and constraints?

17.   What about the car chase?

18.   Could computer games count as young adult fiction?

19.   How does the tendency to push boundaries affect its relationship to the book-publishing industry?

20.   Which role does the young adult novel take in the life of the young adult?

The manifesto

What do we mean by young adult and young adult novel?

How should we look after young adult novels?

What are they?

What must they, should they and could they include?

What is their relationship to young adults, educationalists and the publishing industry?

I’m hoping to collate our findings for an article in The Conversation. The debate can continue. Please add comments here, use the contact form or contact me via the University of Salford.  

Nikki Heath, the librarian from Werneth School, gave us some insights into how teenagers are encouraged to read and about what they are currently reading.

My own session was about the value of networking and how readers and writers can support themselves. I mentioned SCBWI, Golden Egg, CWIG, Booktrust, Armadillo Magazine, Books for Keeps and Carousel.  

The final session was a round table / panel discussion about the current state of the young adult novel. This involved Melvin, Sarah, Debz, Nikki and Vanessa Harbour, senior lecturer form the University of Winchester and also involved with the Golden Egg Academy, and Rachel McIntyre, published SCBWI member. We established that 55% of readers are not in fact young adults. However, young adults do read young adult books and they want their voices to be heard. They should be truly represented there. There is a move away now form fantasy, dystopia and near future towards current real life. The happy ending is not expected.

Of course, the conversation continued over dinner.

A really pleasing conference. I just might do it again next year ….. Of course I will.                       

A worthwhile sabbatical

I was very fortunate in 2011 – 2012 being awarded a sabbatical of one semester i.e. five months to research for and start writing The House on Schellberg Street. This is the story of a Holocaust survivor and the world she left behind. I am a senior lecturer at the University of Salford and like all academics struggle to find time for research, though we aim to base our teaching on it.

My access to a primary resource, letters from school girls who carried on writing to each other until they were young women, stood in my favour. As I’m a creative practitioner also, the actually writing of a piece of fiction is sanctioned as part of the sabbatical. I did get a first draft completed in that time. 

My first task was to transcribe the letters. I simply typed them out in German and then translated them. Fortunately I speak German fluently. The handwriting was often difficult to read though the clearest was that of the class teacher, Hanna Braun. This was a really useful exercise as it really got me into their heads and helped me understand what it was like being an eighteen-year-old German girl then. I began to understand the personality of each girl. Some of these texts were quite boring though there were some interesting snippets. Two themes emerged: camaraderie and duty. I can understand how these would appeal to young women. 

I did completely fictionalize the women for both ethical and artistic reasons. However, there is the essence of the truth in the story.

It was most certainly a worthwhile sabbatical. Four further stories have presented themselves:

·         Clara’s biography (partly true) – completed

·         The story of a couple of  girls (completely fictional – apart from some mention of the school on Schellberg Street) –completed

·         The women who almost shot Hitler (I’m about to start this and I’m anticipating some disbelief – but it really happened)

·         The Round Robin – more stories about the young German women.

In addition, I’ve carried out several school visits and also looked with the eyes of an academic at the balance between fact and fiction involved in historical fiction and the writers’ process involved. 

So, on the whole, a worthwhile sabbatical. The output continues. 

Milking your teachers

One of the biggest differences between school or Sixth Form College and university is the mode of study.

 

Modes of study

At school, teachers give their students a lot of guidance. They coach them to succeed. Though A-level students are expected to work alone they still have far more contact hours with their teachers than do university students. We expect our students to spend 200 hours on study per module. We offer them 36 hours of classroom time plus a few exchanges via email and some one-to-one meetings. There is no compulsion to attend.  This is neither school nor work. The taught class is really just another resource.

Teachers as a resource 

Lecturers are in fact very valuable resources. Here too there is a vast difference between what happens in the school system and what happens in Higher Education. In schools, teachers follow a curriculum. In institutions of higher education we teach according to our research. We find out new information and out students are very privileged to be amongst the first to encounter that.

My situation – cause to be proud  

At the institution where I teach, the Creative Practice team comprises two senior lecturers, two readers and three ordinary lecturers. The two senior lecturers are also published commercially so both also work as creative practitioners. One also runs her own publishing company. The two readers are also published commercially and both have some innovative research in poetry, with one also specialising in visual text. One of the ordinary lecturers is an experienced playwright and is writer in residence for the National Theatre. Another is an experienced actor, producer, director and translator and also runs her own publishing company. The third is developing a practice as a dramaturge and working internationally.

A talented bunch, then. 

 

Learning not teaching 

Our students are privileged also to be taught by four experienced members of staff as well as by seven creatively active ones. This is a little unusual. Some institutions use more Associate Lecturers – ones that are good in their field but who know the university less well. We also use a talented fiction writer and another is an experienced theatre practitioner.

You have to be good at teaching to become a senior lecturer. If you’ve got that far, you may even be a little too institutionalized. The two senior lecturers and readers are in fact also very experienced. Yet one of the ordinary lecturers is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, another has extensive experience of school teaching and a third is a performer who has much experience in schools and universities.

There is still a range of expertise and unfortunately it seems that students expect the performance by all to match that of the very best. They must accept that they will encounter a range of teaching abilities. 

The onus is on them, isn’t it? There’s a lot of privilege here in the Creative Practice expertise they’re offered. Shouldn’t they be milking that?  They must take their part in learning as well as being taught.  

           

 

            

Why the NSS is important for everybody

All over the UK students in their final year at university are being urged to complete the National Student Survey. iPads are delivered to core lectures. Lecturers present their students with rationales for why they should fill it in though at all costs must avoid influencing what they say.

There’s just a little pressure. One of the programmes on which I teach last year achieved 100% overall satisfaction. The rest were in the mid-nineties. Can we sustain that? Can we improve?

We take what the students are telling us seriously. Even though there were a lot of positives last year there were still things we needed to address. For example, we looked at:

·         The imbalance of critical and practical drama courses.

·         A continued lack of understanding about some of the feedback and marking.

·         A desire for more one-to-one sessions. 

We fixed these things.

Arguably, of course, we’re responding to students who are about to leave and students who are still with us may have other desires. Yet surely everyone will be happy about a new third year practical drama module? About getting even more clarification about what marks and feedback mean?  About having more chances to work one-to-one with tutors without losing precious contact time in class? 

People who take part in surveys can shape the future. The information that students give us via the NSS really is extremely useful.

There they were then, beavering away last week in a core lecture, filling in their responses.

“They’re writing a lot,” I said to my colleague.

“Well what do you expect?” she replied. “They’re creative writers.” 

Yes. They’re certainly creating something through their writing.

If you’re a final year student and haven’t yet filled in the NSS, why not go to www.thestudentsurvey.com and shape the future.