Website: www.biscuitpublishing.com
Date: Thu 1 Apr 2004

Biscuit Publishing has added another must-attend event to the north east's literary calendar with its writers' conference, which makes its debut at Durham's Lindisfarne Centre this April. Literature North East spoke to Biscuit's Brian Lister (pictured left) as he put the finishing touches to the event.

When did you set up Biscuit Publishing?
Biscuit was set up in July 2000. It was created to cater for new talented writers of poetry and short fiction - short stories, long-short stories and novellas. New, unknown or little-known writers struggle to get a foothold on the publishing ladder. They often lose heart and give up in those difficult first years. Biscuit exists to get them onto those first rungs and get the spotlight on them.

Why did you call it Biscuit?
The very first book I ever published - and it was pre-Biscuit Publishing - was called The Biscuit Tin, which was published in January 2000 to celebrate the new millennium. It was an anthology and contained short anecdotes, snippets of people's lives, told in prose and poetry form, all provided by writers from around the country. A kind of social history of the years between 1900 to 1999. Each contributor bought at least one book - that was the only entry requirement and each contributor provided five 'snippets' to be published in it. All proceeds went to The Rainbow Trust. That gave me a taste for being a publisher, hence Biscuit Publishing.

What were you doing before that?
I left school at 15 with no qualifications. I served an engineering apprenticeship (gained some tech qualifications at evening classes) and went into the RAF from 1959-61 to do National Service. I eventually became a sales engineer, selling industrial diamond tools… I took early retirement, entered the world of creative writing and failed miserably to get my first novel published. Then did the MA in creative writing at Northumbria Uni and there discovered just how lousy that novel really was. So I decided to help younger writers who were much better at it than me to get started. Hence, Biscuit Publishing.

Did you always have it in mind that Biscuit would run a writing competition linked to its publications?
Biscuit now publishes its competition winners, but it publishes other writers too. We're mainly financed from the poetry and short fiction competitions' entry fees. This press set out to be self-financing, ie, generating its own income without relying on grants. But the writing competitions do not in fact produce sufficient revenue to cover Biscuit's publishing ambitions. And the whole writing scene in the UK is, as I see it, now being swamped by competitions. Biscuit currently mainly publishes authors by selection through competition and that will continue. But in addition, we also now publish authors through the conventional 'talent-spotting' route. And, because the competitions do not generate sufficient revenue we have had to - successfully - approach ACE North East for modest funding. This year, with that ACE money, we will publish three new authors, that means two poets and a fiction writer, and these writers will be published in addition to the winners of the competitions.

I take no earnings at all from Biscuit, by the way. I do it all for love!

How many writers have you published so far?
Biscuit has published four annual winners' anthologies of poetry and short fiction. The author numbers in those books total 120 new writers. The very first anthology had 20 story writers in it; the second had 20 poets, the third and fourth each had combinations of 40 poets and prose writers. Biscuit has published four poets' collections and before the end of this year, it will publish another three poets' collections, two short story writers' collections and a novella. The novella is Searching for Martin Barrett by Veronica Lloyd. There will also be a poet's long-narrative poem, which is a book with an accompanying audio CD - Endeavour, Newfound Notes by Bob Beagrie.

What have you got planned for the conference?
Lots! There's physical theatre in Endeavour Newfound Notes, a new performance work by Bob Beagrie that brings together poetry, drama, movement and music. Bob, having worked hard over many years for proper recognition, became an `overnight' success when he won the 2002 Biscuit Poetry Prize!

At the conference, winners of the Biscuit competitions get a live platform from which they can display their reading talents before an appreciative audience. There are advanced level workshops covering an eclectic range of poetry and prose subjects, led by experienced writer and tutors. There's fun on the river, with an evening trip on the Prince Bishop riverboat, with a poetry slam and barbecue. There's a Save Our Short Story 'action-forum', that sets out to help revive the flagging market for UK literary short fiction. It has a panel of high-profile writers working together with the participating audience to tackle the problem.

The conference brings writers together and puts faces to names. It's an open-to-all opportunity for writers to meet other writers and spend time indulging in the joys of their craft as well as further improving their skills. The University of Durham venue is highly prestigious and ranks as the third oldest - after Cambridge and Oxford - in the country. Biscuit Writers' Conference brings visitors to the region and - along with Durham LitFest, and the NAWG Festival of Writing - throws yet another bright literary spotlight on the University city.

Writers can book en-suite bed-study accommodation and meals for the whole weekend, or come for single events. Being residential caters for the needs of delegates living in other parts of the country. There are great social and networking benefits to be gained by being residential and many local writers still opt for this.

So what's next for Biscuit?
Entries are coming in now for the 2004 poetry and short fiction competitions. During the summer they'll all be read and long-shortlisted, and then shortlisted, with the final results announced by the end of July. This year will see new names appearing in the literary spotlight, and new books launched. In 2005, the second conference will build on the experience and success of the first.

And this October, we're planning to run a writers' residential course in a country hotel in the Scottish Highlands. More on that soon!


Biscuit Publishing Writers' Conference 2004: 16-18 April
The Lindisfarne Centre, St Aidan's College, University of Durham
Full details of all the seminars, readings and events, as well as information on how to book, are available at www.biscuitpublishing.com/conference.

For details of how to enter the Biscuit Poetry and Fiction Prizes 2004, see separate news story.