READING ACROSS THE LINES

Reading Across the Lines (Reader development project)

A partnership project initiated by New Writing North and Arts Council of England North East in association with Creative Partnerships Durham and Sunderland and the British Council Literature Department.

Project background....a unique partnership with an unexpected ally

The idea for this project was born during a visit to Russia in November 2001 by Claire Malcolm of New Writing North and Kate Griffin of the Arts Council of England North East. In conversation with our Russian contacts, we started exploring the possibility of an exchange project based on reader development and creative writing in schools, but with a difference. One of the differences was the location. Rather than focus on the usual suspects – Moscow and St Petersburg – our Russian contacts were keen for us to work with partners in Siberia.

Russia is a vast country and Siberia is located several time zones from Moscow, east of the Ural mountains. Siberian towns often suffer from isolation and lack of attention, in terms of investment, resources and cultural exchange. At the same time, this lack of reliance on and influence by the capital has led to exciting and innovative creative developments. Does this sound familiar?

There are other similarities between Siberia and the North East, in particular County Durham. Many Siberian towns were originally founded around industry, most of which has declined dramatically over the last decade or so, and are now going through a process of reinvention and regeneration. One of the key elements in this is an interest in opening out to the world, in communication through cultural exchange. These are interests we share in the North East. New Writing North is committed to establishing a strong international dimension to all its activities, from writer development to its partnership work with schools, libraries and universities. The Arts Council of England North East is keen to support these developments, which are particularly relevant to the region’s ambitions for a year of cultural events in 2005.

Russia is famous for its literary heritage. Reading and books are an essential part of life. In Soviet times, people would queue for hours to buy a newly-published book, either Russian or in translation. Books were one of the few ways of finding out about the rest of the world. There is a long tradition of translation of foreign literature, including British literature, from classic novels to contemporary work. British childrens' literature, from Alice in Wonderland to Harry Potter, is known and loved.

The North East of England can also claim a unique literary heritage and contemporary scene – from Bede and the birth of the written word to Booker and Forward Prize-winning authors. The region is not in the literary mainstream but that is one of our strengths, allowing a greater freedom to develop new ideas and an audience to share them with. Located on the edge of England, we are perfectly placed to welcome visitors – writers and literature professionals – from other countries.

Literacy levels used to be the pride of the Soviet Union. However, in recent years these levels have dropped significantly, and the Russian government is keen to do something about it. It’s an issue we’re also facing, and there is a lot of excitement around the potential of creative writing and writers’ residencies in schools. County Durham is at the cutting edge of such developments via the work that New Writing North has undertaken in the region and because of the forward-looking nature of the Creative Partnership programme.

Reader development is one of the buzzwords in the UK literature scene at the moment, with a plethora of initiatives and experiments around the country. Reader development means active intervention to increase people's confidence and their enjoyment of reading, to open up reading choices and to offer opportunities for people to share their reading experiences. County Durham is involved in such developments through Reading North, which brings together all the reader development librarians in the North East. Reader development is one of the priorities for the British Council in Russia.
 
All these factors combined mean that the time is right for this cultural exchange project between Siberia and County Durham, with its aim of bringing together a range of professionals to explore issues and exchange ideas around creative writing in school and literacy and reader development with young people.

Reading Across the Lines - Project Outline

What is Reader Development?

Reader development is one of the buzzwords in the UK literature scene at the moment, with a plethora of initiatives and experiments around the country. Reader development means active intervention to increase people's confidence and enjoyment of reading, to open up reading choices and to offer opportunities for people to share their reading experiences. County Durham is involved in such developments through Reading North, which brings together all the reader development librarians in the North East. Reader development is one of the priorities for the British Council in Russia. Our contribution to reader development is the Reading Across the Lines project, which helps young people in Russia and the UK to come back to reading and to enjoy it.

Who is involved?

We run Reading Across the Lines together with New Writing North, the regional writing development agency.

The Russian project participants are Secondary School No.1, Secondary School No.6,  Novosibirsk Oblast Library, youth newspaper Rost, and writers based in Novosibirsk. See Schools - Russia, Participating Organisations and Participants Biographies - Novosibirsk

The UK project participants are Durham County Council, the Arts Council England North East, Broadway Junior School in Sunderland, Peases West Primary School in County Durham and writers from the North East of England. See Schools - UK, Participating Organisations and Participants Biographies - North East England

Who benefits?

The project brings together Russian and UK professionals to exchange ideas about reader development initiatives with young people, including the role of creative writing and the ability of writers to help raise literacy levels. The aims of the project are to develop a programme which provides a dialogue between teachers, librarians and writers in Novosibirsk and County Durham, to share innovative practice in reader development and teaching creative writing, and to help participating schools, libraries and writers from Russia and the UK to develop ongoing projects.

When and where is it taking place?

The project began last year with exchange visits, and will be running during 2005-2006 in Novosibirsk and in County Durham and Sunderland.

Exchange visits 2004

Bill Herbert and Ivan in Novosibirsk

In February 2004, the Russian team visited schools, libraries and arts organisations in Sunderland and County Durham. In April 2004 the team from County Durham and Sunderland visited Novosibirsk, accompanied by project co-ordinators and journalists.

During the visit to the UK, Russian project participants had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with current Reader Development and Creative Writing projects that are taking place in the UK. The visit was extremely useful and resulted not only in knowledge and information exchange, but became highly motivating for specialists from Novosibirsk to continue their work in reader development and creative writing. The return visit to Novosibirsk took place in April 2004.  The UK specialists had an opportunity to see what is being done in Novosibirsk, to visit partner-organisations and to generate ideas about how the two countries could work together.

After the visits, project teams both in the UK and Russia worked to develop the project further. The Russian team meets regularly once a week. Having seen the work of British colleagues and taken into consideration the experience that already exists in Russia, it was decided that the most effective way to share innovative practice in Reader Development would be to create a readership community. This currently exists as a separate community of librarians, teachers and writers, and therefore functions only within each separate sector.

Both trips helped project participants to gain useful experience and to generate new ideas for further co-operation.

What happens next?

As a result of the exchange visits Russian and UK specialists had an opportunity to familiarise themselves with various methods of reader development and creative writing work with young people. After several meetings and the exchange of many ideas, the project team developed a list of activities to be implemented in 2005-2006. This includes programme development in Russia, aimed at uniting reader development and creative writing specialists to increase interest in the impact of creative writing on reading and vice versa. It also includes running seminars, lectures and contests related to reader development.

There was some research conducted on Russian readers' tastes and knowledge, which proved that there was low awareness of contemporary British literature not only amongst the readers, but also among teachers, writers and librarians. Russian participants began reader development activities in their organisations. In schools, reading groups have been established and discussion
clubs set up. Students write poems in English and translate UK literature into Russian. Russian students also correspond with UK students.
 
A further exchange project between Novosibirsk and North East England has also emerged. It will work in three phases:

Stage 1:  A creative writing project in two Durham and Sunderland schools and Clayport library in Durham lead by North East writers who visited Siberia

Stage 2: A creative writing programme for teachers and writers in Novosibirsk, led by Newcastle University and delivered by writers who visited Siberia. The programme will draw on the Durham and Sunderland project for its content

Stage 3: A creative writing project in Novosibirsk led by teachers and writers from Novosibirsk who went through the creative writing  programme, following a similar model to that in Durham and Sunderland. The starting point for each project will be three traditional Russian fairy tales and three traditional English fairy tales. The writers will take those tales and the characters featured in them and will design workshops to encourage children to create their own version of the stories, either through poetry, prose or script. The aim is that the children will come up with the ideas and will write their own words under the guidance of a
professional writer. Teachers will also be involved in this project. The writer would work with the children on their stories for six lessons. The children will then decide how they want to communicate their stories to an audience. This may be by making an animation, by making a film or by creating an exhibition. At this point in the project another artist will be invited in to help them to create their final product. The final products will be shared with their peers and their parents during a final celebratory event. The
work will also be shared with Russian children through emails and on this website.

Using this project as a model, the poet W. N. Herbert from Newcastle University (who visited Novosibirsk with the initial party) plus one of the other writers will run a creative writing course involving writers and teachers from Novosibirsk. The course will focus on techniques that can be used to teach creative writing to young people.

In Novosibirsk the writers and teachers will then lead a creative writing programme similar to that which took place in the North involving children from Novosibirsk schools, using the six fairy tales as a starting point. Their work will also be shared with the UK schools and if possible put on the web.

The schools will also use the web to link up with their partner schools, exchange stories written by pupils and teachers. Teachers and librarians will set up reading groups based in schools and libraries in Siberia and County Durham to discuss contemporary Russian and UK books in translation.

Writers (Mentors)