As part of its tenth birthday celebrations next year, Salt will launch a network of ten Modern Writing Centres, nicknamed Salt Cellars. The centres will coordinate tours, readings and events for its authors and will also act as hubs for the development of its UK and Irish publishing plans. The initiative will support Salt’s authors through co-ordinated outreach programmes working with local groups, venues, booksellers, libraries, festivals, schools, colleges and universities.
“There’s been tremendous support for this exciting initiative,” says Lee Smith. “We wanted to develop something ambitious and this outreach programme will take contemporary literature and our authors into the hearts of communities. It’s about Salt working with our authors in new ways and developing new audiences for them.”
The plans will be extended to other countries in coming years, particularly the USA and Australia.
Will it extend to the rest of Ireland?
Belfast is hard to get to from many parts of the Republic of Irl.
Yes, though the idea behind the Salt Cellars is writer-led, so if a cluster of Salt authors want to share in the network, they can. There’s no restriction on entry or on developing new centres. We’ll be preparing further guidelines on how we see the Cellars developing. The Irish list is developing well and we want to accelerate that over the coming years.
Love from me and Jen
x
Looks like you have a centre planned for Teesside. As I live nearby I’m interested to know more and if I can help.
B***** h*** that’s really exciting! And one near me too, so refreshing, normally everything just goes to London.
Will there be any centres near Oxford or Aylesbury?
I think the closest is Exeter or Birmingham, both a bit of a trawl! If you would like me to set one up on Oxford, Peter, I’m happy to do so.
How about Scotland?
Hi Penny, yes, we’ve one planned in Edinburgh, and perhaps more to follow if there are enough people wanting to sign up.
Brilliant initiative. Well done! I live in the West of Scotland, but Edinburgh is only 2 hours drive away.The poetry scene in Scotland is so vibrant…great to see another way of reaching people.
Terrific, Sheila. I’m intending that each centre, or hub, will have more outreach to other groups and communities and so the 10 we’ve started with may have a far broader outreach than this indicates. They’re kind of creative clusters, and we want to work at a grass roots level to help writers and readers.
Any chance of a Salt Cellar in Bradford/Leeds…I’m a member of Beehive Poets in Bradford and we have had some Salt poets read at our intimate venue in the backroom of the last gas lit pub in England.
Hi Bruce, I lived in Leeds for three years back in the 80s. One night I went to see New Order play in Bradford and walked home in a parka and wellies. Happy days.
I’d love to have a Salt Cellar in Leeds. We have some relationships there, though I’ve lost touch with Bradford. Anything we can do to support you though is good in my books, so tell me what you need and I’ll see if I can organise it.
Best as ever
C
Hi Chris,
Kind of you to respond so quickly;
I guess what’s needed from Salt as far as a Leeds/ Bradford (either will do) Salt Cellar is a recognition of the value of readings in smaller intimate venues, and a recognition that the door money or a readers fee of £25 and no Travel or overnight isn’t necessarily going to meet all the poets costs.
Beehive Poets and Bradford Poetry Workshop also offer read-arounds and on the 4th Monday 8.30 at the New beehive Inn Westgate Bradford, a critical and constructive workshop…bring six copies of your work
Tell me more of what you at Salt might expect of us!
Could you venture even further north than Edinburgh to, say, Aberdeen?
Hi Lorraine, I’ll add Aberdeen to the list and we can give it a shot. I’ve strong memories of staying in Aberdeen en route to my mother-in-law in Gletness, Shetland — staying in the Bluebird with a wide range of drunken riggers. She’s left Shetland now and settled back in Glasgow a few years back.
Hi Chris,
What a lovely idea! I can’t wait until you add some in the U.S.!
Lori
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Hi there, this sounds like a great initiative. How can other practising writers get involved and do you have any plans for Cornwall?
This sounds great, and I’d love to hear more. Cyprus Well is the new literature development agency for the South West, and we are raising funds to invest in reading, writing, readers and writers in the region. Our full website is due to be launched in March 2010, and we’d be happy to help out if we can. And I’d lay money on me being at that New Order gig in Bradford you mentioned on Nov 30th!
cheers, Tracey, Director Cyprus Well
Salt Cellars is a great idea! Will there be one in the North West? We have of course the great Commonword in Manchester – perhaps you could link up?
It’s high on our list, we’ve just been talking about Peter.