Novel Slam 2023, Friday 13th October … could it be your lucky day?
Beverley Ward describes how Novel Slam began and how you can enter this year’s contest.
Like many great inventions, Novel Slam began with a conversation in a back room of a pub and a realisation that there was a gap that needed filling. Our associates, Anne Grange, Bryony Doran and myself, were all aspiring novelists and graduates of Sheffield Hallam’s MA who missed the support of the course structure and who felt that poets had much stronger communities and more opportunities to share their work. Of course, The Writers Workshop and Sounds About Write didn’t exist back then so, until the trio initiated Sheffield Novelists, there wasn’t really anywhere for fiction writers to congregate.
2022’s contest winners at the 10th anniversary event
The first Novel Slam took place at Bank Street Arts in 2012, hosted by Iain Broome, who is still our host. It was won by Stacey Sampson who is now one of our judges, and I came second. Neither of us are exactly huge names in novel writing (yet!) but Stacey went on to win the Mslexia Children’s Competition, and both of us went on to win Northern Writers Awards, so the standards were high even back then. We know that Sheffield has a lot of literary talent and, since we added pitch training to the event, the standard of the entries has just got higher and higher. The format was a loose mishmash of the elements of a poetry slam combined with reality-TV concepts like X-Factor, with a team of judges giving feedback on the entrants’ work and the audience chipping in their tuppence worth.
This structure has been refined over the years, the venues have changed and the audience numbers have grown, but essentially the key elements remain. In order to enter, writers must bring a one-minute pitch for their novel which is judged by the audience vote and then eight writers go on to read a three-minute extract to the judges, receiving valuable feedback from professional novelists Stacey, Gavin Extence, Bryony and Daniel Blythe. Personally, though it can be scary, I think this is the most useful part of the evening. The judges are so insightful about what’s working and what can be improved and, as we know, it’s really hard to get professional feedback on our works in progress without paying huge sums for it.
Novel Slam has always been as democratic and affordable as possible. Our team of judges and hosts generously give their time for free and, this year, thanks to funding from Off the Shelf we’re able to offer some bursaries for low income writers. In addition to providing a prize of free membership, The Writers Workshop will also be supporting entrants with two masterclasses in advance of the event. Editor, Lorna Partington will be offering Perfecting Page One on Sunday 1st October and I’ll be doing a Pitching Workshop on Monday October 2nd. Thanks to Off the Shelf, we’re able to offer some free places on the Pitching Workshop. Whether you’re entering Novel Slam or not, they’ll be invaluable sessions that will bring you closer to your goal of securing an agent or publisher.
Sheffield has such a generous, supportive writing community that, in reality, entering Novel Slam on Friday 13th is not as scary as it sounds! You could win feedback, coaching and manuscript feedback. It’s got to be worth a go. But do book your tickets soon because spaces are limited and it’s likely to be packed. "You don’t get attendance like this at literary events in London,” said Daisy Watt of Harper North last year. No wonder the publishers are starting to recognise that they need to be up North!