Guest Post: Claire Laurraine Sharples

September's Guest Post is from Claire Laurraine Sharples. She is a creative writing student at UCLAN, and recently worked as part of the team that edited and published Michael Molyneux's collection of poetry. Here she tells us a bit about the behind-the-scenes work that went into the collection, and why, as a writer, the experience was so valuable to her. Claire blogs about the ups and down of the writing-student's life here.

As a writer, I have always been curious about the publishing industry. How do I submit my work to one? What happens to my manuscript? How are books published? I was able to answer these questions by taking part in a publishing project through UCLan’s very own publishing house, clan – u press.

Being chosen to be one of the five students involved in this publication was an exciting moment for me. We worked alone or as a team, taking on different roles performed in a publishing house: editing, design, promotion, accounting etc. Like the staff of a small publishing house, we were involved with the project from start to finish.

Publishing a book involves different stages so we set deadlines for the tasks to be completed, allowing space in between each one in case anything went wrong. As a team, we sat down with Michael and discussed our ideas and opinions in respect of the design and layout. We read through Michael’s poems, deciding which ones should go into the book. Sitting down together, we sifted through the images that some photography students had taken for us, and chose one for the cover, taking into account Michael’s choice too. The selection process was straight forward but the editing and design was more difficult.

Although Michael’s work had been published before, the manuscript we had contained various errors which had to be corrected. Taking into account that poets can break the rules when using punctuation, it was important we checked any amendments with Michael. We did not want to alter the structure of his poems. The corrected manuscript was dropped into a special software programme that we had been trained to use. A number of drafts were produced before the final one could go to print. All the drafts had to be carefully read through and edited where necessary. We had to come into the publishing house during our spare time. Staff expect to work long hours in this industry and we had to be willing to do the same in order to meet our deadlines.

Michael and the team enjoyed this project and gained valuable experience. For me personally, I developed new skills and an urge to pursue publishing as a career; as a writer I have learnt how to submit my work to publishers, how the process will work and what is expected of both publishers and authors. Good communication and developing a good relationship with your editor are the two main important issues I have learnt. My editing skills come in useful when I read through my work. Finally, I will be able to mention this valuable experience when I apply for internships next year.

Other recent publications from clan-u press include a local history book; “Memories of Frenchwood”, Beaumont College artwork; “Response” and poetry anthologies; “Taste” and “Therefore I am...” For further information of the press and their publications, please send your enquiry to ceth@uclan.ac.uk

Interview With Michael Molyneux

Next in our series of interviews, Richard Hirst talks to Michael Molyneux about his collection of poetry: Selected Poems. Michael lives in Preston and will be performing at Word Soup on the 22nd September - so if this whets your appetite, you know where to come. Michael blogs here.


First of all: congratulations - I imagine you must be very proud to have a book of your selected poems published. How did you get into writing? How long have you been writing poems?

I have been writing poems since my formative years, when, on a train, I wrote a very self-indulgent rhyming poem about feeling responsible for society's improvement and the contrasting pull of the personal freedom I was experiencing at the time. I think this was quite a naive way of looking at the world but, at the same time, I think it's a relevant principle at some level for every person, (and one that Andre Gide writes about in his book The Immoralist).

That was my first memory of poetry and, although the dilemma remains, was that of a different person. I now rarely write poems, being more concerned with experiencing 'poetry' in the everyday than reading or writing 'poetry' as an art form.

I think it is important to discover the poetic in its many forms. Often, trying to render or capture 'the poetic' in a 'poem' can actually do more harm than good. I find that many poets, and I certainly don't exclude myself here, write as an excuse for living or to try and pass off emotions, ones they can't fully understand or accept, for art.

Poetry is commonly both a cathartic process, or a kind of mental masturbation, and a kind of collector's search. But in the words of Thoreau 'how vain is it to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live'.

Between this more stoical approach today and the early musings, there have been innumerable postcards, beers mats and napkins filled with mystic ramblings, love letters and descriptions of trees in the night-wind (etc!).

The poems themselves seem to follow more of a European tradition than a British/English one. Would that be a fair assumption? Who are the writers who you admire and feel have influenced your work the most?

I think the British tradition is generally one that lacks passion, insight and mysticism. This is clearly a general statement and I could cite many exceptions. But, as a rule, I favour Japanese poetry (short, mystical and allusive - and therefore a better reflection of what life is really like), Spanish poetry for the deep passion and congruence, and also some American poetry.

The two greatest poets on the last century were, in my eyes, Wallace Stevens and Pablo Neruda. Pablo Neruda writes about love and the sea better than anyone I have ever known and Wallace Stevens fuses the imagination and reality in a subtle and profound way - 'the poem of the mind in the act of finding what will suffice'. I find it amazing and disheartening that so many people are yet to look outside the bounds of one or two familiar poetic traditions.

I believe you were born and raised in Preston. Do you feel the city itself has had any influence on your writing? Has your background as a philosophy student at UCLAN had any bearing on your poetry?

The only influence Preston has had on my poetry is thanks to the poetry society at the university - I don't know if this still exists. Preston has only featured in my poems as 'an urban area' and in a negative light.

As for philosophy, I think that poetry and philosophy are intrinsically linked, as they both are rooted in a primordial sense of wonder at the world and address many of the same questions, albeit in different ways. I again refer to Stevens. Merleau-Ponty is one philosopher who writes so eloquently as to warrant the title of poet and who writes about the link between language and being.

Selected Poems is published by the Clan-U Press which, as the name would suggest, is a UCLAN publisher, and is run by Ceth, a national Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning. Can you tell us anything about this and how it came to publish your work?

Ceth is the University of Central Lancashire's publishing house. The university runs a module in which students must publish a book from beginning to end (editing, marketing, printing, proof reading - the lot). My selected poems were published by a group of several students who were studying such a module.

Do you have kind of 'routine' for your writing? Have you got any advice for any would-be poets who may be reading?

I personally don't have a routine for writing but I think there are many commonalities in other writers' routines that might serve as advice for other would-be writers. Regular walks, reading constantly, getting drunk occasionally, sleeping well, travelling, exercising, falling in love, looking had at everyday objects until they shed their veneer. I suppose there are too many to list.

The important thing, though, is developing self awareness and then forming a routine (or otherwise) around what you discover about how you operate. The best advice, though, is rather than succumb to ordinary weakness, don't write at all!


Don't forget to put PrestonWN into your feed reader, or follow us by clicking the link in the sidebar. Our next post is a guest piece by Claire Sharples, who was part of the team who worked to publish Michael's collection.

Chocolate and Short Stories

Chocolate and Short Stories is the first in a series of one-day workshops which will show you exactly how to write a short story for Bridge House.

Bridge House is a fully fledged new publishing company based in Manchester and specialising in anthologies showcasing both new and established writing talent. For their current submissions opportunities and policies, click here.

Here's what Bridge House had to say about their latest workshop:

Whether a beginner or an experienced writer, you will leave with a good proportion of a story finished. It is also likely to be a story which will fit the Bridge House ethos. There'll also be a chance as well to meet other members of the Bridge House team.

We've gone a bit upmarket this time and are running the workshop at Slatterly's, Whitefield, Manchester. Slatterly's produce wonderful cakes and chocolates, and there will be a chance during the day to browse their tempting display. Your day also includes a good sample of their other food.

The workshop Leader is Gill James, experienced writer and editor, university lecturer in creative writing with over 30 books in print.

The workshop runs from 10am to 4pm on the 19th September.

For more information on the workshop, to book a place, or to find out more about Manchester based Bridge House publishing and Chocolate Stories, click here.

Succour Magazine submissions

From Max Dunbar, Regional Editor at Succour Magazine:

For this issue, we’re interested in work that takes the everyday or the commonplace as its subject, considers the nature of boredom, or indeed that questions what we think of as banal. You may also like to consider The Banal as a counterpart to Fantasies (the S/S 2009 issue), in that the fantastical tends to emerge from, or be contained within, the banal.

But as ever, feel free to interpret the theme in any way you like.

The deadline for submissions to The Banal is Friday 21 August.

Please send your work in Word or Rich Text format documents, with a limit of 5000 words (fiction) or 250 lines (poetry). We do not accept submissions by post. We do not offer payment for contributions that come through open submissions, but all contributors will receive two complimentary copies of the journal in which their work is printed, and an invitation to read at one of the Succour Salons which accompany the launch of each issue.

The editors will do their best to acknowledge any submissions within two weeks, and to give a final decision within five weeks of the submission deadline.

Please do not submit work that has been published elsewhere (including online) or that is under consideration by other journals.

And finally… please put the word ‘submission’ and the title of the issue to which you are submitting (ie ‘The Banal’) somewhere in the subject field of your submission email.

The editors welcome comment and questions on any subject.

Send all work to: submissions@succour.org.