I’m very sad to have turned down the great honour
of a DAAD Artists in Berlin residency. I decided
make my letter of refusal public in solidarity with
@strikegermany
, Professor Nancy Fraser, China Miéville, Eya Giannakopoulou, Jonas_Staal, and with the people of Palestine.
left-wing twitter is not an 'echo chamber'. it's a support network, a newsfeed beyond a bought & tied media, a contacts and ideas exchange, a hotbed, a prize and a consolation. i am happy to be here. it is also the uk.
10 yrs ago I first left a bad marriage it took 5 years to unwind. since I've written 10 books published 7 (2 to come binned 1) done a phd run an international literary campaign won a prize slept with women & men fallen in love every year I was single finally loved without falling
10 years ago i walked out of a crushing marriage & committed to writing
divorce is great-i don't know if i'd still be here without it
and twitter is great-i don't know if i'd have found the confidence to commit without the support i found here
thank you & happy new year :)
writers who don't have a source of funds to buy time to write must take another job, which can slow work & publication: THIS IS MY PERIODIC REMINDER THAT IF YOUR ARTS OPPORTUNITY HAS AN UPPER AGE LIMIT IT'S PRO-DISCRIMINATION & ANTI-DIVERSITY. LUCKILY THAT'S EASY TO CHANGE :)
Jean-Luc Godard and his wife, filmmaker Anne-Marie Miéville have now disappeared from the Googlemaps streetview image in Rolle, from which Robert Luxemburg made this eerie and beautiful, melancholy short tribute...
This is a great thread celebrating writers who started later. Please use this celebration to ask for change: prizes, residencies etc often specify age-limits that contradict their own diversity guidelines.
in publishing, as elsewhere, it's better not to take your dreams too seriously, but if i ever had a dream, it was to be published by
@SemiotextePress
and here it is.
encouragement for older emerging writers is sorely needed but what we need is a change of culture so that all prizes are open to writers at a similar professional stage of development, regardless of age.
there is no reason this change in culture can't happen, and happen easily.
I'm so extraordinarily sorry that a brutal age cut-off point means that these brilliant under 40s can't be joined by many brilliant writers who find themselves, through no fault of their own, just making it in their early 40s and beyond.
i don't often talk about my personal life on social media: i leave that for my work. today's a rare exception.
i'm very lucky to be on a month's residency at
@cc_irlandais
in Paris. it's gorgeous!
residency project: pls write me a postcard and i will write you one back from paris: Joanna Walsh, Cité Internationale des Arts, 18 Rue de l'Hôtel de ville, 75004, Paris, France
Last year's programme was only open to emerging writers under the age of 45, which I (& other writers) highlighted as against
@UNESCO
's own anti-discrimination guidelines. This year's programme is open to emerging writers of ANY AGE. THEY CHANGED IT OMG THEY QUIETLY CHANGED IT!
a while ago I made a mini graphic novel for
@Shakespeare_Co
, and some of the work is now on display at the Paris bookstore in celebration of the centenary of Sylvia Beach's original shop.
I get loads of RTs on this subject from 'emerging' writers excluded by age restrictions. That's great, but I (& they) would love to see support from established writers/publishers who know it's just not damn fair. Pls RT if you agree.
Can you justify the age limits on this residency
@KRKCityofLit
? Writers can 'emerge' before the age of 25 and after 45 Please think about altering it before your deadline.
Minister
@josephamadigan
has announced the 2020 recipients of the
#MarkieviczAward
, a bursary scheme for artists and writers.
Now in its second year, it commemorates the 100th anniversary of the appointment of the first female cabinet minister, Constance de Markievicz, in 1919.
reasons writers emerge later include
limited early access to education
care responsibilities
no money to buy time to write
cultural exclusion due to race, gender, sex, class, ethnicity
illness, disability
pls think before supporting age-barred prizes with your expertise/tweets
can s'one pls talk a bit about age-discrimination in the art world, pls bc i'm already doing it for literature today?
'boundary-pushing' ideas don't only occur under 30. age limits perpetuate the exclusion of those who 'haven't found support' for the ambitions they 'always' had
Are you a London-based creative between the ages of 16 – 30? Do you have boundary-pushing ideas and a drive to create & deliver a new project? Or have you always had ambitions to make something but haven’t found support?
Learn more about our open call:
“We are in the hands of men whose power and wealth have separated them from the reality of daily life and from the imagination. We are right to be afraid.”
Deborah Levy quotes Grace Paley
i'm delighted to say that my funding body, CHASE, has awarded me a grant to extend this work to create Critical Acts (
@ActsCritical
) a hub for creative-critical practice online with a website at plus...
the pieces in this book smash the essay form to bits, then put it together again, beautifully new. I am so pleased and proud to have worked with every one of these writers - get ready!
I'm sorry to say i have been writing books again.
'My Life as a Godard Movie' will be published in November 2021 by
@Juxta_Press
You can read an extract here
@Coffee_House_
pls remove the ageist language
@ArtsEmergency
as an ex-mature student, arts practitioner, parent & adult ed teacher, i'm hyperaware of the intersectional factors creating barriers to arts participation for diff age groups
why not be intergenerational, not cheaply ageist?
🛎️
@BigGive
campaign update 🛎️
We're 30% towards our target! If you've already donated - thank you🫶
If you haven't please donate today - your donation will be DOUBLED until 26 March! 🧵
over the last few years, teaching uni & non-uni classes i realised how many arts opportunities excluded 'older' students.
(sometimes older meant 'over 30')
i found this resulted in lowered expectations and real financial impact, often for those who'd fought longest to be there.
i passed my phd with no corrections in this area this year & i'm too old to apply. there is no justification for excluding me & the many others who aren't fortunate enough to finish a phd by their early 30s.
Although this “junior” research programme looks great, the age restriction of 35 is frustrating for those who I was going to forward this to. Why not years out of PhD?
Age ≠ Junior
had 1st jab (yay!)
over 90% of the volunteer ushers in the health centre were women
when i volunteered in a food bank last year, over 90% of the volunteers were women.
super super happy that today
@artscouncil_ie
awarded me a literature bursary to fund research and writing time for my next book.
endlessly grateful for their vital and generous support!
(also today: this bloomed)
more of a publishing bungalow... 2-4 books a year, hybrid writing. it's what i love reading. i know there's an audience for it. and i have manuscripts from brilliant writers who aren't finding it easy to place books like that.
My Life as a Godard Movie will launch on 18 october!
To celebrate the launch, I'm experimenting with creating an international conversation with some wonderful writers, critics and artists. Info below on how you can watch the conversation unfold.
This is a list confined to candidates under the age of 39. Great writers, some of my favourites, but if you liked my guardian article about aged barred prizes, ask some tough questions.
THE 2018 LONGLIST - We are thrilled to unveil the 12 titles that make up this year's Intl.
@dylanthomprize
in partnership with
@SwanseaUni
longlist. A depth of incredible talent! Which of these young authors will scoop the £30,000 prize in May?
#IDTP18
🔗
oh, hey, one result of this rant is: an arts organisation planning a 'young' opportunity just dm'd me and...
they're now planning to offer an 'emerging' opportunity instead!
result! 🔥🔥🔥
It is 5pm. I am sitting in bed fully clothed, drinking Stout and furiously typing an essay about something I realized has been bugging me for a while; this is how I would like to be remembered.
**Cover reveal!** Introducing MY LIFE AS A GODARD MOVIE 💄 coming in September. A stylish book-length essay by Joanna Walsh on beauty and revolution as seen through the films of Jean-Luc Godard, next up in our Undelivered Lectures series.
Cover design by
@annabookdesign
🙏
just looked up an edition of an arts mag from 2009 & the lineup was 90% cis white guys. most of those guys were writing... on guys. it's easy to forget what was normal such a short time ago & how i ever started writing anything at all.
@ChloeAngyal
(...the irony being that those with caring responsibilities, especially singe mothers and sole carers for other relatives, seldom apply as they can't take the time 'off')
most women I know who have young children tell me they 'can't' put aside a big block of time to attend a residency. By the time they can afford the time, they're often 'too old' to be considered.
@badaude
Yes, they must be made aware of the fact, too, that this especially discriminates against women, who are disproportionately made to put their careers and creative lives on hold to care for others during their 20s and 30s.
Can you justify the age limits on this residency
@KRKCityofLit
? Writers can 'emerge' before the age of 25 and after 45 Please think about altering it before your deadline.
writing a long novel set in dublin over the course of a single day, during which a person crosses and recrosses the city in search of a croissant and fancy coffee on a bank holiday monday
Age barriers to awards constitute "an additional barrier to women and minorities, whose publishing careers often take off later". That's Frances Leviston
@LRB
. So much agreement on the problem. When is someone going to act?
if thought, knowledge, adult conversation and vital political action never take into account having and raising children, and the people who do it, there is nothing thoughtful, vital, knowing or adult about them.
I'm a fan of Lucy Ellman but these comments about motherhood are extraordinarily ill-considered. It's ludicrous to suggest that women mentally shutdown when they have a child.