On the Road, Off the Page: Travel Writing and Writing About Place

The Guyanese jungle. Britain's provincial towns in the company of old age pensioners. The slums of the Philippines. The folkloric topography of the English countryside. These are just some of the places that have inspired this quartet of travel writers and novelists focusing on place. At this fascinating event at Arts University, Bournemouth, they discussed their unique, often bizarre and sometimes dangerous experiences on the road, and share what they have learned about researching and writing travelogues, novels and journalism.

Ben Aitken is the author of A Chip Shop in Poznan: My Unlikely Year in Poland, which recounts a year spent in Poland working, travelling and integrating. Paul Ross called it ‘the funniest book of the year.’ Ben also wrote Dear Bill Bryson: Footnotes from a Small Island, which was featured in The Guardian, The Times and on BBC Radio, and was described by the Manchester Review as a ‘poignant comment on the state of the nation’ and a ‘highly accomplished homage’.

Amanda Garrie is a co-founder and facilitator for T’Articulation, Portsmouth’s spoken-word troupe and a director of Portsmouth’s Writers Hub, Amanda Garrie is in the final stages of a PhD in Creative Writing. She received Arts Council funding via Portsmouth City Council’s Library and Archive Service as their Poet in Residence (2019). She is published in a number of anthologies, including with The London Magazine. A part-time lecturer, she recently turned her hand to writing the pilot for a tourist app, alongside Tom Sykes and other colleagues. Her work, including poetry and prose, is centred on place and the folklore invested in it.

Mike Manson’s new novel, Down in Demerara, concerns an Englishman who is plucked from his humdrum job and dispatched to the forbidden rainforest of Guyana on a mysterious assignment. Fay Weldon calls the book ‘fast-moving and wonderfully funny (I laughed aloud a lot) vigorous and intelligent tale of an innocent abroad.’ The Jamaica Gleaner described it as ‘storytelling at its best’. Mike’s previous novels are Rules of the Road and Where’s My Money, which was featured on the BBC’s Books that Made Britain series.

Dr Tom Sykes is the author of The Realm of the Punisher: Travels in Duterte’s Philippines which, according to the Times Literary Supplement, ‘conveys in an affectionate, unpatronizing tone the many layers of injustice that run through the Philippines, and uses interviews and site visits to try to explain the eccentric ways and popular appeal of its more muscular leaders.’ Tom is also the author of Ivory Coast: The Bradt Guide and his travel journalism has appeared in The Telegraph, Private Eye, New Statesman, New African, The Scotsman and many other titles. He is Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Portsmouth. His website is tomgsykes.co.uk

The presenters:
Dr James Cole is Course Leader and Senior Lecturer in BA (Hons) Creative Writing at the Arts University Bournemouth. He has a PhD in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of Southampton. His practice and research interests include children's and Young Adult literature, speculative fiction, and creative writing pedagogy. His PhD novel, Reading Through Binoculars, was shortlisted for the Dundee International Book Prize, 2016. You can read more about his work here: https://jamesolivercole.com/

Dr Kevan Manwaring is a writer and academic whose practice-based research focuses on language, ecology & the imagination. His books include Heavy Weather: tempestuous tales of stranger climes from The British Library; Lost Islands; and Desiring Dragons: creative, imagination and the writers' quest; and he has contributed to Storytelling for a Greener World. His prizewinning eco-SF novel, Black Box, was adapted into an audio drama by Alternative Stories. His articles have appeared in Writing in Practice, New Writing, Axon, and TEXT. He is a Fellow of Hawthornden, The Eccles Centre (British Library) and the Higher Education Academy. He blogs and tweets as the Bardic Academic: http://kevanmanwaring.co.uk/