Research in Creative Practice /Critical Reflection

Research in this group

Members;

English Staff

NIECI Staff

Our creative writers (Davidson, Gregson, Harper, Rumens, Skoulding) engage in two areas that arouse contemporary interest: the relationship between space and identity, and the way new technologies create new possibilities of thought. All have published at least one book of poems or a novel with major presses on these themes. There is considerable interplay between their critical and creative work. All have critical monographs variously discussing: how self flows into song; spatial features in composition and publishing; national identity in poetry. Our creative writers ask questions about how the environment itself, the textual representation of landscape and cityscape, and the process of representing space and place shape identity. Their thought moves across the research foci of the School, providing insights into the literatures we analyse. Their collective activity means that the School of English contributes significantly - and often provocatively - to debates about the past, present and future of poetry.

Staff contribute to the broader research environment in this field in the following ways:

Bangor is the home of the annual 'Great Writing: International Creative Writing Research Conference'. Now in its eleventh year, this is the only annual international Creative Writing research conference in the UK.
In 2006, the School of English hosted the inaugural conference of the Contemporary Women's Writing Network, drawing eighty delegates from across the world (keynotes: Sarah Waters and Michele Roberts).
Bangor hosts two creative writing journals: Poetry Wales (edited by Skoulding) and the biannual international poetry journal Skald (now in its eleventh year, co-edited by Davidson and Skoulding). In 2007 the Welsh Books Council commended the quality of content in Skald, saying that its pages 'are never without interest' and that it 'has the potential to influence the development of writing in Wales'. Skald's themed issues have attracted work from some major figures from avant-garde and mainstream poetry circles, including Tom Raworth, Lee Harwood and Wendy Mulford.
Since 1995 three times a year leading UK poets (including Jo Shapcott, Douglas Dunn, Selima Hill, and Sean O'Brien) give readings and speak critically about their work

Their work is partly serviced by the National Institute for Excellence in the Creative Industries, which has a full-time research manager working on conferences and on the interface between business and the university's research into creativity, with particular emphasis on new technologies. In the area of creative practice, NIECI offers outreach in professional writing, knowledge transfer, vocational instruction and new media training.