Writers' News - Celia's collection joy

Celia's collection joy

We watch with interest the revival of the short story and were delighted to hear that Newcastle subscriber Celia Bryce, an advocate of the form, is to have her first short story collection published next month.

Her collection of stories Headlines and Other Growing Pains (£5.99) is a bitterweet, sometimes poignant, sometimes humorous, take on the adult world seen through the eyes of a growing child.

Full-time writer Celia, who was last year’s writer-in-residence at the University of Northumbria, has no desire to be a novelist, preferring the discipline of short story writing which, to her mind, is akin to playwrighting, her other passion. ‘I realise that this probably marginalises my work,’ she says, ‘but it is what I love to write.’

An ex-nurse, Celia still has medical links and writes material for use in education but now writes regularly for women’s magazines and has had several of her plays broadcast on BBC Radio 4, one of which, The Skate Grinder, won her the Richard Imison Award for radio drama in 2003.

There have been changes at the BBC since the new director was appointed, according to Celia who feels it is becoming more difficult for emerging writers to have their work aired.

‘They are using the work of more well-known novelists,’ she explains, ‘and although the New Writing Initiative is still in place, writers such as myself fall between the two camps.’

Undeterred, Celia is currently working on two projects for television and radio.

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