1 00:00:00,150 --> 00:00:11,400 Hello, I'm Nathan Evans. So I'm the editor at Inkandescent, which is an independent publishing house that's been going for about five years now. 2 00:00:11,400 --> 00:00:18,600 And this summer we publish a book called Mainstream that's an anthology of thirty 3 00:00:18,600 --> 00:00:26,010 short stories by writers who are currently under-represented in mainstream publishing, 4 00:00:26,010 --> 00:00:32,010 specifically LGBT, BAME and working class writers. 5 00:00:32,010 --> 00:00:41,730 Some of those authors are established - Kit De Waal, Kerry Hudson, Paul McVeigh, their names you may have heard of. 6 00:00:41,730 --> 00:00:44,780 And about half of the writers are emerging. 7 00:00:44,780 --> 00:00:54,600 So those were selected through open submission, which we ran in association with Spread the Word, which is the London Writers Development Agency. 8 00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:59,250 And we funded the whole thing through Unbound. 9 00:00:59,250 --> 00:01:08,580 So as well as editing the twenty-nine stories, I also wrote one of the stories and I wanted to write for the first time - 10 00:01:08,580 --> 00:01:14,100 I'd never written about it before - about my experiences at Oxford. 11 00:01:14,100 --> 00:01:18,720 So I'm, I'm from a what you would probably call a lower middle class background. 12 00:01:18,720 --> 00:01:23,100 I'm a grammar school boy, but I was the first in my family to go to university. 13 00:01:23,100 --> 00:01:33,780 So for me, arriving in Oxford in 1993, it was a bit like arriving on another planet. 14 00:01:33,780 --> 00:01:43,500 There were, you know, everything had funny names. Everyone was wearing these, these funny costumes and they were using these funny voices, 15 00:01:43,500 --> 00:01:49,980 and I suppose at the age of 19 I just took everything in my stride. 16 00:01:49,980 --> 00:01:59,820 It's only as I've looked back subsequently that I've thought quite how odd it was and quite how much back then, 17 00:01:59,820 --> 00:02:04,310 everything seemed to be geared around the public school boy, 18 00:02:04,310 --> 00:02:09,930 and I have every reason to think that that is now changing. 19 00:02:09,930 --> 00:02:14,160 I was really, really proud to hear that Worcester was the first, I think, 20 00:02:14,160 --> 00:02:21,730 academic institution anywhere in the country that guaranteed all those state school kids 21 00:02:21,730 --> 00:02:31,890 their places back last summer when the lockdown algorithm marked down their grades. 22 00:02:31,890 --> 00:02:39,540 So, anyway, back to my story. It is actually the first short story I've ever written. 23 00:02:39,540 --> 00:02:44,160 So I've written a lot of plays: Stage plays, screenplays, poetry, 24 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:49,290 but I've never before this written a work of prose fiction, 25 00:02:49,290 --> 00:02:56,760 so I had some stuff to learn. And my writing group, Leather Lane, were really, really helpful with that. 26 00:02:56,760 --> 00:02:58,740 The other thing that was a challenge, as I said, 27 00:02:58,740 --> 00:03:09,810 it's the material is largely autobiographical and that can be very cathartic for the writer, writing about what you know. 28 00:03:09,810 --> 00:03:15,360 but this is a work of fiction. So at the end of the day, it has to work for the reader, for the audience, 29 00:03:15,360 --> 00:03:24,600 so that was a second challenge. There's something that came very easily with the writing was the comedy, as I'm sure you can imagine, 30 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:30,630 there was there was quite a lot to send up in those Oxford ways, 31 00:03:30,630 --> 00:03:37,320 and particularly as it's set in the world of the Oxford University Dramatic Society. 32 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:45,570 I was the president of Buskins, the Worcester Dramatic Society, for one year while I was there. 33 00:03:45,570 --> 00:03:46,470 So I send that up. 34 00:03:46,470 --> 00:03:57,360 I also send up the, the world that I come from and also my character, or the character that sort of represents me within the story - 35 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:04,470 apologies to anyone who knew me back then, I believe I was a rather taciturn young man - that came naturally, 36 00:04:04,470 --> 00:04:07,860 the comedy and also the drama. 37 00:04:07,860 --> 00:04:16,440 As I'm sure you can imagine, there was a lot of conflict between where this character has come from and where they currently find themselves. 38 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:24,960 I mean, add on top of that the fact that the character is coming out during the story, as indeed I was at that time. 39 00:04:24,960 --> 00:04:33,330 The very first GaySoc meeting I ever went to was over in the, in the Morley Fletcher Room. 40 00:04:33,330 --> 00:04:42,960 So I've been asked to say what it was that I learnt during my time at Worcester that has helped me with my writing, 41 00:04:42,960 --> 00:04:51,210 and I've wracked my brains. And I sometimes wonder if there was anything that I learnt in those three years. 42 00:04:51,210 --> 00:04:59,930 I mean, you know, so I was a fine arts student, so I did all my studying down at the Ruskin and I learnt to take myself 43 00:04:59,930 --> 00:05:09,990 very, very seriously. And don't get me wrong, it was - the university was such an amazing opportunity, 44 00:05:09,990 --> 00:05:14,270 Worcester was an amazing opportunity. I mean, I had materials grants, 45 00:05:14,270 --> 00:05:21,750 I had a music scholarship, I got a travel grant to go to Rome in my second year. 46 00:05:21,750 --> 00:05:26,280 And I had to, had to file a report on that. And I handed it into my 47 00:05:26,280 --> 00:05:31,530 my moral tutor. And I'm really sorry, I, I, I can't remember his name. 48 00:05:31,530 --> 00:05:36,930 And it was all very avant garde, you know, fractured text, reference to the myths, all of that. 49 00:05:36,930 --> 00:05:43,830 And he handed it back to me and he said, "do you know, I couldn't tell if you enjoyed it." 50 00:05:43,830 --> 00:05:47,790 And I think I'm going to take that as my, as my take home. 51 00:05:47,790 --> 00:05:58,710 I have, I have learnt to enjoy the writing and also to let others enjoy the writing. 52 00:05:58,710 --> 00:05:59,549 Thank you.