Tag: Memoir

My Writing, PhD

End of another year

Caroline Butterwick

The Christmas tree is up, I’ve already eaten plenty of mince pies, and I have presents to wrap – all while keeping an anxious eye on the news. I’m sure most of us are feeling stressed and exhausted by it all, just hoping that things work out okay and that we can enjoy a safe Christmas with our loved ones.

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog, so I thought I’d do a post as we approach the end of another strange year for everyone.

Photo shows a Christmas tree

I’m lucky that I’ve had a range of articles published over the last couple of months since I last posted. This includes my first time writing for Psychologies, which is a magazine I’ve wanted to write for for a long time, so I’m really proud to be able to add them to my portfolio. The feature is on how we can rekindle friendships that we’ve let drift – something that seems particularly relevant with how the pandemic disrupted many of our relationships.

A lot of my article ideas come about when I ask myself a question. In this case, I was meeting up with a friend I’d lost touch with, and wondering why friendships sometimes slip and what we can do to reach out. I realised that this could be a scenario that others find themselves in, and so started developing a pitch for an article around it. It’s a useful way of coming up with ideas. I’m also due to have another feature published by Psychologies soon, which I’m really looking forward to seeing.

I’ve also had features in Happiful, who are one of my main clients and who I love writing for, and a travel feature in Motability Lifestyle magazine, on ideas for city breaks in the UK this winter, from Christmas markets to festive plays.

I love community arts, and so was really happy to have a feature published in Planet Mindful magazine about how we can all share our creative skills with others. I spoke about my experience and about the fantastic arts scene we have in my adopted home town of Stoke-on-Trent. It was lovely to speak to local artists Gabriella Gay and Penny Vincent about how they share their love of art with the community, whether being a poet in residence at a car boot sale or leading singing sessions for anyone to join. I hope the piece inspires others to get involved.

Photo shows a magazine that is open on an article called Sharing Creative Skills

I’ve also been doing lot of PhD work. There’s a lot of reading to do – I’m often very conscious of the weight of all the books I haven’t had a chance to read yet! It’s enjoyable reading though. I’ve been researching disability theory and disability life writing, as well as reading memoirs.

Yesterday I finished reading Letters to my Weird Sisters by Joanne Limburg, which is a beautiful book on autism and feminism. Limburg weaves her own experiences of being autistic into letters she’s written to four women from history, combining elements of biography with explorations of disability and feminist history and theory with Limburg’s memoir. It’s a really wonderful read, and it’s also helped me think through how experimental forms and structures can be used in life writing and creative nonfiction.

As we approach Christmas, I’m hoping to use the festive season as a chance to plan writing ideas for the year ahead. But I’m also planning to rest. It’s been another difficult year for us all, and while I’m very fortunate that I’ve had some great writing to work on, I need to take some time to relax and unwind, ready to go into the new year. I hope that 2022 is a kinder year to us all.

My Writing, PhD

Starting my PhD

Caroline Butterwick

I’m excited to have, since last week, become a PhD student!

My PhD is in Creative Writing and is on memoir as counter narrative: using creative nonfiction to explore visual impairment and mental illness and challenge dominant models of disability. It’s wonderfully being funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council / Midlands4Cities – I’m very grateful for their support.

I’m studying at De Montfort University in Leicester, commuting from Staffordshire once I’m able to do face-to-face learning again – until then, it’s Skype / Teams, which so far is working well. It’s a little daunting of course starting something so big, but I’m looking forward to seeing the journey this PhD takes me on.

I’m feeling very lucky and still slightly bewildered to have this opportunity to research and write about something I’m so passionate about.

Books

What I’m reading

Caroline Butterwick

I read pretty much every day. I think it’s one of the best things a writer can do – read as often as you can, and read widely. Over the strangeness of the past half year, my reading routine has been a bit off. Sometimes I’ve lacked the energy or focus, but fortunately I’ve still regularly found myself lost in other worlds for blissful hours.

Here’s some of what I’ve been reading recently.

books

We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

More novella than novel, this is one of my all time favourite books, and earlier this year I decided to reread it. Which is a rare thing for me – I’m not a big re-reader and it takes some real passion to delve back into a book I’ve already read. I kind of have the mentality of there are so many books out there to read, I can’t keep rereading when there’s so many I haven’t read yet!

I love the effortless gothic writing of Shirley Jackson, and how instantly you’re grabbed by her characters. We Have Always Lived in the Castle is told from the point of view of a young woman called Merricat, and there is instant intrigue into her life in a small New England town in the 1950s. Why does Merricat hate the townspeople so much? Why does she live such an isolated life with her sister and uncle? What’s the story behind the death of the rest of her family?

Reading it for a second time, I picked up on details and hints that I didn’t before, and loved being drawn back into Merricat’s strange and alluring story.

I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

The first book in the seven that make up Maya Angelou’s autobiography, this memoir explores her life growing up as a black woman in 1930s southern America. Angelou’s writing is so evocative of her childhood in Arkansas and I got such a strong sense of the people in her life, her family, the places she lives, all told in beautiful, engaging prose. Her experiences of racism are shocking, and the historical and political context of her work makes this a particularly vital read.

The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

Confession: I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this book. I’ve read Northern Lights and The Subtle Knife over the past couple of years and… they didn’t grab me. I could tell they were good, but I didn’t feel the love for His Dark Materials that I knew others do.

Taking the final novel of the trilogy off the shelf, I almost felt I was reading The Amber Spyglass because, well, I’d read the first two, it’s such a famous series, etc. etc…. It almost felt like an obligation, which is not a good way to feel before you read a book. But soon I was up late engrossed in Lyra and Will’s story. Perhaps it was how the many threads of the narrative were coming together and the sense of satisfaction that brought, perhaps it was I just found the events in this last story in the series more interesting – whatever it was, it clicked, and I finished The Amber Spyglass a Pullman convert.

Dear Life by Alice Munro

I love short stories – writing them and reading them. Despite this, I’ve rarely read a collection of stories by a single author cover to cover, instead just dipping in, but decided to give it a go with Dear Life by renowned Canadian short story writer Alice Munro. Some of the stories were wonderful, and I was grabbed by how Munro tells of the small extraordinariness of ordinary people, beautifully observed. “Gravel”, “Train”, and “Night” in particular stayed in my head for a while after, which I think is a sign of good writing, where you find yourself mulling over a character or detail or just the overall ambience long after you’ve put the book down.

Just Kids by Patti Smithpatti smith

After enjoying rereading We Have Always Lived in the Castle so much, I’m currently rediscovering another book: Just Kids by Patti Smith. I first read this memoir when I was working a job I wasn’t particularly enjoying, and my bus would often get me there way before my start time, so I’d get a coffee and sit and read for half an hour, which became something to look forward to when my alarm went off each morning.

Just Kids is one of the books I read during that time, and it made me imagine another life, the life of artists in New York City, and I got a vicarious enjoyment and also a wistful pining as I read, and then I’d look at the time and realise I needed to finish the page I was on, slip the book into my bag, and walk the five minutes to the office. I’m only about 50 pages in so far, but already I’m remembering why I loved Just Kids so much the first time around.

What books have you been enjoying?