Arts Council England has awarded a Salford-based writer, Adam Farrer, with a grant to write a series of non-fiction short stories.
Adam Farrer will receive £10,000 to fund the completion of a series of stories about the eroding coast of Holderness.
The grant is part of Arts Council England’s Developing Your Creative Practice funding scheme.
Mr Farrer found out his application was successful last Wednesday and felt a sense of validation.
He said:
“You can work away on your little artistic project and think that no body cares or that nobody’s interested but they saw enough in my writing and the project that I’m doing to actually put their hand in their pocket and fund it.
“So, it feels like I’m moving up to another stage in my writing career.”
Very chuffed to have scored one of these #DYCP grants to write my book of personal essays. I know you're supposed to react with an Oscar speech when something like this happens but I just did a load of happy swears then rang my girlfriend. https://t.co/mOmBZfoEq7
— Adam Farrer (@AdamJFarrer) October 10, 2019
For this project, Mr Farrer is writing a series of non-fiction short stories about the Holderness coast called ‘The Lost Villages of Holderness’.
The collection is named after the villages that have fallen into the sea as a result of the eroding coastline which disappears at a rate of 10 feet per year.
Mr Farrer moved to Withernsea on the Holderness coastline in 1992.
He said: “It’s really got a place in my heart. I really love it but it’s a tired kind of underfunded seaside town. No one cares that it’s disappearing. It’s going to fall in the sea but no one is bothered. But I’m bothered
“When you start to pay attention to these little parts of the country that no one seems to care about you realise they’ve all got stories.”
Mr Farrer is also the writer in residence for Peel Park, Salford. His work in this role helped him in writing this series of stories.
He said: “What I’m doing is similar to Peel Park in that it’s place writing. I’m being inspired by the environment I’m in. Working on the Peel Park project allowed me to focus my mind on how to do that.
“It really helps focus your mind for detail and how to pull a story out of a place.”
By this time next year, Mr Farrer hopes to have finished his collection of short stories.
He said: “I’ll have a book, a tangible thing, and that’s incredibly exciting.”
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