Professor Derek Neale

A novelist and short story writer with a practical and research interest in drama and film, script and life writing, I have recorded many interviews with novelists, playwrights, autobiographers and biographers about their approach to writing. I taught fiction and dramatic writing at UEA over a number of years, and have also facilitated writing activities in a prison. I gained my Creative Writing MA and PhD in Creative and Critical Writing from UEA, and joined the OU in 2003, helping to design and write the materials for a whole new generation of Open University writing courses.

My research is focused on writing practice – the production of original work, predominantly fiction, but also script and memoir. I am also interested in the creative process, the relationship between writing and memory, and generic crossovers and interactions between fiction, dramatic and life writing. See sample author interviews on  Creative Writing (tracks 1-10) on OpenLearn.

I convene seminars for the Contemporary Cultures of Writing research group, chairing three seminars on life writing and the borderland between fact and fiction.

I currently supervise several PhD students focused on creative writing. Applications in the field are welcome. Please see our advice pages about creative writing PhD study.

Publications

Academic:

A Creative Writing Handbook: developing dramatic technique, individual style and voice (A&C Black/Open University, 2009) – editor and principal author, contributing chapters on writing fiction and writing for stage, radio and film. 
‘Sets a strong benchmark for the study and practice of creative writing in higher education’ – Professor David Morley, Warwick University

Writing Fiction (Routledge, 2009) – co-authored with Linda Anderson

Life Writing (Routledge, 2009) – co-authored with Sara Haslam

‘Reading film: An Angel at My Table’ a film adaptation case study – in The Handbook to Literary Research, 2nd edition (eds. Delia Da Sousa Correa and W.R.Owens Routledge/OU 2009) 

Creative Writing: a workbook with readings (ed. Linda Anderson, Routledge/Open University, 2006) 
Major contributing author - chapters on the creative process, fiction and life writing. 

Start Writing Essays – co-authored (Open University online - 2003)

Fiction:

Six new stories on ‘Cutalongstory’ – new short story site: forthcoming

The Book of Guardians (Salt) (2012)

‘The Barber’s Victim’ in Raconteur (vol 6, 1996) 
‘Land of Their Fathers’ in Debatable Lands (Panurge, 1994) 
‘Violin Lessons’ in Mafia (1993, UEA)

Edited:

A Creative Writing Handbook: developing dramatic technique, individual style and voice (A&C Black/Open University, 2009)

Writing for stage and film (DVD – Pier Productions/OU, 2008)

Start Writing Plays (Open University online, 2004)

‘Prose from Cons’ (1994) and ‘The Write Mode’ (1996) - both in-house collections of prison writing from HMP Wayland

Mafia - co-edited (UEA and Eastern Arts, 1993)

Articles:

‘Short stories in the academy: mimesis, diegesis and the role of drama and film’. In Short Fiction in Theory and Practice, 2(1-2) (2012)

‘Being in uncertainties, mysteries and doubts: negative capability and the place of the imagination in the academy today.’  In Writing in Education (56) (2012)

‘Writing and dreaming primary and primal scenes.’  In New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing, 10(1) (2012)

‘Writing and remembering: paradoxes of memory, imagination and fiction in stories about lives.’  In Literature Compass, 8(12) (2011)

‘Adaptation and Montage.’ In Writing in Education (53) (2011)

‘Tributes and Testimonies.’ In Writing in Education (53) (2011)

‘Writing a Wicked Commentary’ in Writing in Education (41) (2007)

Recordings:

Academic adviser on the BBC World Service International Radio Playwriting Competition – broadcasts forthcoming (2014)

Roundtable discussion about creativity (2012)

Interview with author: in conversation with Iain Banks at the Cheltenham Literature Festival (2011)

Interviewed by publisher (about A Creative Writing Handbook) and the relationship between drama and fiction. (2009)

Academic adviser on the Radio 3 series ‘Ian McMillan’s Writing Lab’ (2008-9)

Interviewer and academic editor for CDs –

Writing Plays (Pier Productions/OU 2008) 
Radio, Film and Fiction (Pier Productions/OU 2008) 
Start Writing Plays: Interviews with Playwrights (BBC/OU 2004)

Contributing Interviewer/ editor for CDs –

Fiction Writing: Interviews with Novelists (Pier Productions/OU 2006) 
Life Writing: Interviews with life writers (Pier Productions/OU 2006) 
Start Writing Fiction: Interviews with Novelists (BBC/OU 2004)