Essex Rebels: Emerging Writers LAB – OPEN CALL
An invitation for Essex based writers, aged 18-25.

In partnership with English PEN
16 - 20 August
Fee : £200 for each writer selected to attend the online LAB
Deadline: Friday 25 June 2021

In partnership with English PEN and as part of Essex Writers’ House 2021, 10 young writers are invited to join this week long writing LAB inspired by protest & freedom of expression. 

This remote writing LAB is designed for emerging & early career writers aged 18 - 25 years based in Essex working in any genre. The online LAB is designed to provide a peer-to-peer environment for an intensive period of development of your writing practice. 

Exploring how freedom of expression, rebellion, protest and activism impact the work of writers, you will have the opportunity to share ideas and hear from established writers to inspire your own work. 

The LAB will run online and will include: - 

• inspiration from invited UK & international speakers
• one-to-one advice from our facilitator for the week
• support from the Metal creative team
• time and space to write and develop specific aspects of a current project – or create a new piece of writing
• opportunity to meet the English PEN  team and create links for the future
• opportunity to take part in a public sharing online
   

How will it work?

• The LAB will run mostly on a virtual platform such as Zoom or Discord
• The LAB will take place online in the evening Monday – Thursday with the potential of an in-person sharing and networking session at Chalkwell Hall or online during the day on the Friday. This is to allow the LAB to work as far as possible with your other life commitments 
• There will be opportunities to schedule 1:1 sessions with experienced writer facilitators throughout the week to discuss your work and support your progress
  There will be inspiration contributions from writers working around the themes of the LAB
• There will be 10 young writers on this LAB and two writer facilitators plus support from the Metal and English PEN team 

Who is the Residency for?

• Writers aged 18 - 25 years living in Essex 
• Young writers working in any genre
• Writers from a diversity of social backgrounds with unique perspectives to share
• Writers with an interest in the themes of freedom of expression, protest, rebellion, solidarity, radical ideas in relation to their work

What do we expect in return?

• We expect you to make the most of the offer and attend all of the sessions during the week 16 - 20 August 
• You will need to have the tech available to access the sessions remotely
• We expect an exchange of ideas and conversation - this is about building a relationships as well as developing you writing 
• We expect you to abide by our online safeguarding guidelines during the process

Criteria to Apply

For this particular residency you will need to be a writer aged 18 - 25 years living in the county of Essex and have an interest in the themes and ideas detailed. 

Other Criteria:

• Writers working in any genre can apply
• Writers at any stage of their writing career and at all levels of experience
• We are particularly interested in receiving applications from writers with an interest in participation and socially engaged practice, from diverse backgrounds, with unique personal perspectives to offer.
• A clear rationale for why the LAB  is important to you at this time and in the development of your work
• Evidence that you are prepared to commit the time necessary to the process and to ensure that the opportunity is made full use of
• We are keen that this opportunity is used by the writers to learn and stretch their practice, and this learning is, where possible, shared.

As part of our commitment to all artists during this time (if welcomed by you) we will provide feedback on all unsuccessful applications - as this can also be incredibly useful for development and learning.  Should you wish to receive this, there is a space on the form below to indicate this.

 How to Apply

Complete the application form (below) answering the following:

• A brief description why you want to take up this opportunity and how it will help you with your writing? (no more than 250 words)
• Include a sample/s of your writing  (no more than 250 words)
• Include your social media handles/CV (optional)

The Fee

Each residency has a fee of £200 payable in two parts:-

£100 on award and signing up to the LAB.
£100  on completion of the LAB.

WRITTEN SUBMISSION

Please complete the two, short questions below.

We recommend that you prepare your answers in Word (or other text doc) in advance to copy and paste when you are ready, as this form does not automatically save work to come back to.

EXAMPLES OF YOUR WORK 

Please upload 5 examples of your work (images, texts, film clips, audio files 5 examples(images, texts, film clips, audio files). (1MB/ Image max size)

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES QUESTIONS

This final section is about you.  It’s a little more personal, but is really useful to us. 

We take our responsibility to offer equal opportunities seriously. We aim to ensure that no person receives less favourable treatment because of age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation.

The following questions have been designed to align with the way the UK Government collects Census data.  This enables us to compare who our programmes and opportunities are reaching, to the general population. By answering these questions you will help us to see the extent to which our artists, auridenes and workforce reflects everyone in our communities. 

If there are any questions that you’d rather not answer, please select Prefer Not to Say.

We will only publish anonymised data. For the purposes of compliance with the Data Protection Act 2018, by completing this form, you give consent to Metal processing the data supplied on this form for the purposes of equal opportunities monitoring.  

Many thanks.

NOTE: If your application is for more than one person, please use the "Other" box to specify