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Dear Rik

Rik wrote:
I'm intrigued - can someone define "new writing types" for me please?

Your question is the answer! The "new" was attached to the title of the
conference in the same way "new" was attached to Labour, cornflakes, etc.
Indeed, the conference should have been titled "old writing types." I mean,
a whole panel turning their collective nose up at a question about the
Internet, said it all. "New" is pure spin from some government think tank
like Demos. Even if we bend the phrase to 'new types of writing,' then in
the sphere of poetry there wasn't any representation at all of 'new types of
writing.' As I understand it, 'new poetries' covers sound, kinetic, concrete
and digital poetry and poetry which crosses over art forms. Nothing of this
kind at the conference.

In the evening there were more contemporary representations of
oral/performance poetry and some really interesting community writing - yet
these performances were additional to the conference itself.

The most interesting of the seminars concerned self-publishing. But that was
it.

Because poets were talking around their own work, there wasn't any real
sense of excitement about writing itself - just the slippery pole of "career
progression." Also, seminars were entirely book based. There was no
discussion of collaborative work, collectives or performance. I'm all for
magazines and books - entirely. But surely poetry must be broader and
certainly more life affirming and exciting. Luckily many people - many on
this list - are working in different ways than those at the Norwich
conference.

So, I humbly suggest, this is a very good place to look for 'new writing
types.'

Best wishes, Rupert