Fortnight Publications Ltd.

I Will Go on...Author(s): Paul MaddernSource: Fortnight, No. 437 (Sep., 2005), p. 25Published by: Fortnight Publications Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25561520 .

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D Paul Maddern / feature Guest arts editor Maureen Boyle E

I will go on... Paul Maddern looks to the future of the prestigious Writer's Group at Queens which has just lost its facilitator - the Writer-in-Residence because of lack of funding and describes the determination of its

members to keep the group going.

"I will go on..." The Seamus Heaney Centre, June 15th,

2005: Sinead Morrissey winds up her last Queen's Writers' Group meeting and brings her time as Writer-in-Residence at Queen's University to an unofficial close. The occasion is, of course, a sad one: the group is losing the guidance of a gifted and generous friend. But Sinead's departure, after three years of extraordinary service, also marks the end of a much longer chapter in the group's history.

AN ILLUSTRIOUS HISTORY Since 1970, one of the jobs of the Writer in Residence at Queen's has been to facilitate meetings of the Writers' Group. As a result of a withdrawal of funds, the July 15th session was the last to be led by the

Writer in Residence; a post held by, among others, John Hewitt, Carol Rumens,

Medbh McGuckian, Glenn Patterson and Daragh Carville. Why the position has been done away with is still not completely clear but the one thing we are all agreed upon is that the group will continue. Just what format it adopts is still open for discussion.

At present, four members will rotate responsibility for running the business end of the meetings: gathering work; deciding on the order in which it is presented; and ensuring each piece receives a fair hearing. This isn't an ideal solution, but it will do until we find a way of roping in a respected writer to run the group. The first

meeting of the new-look group will be Wednesday, September 28th. The meetings are held weekly at the Seamus Heaney Centre, University Road (up from Beatrice Kennedy's restaurant), between 4.00pm and 6.00pm. A small group of us continued to meet unofficially throughout the summer. I should also mention that there is no membership fee. The only thing

we ask for is level-headed discussion by writers aiming for professional standards.

THE KINDS OF PEOPLE WHO COME If you think the group is comprised of stuffy Queen's 'academics', brief profiles of the five who regularly attended the

summer meetings should dispel this misconception. Matt Kirkham is a teacher who lives in the Ards Peninsula. He is a poet whose work appeared in Lagan's recent Introductions but is currently

writing a novel that approaches Alzheimer's from an inventive perspective. Miriam Gamble lives in Belfast and is a PhD student in the English Department at Queen's. She's highly critical of her own work and uses the group to confirm what is or isn't working in a poem. Barbara Morton is from Jordanstown and is writing a novel dealing

with confinement and conflict. She describes herself arriving "at Queens

Writing Group earlier this year full of a self-consciousness and fear that the

warmth and professionalism of the group has helped to dispel." Justin Patty is a financial consultant, living in Belfast, who has reduced his working week in order to concentrate on his writing. His novel, In Plenum, is currently doing the rounds of publishing houses. And then there's me, a 43-year-old restaurant worker who lives in Groomsport. I'm completing an MA in Creative Writing at The Seamus Heaney Centre. Like Miriam, I use the group to identify work that succeeds and, more often, that which needs ditching.

AN EXAMPLE OF WHAT HAPPENS I doubt that I'm alone when I suggest the dynamics of the group are as important as its critical practices. As much as the group provides advice on pieces of work, it's also a micro-community that, like any group of creative personalities, provokes a broad range of useful emotions. I can only provide my own experience by way of example: when, for the umpteenth time, Eoghan Walls (shortlisted for the 2005 Eric Gregory Award) challenges a word I've employed, he forces me to defend my position or to recognise that the field has been lost; when retired teacher Ray Givens announces the publication of a new pamphlet, I smile with pleasure and, at the same time, feel those green-eyed goblins spurring me on; I can laugh along with

Dave Foster's hysterically funny 'Billy Blazes and the Hairy Pigs' and, minutes

later, be moved by Gail McConnell's latest poem, impressed by newcomer Brendan

McDowell's use of form and beguiled by Ben McGuire's haiku-like offerings.

A CONSTANTLY CHANGING COMMUNITY

There is a core membership of about 20 people, some of whom have been attending for over a decade and were first published during their time with the group. But if this gives the impression that the

Writers' Group is a clique, then I have been misleading. Part of the charm and strength of the meetings is the ever changing composition of the group. Each new academic year brings a fresh crop of students. Some stay, some don't. And

word of mouth brings a steady stream of new writers from outside of the student pool. Some want to present just a few pieces of work and gauge reactions. Fine. Others stay on and, while they learn about the craft of writing, form strong friendships. I hope I can place myself in that last category.

So, the group will continue. We will hold the weekly meetings, welcome new

members, offer and receive criticism, advise each other of writing competitions, encourage members to submit work, organise public readings, and invite the occasional guest speaker. After the meetings we'll have 'a few' in the pub and continue to debate the merits and faults of the poetry and prose we've just read. And, like all absorbed, determined writers, we'll ignore the landlord's call to drink up and leave.

The Queen's Writer's Group meets Wednesdays, Seamus Heaney Centre from 4.00-6.00pm in term time.

.. .. .....

* THE LAST MEETING OF THE WRITER'S

GROUP AT QUEEN'S

PAUL MADDERN/FEATURE FORTNIGHT SEPTEMBER 2005 PAGE 25

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