PRESENTER (British): Welcome
everyone and thank you for coming to the Literary Arts orientation meeting at
Keele University this evening. It’s great to have such a wonderful turnout
tonight. I know there are several of you who are new to the university and this
is your first time attending our meeting, so I’d like to spend some time giving
you an overview of what we have planned this year.
First of all, we
have quite a few lovely readings lined up. We normally host readings in this
room, but this year we will be moving the readings into the campus library.
Unless otherwise noted, all reading events will be at 7:00PM. on Thursdays. Also, there
will be a Q&A the day after each reading at 10:00AM. Attendance last year was quite high for most of the
readings. We currently have over 30 people attending regularly. We couldn’t be
happier about the support for the readings.
Tom Sinclair will
kick off the reading session
this year
on October 1st. He is a young novelist whose first book
was recently published by an American publisher. A copy of his novel is on
reserve in the library if you have any interest in reading it before the event.
I’ve also printed a schedule of upcoming readings and you can take a copy with
you. In total, we have 10 readings scheduled before Christmas, so if you can’t
make Tom’s, don’t worry, there will be plenty of others.
I’m also happy to
announce that we’ll be hosting the first Literary Arts Festival this year. The
festival will run from November 3rd to November 5th. There will be a series of
panels throughout the day, and several visiting writers will be giving special readings in the evening.
During the last night of the event, we will have a social mixer at 6:00PM. Tickets to the event are
£50 for students, and £75 for non-students. If you’re interested in
volunteering for the festival, please let me know after the meeting tonight.
Volunteers can attend the conference for free, but are required to work three
hours per day.
In December, there
will be a three day writing workshop from the 9th to the 11th.
The workshop will be divided into three different categories: fiction,
nonfiction and poetry. If you’re interested in applying for one of the
workshops, you will need to submit an application, an essay of introduction
about why you want to participate in the workshop, as well as a writing sample.
Now, these workshops are always popular. Space is limited because we like to
keep them small. Only ten students will be permitted in each category, so
acceptance can be competitive. You may apply in any of the categories you like,
but you must submit a new application for each one.
Finally, we’re
always looking for new members to join our organisation. There are no dues or
fees for membership. If you’d like to become a member, you can attend our
monthly business meeting. It’s a great way to get involved with planning events
and organising campus activities. We can use as much help as we can get. Our
next business meeting will be in two weeks at 3 o’ clock in this room. If
you’d just like
to receive our email updates, go ahead and leave me your email address and
student ID number. I will enter your information into our email list and you’ll
start receiving updates right away.
If
there are any questions, feel free to ask me or any of the other members. We’re
excited to have you here tonight and look forward to an exciting year of
literary activities on campus. Thank you very
much.