{"id":978,"date":"2022-04-06T13:30:30","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T13:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/?p=978"},"modified":"2022-04-04T14:49:45","modified_gmt":"2022-04-04T14:49:45","slug":"a-writing-chance-margins-to-mainstream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/a-writing-chance-margins-to-mainstream\/","title":{"rendered":"A Writing Chance: Margins to Mainstream"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephen Tuffin, Associate Lecturer on OU Creative Writing courses A215 and A363, has recently won A Writing Chance<\/a>\u00a0bursary \u2013 an award that celebrates fresh perspectives and great stories from people whose voices have not historically been heard in publishing and the media. This UK-wide project is co-funded by actor Michael Sheen<\/a> and the Joseph Rowntree Foundation<\/a>, and supported by the <\/em>New Statesman<\/a> and <\/em>Daily Mirror<\/a>, with research into barriers to publication being conducted by Northumbria University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Recipients of Writing Chance bursaries<\/p><\/div>\n

We asked Steve to tell us about how his own class background and experience of disability have both helped and hindered his journey into publishing and academia.<\/em><\/p>\n

I first started writing when I was a road worker. I wrote on bits of paper in the days before PCs. I didn\u2019t write much or very often because much of the time I was too exhausted. The days were very long and very tough.<\/p>\n

But, knackered or not, I had this urge to write. I wrote fiction. Short fiction. I didn\u2019t write poetry because I didn\u2019t like it. I didn\u2019t understand it, and, in any case, only posh people read or wrote poems.<\/p>\n

Despite not having enough the money, I signed up for the Writers Bureau<\/a>, and set about learning to write. I paid in instalments, completed several assignments, and was thrilled to receive feedback. But I defaulted on the payments and so was unable to continue.\u00a0 I believe I still owe the Bureau so I\u2019m hoping they don\u2019t read this.<\/p>\n

My life took me to Swindon in search of employment. I did a City and Guilds<\/a> apprenticeship and became a carpenter. I worked on sites all over the place and eventually found myself working at The Institute of Directors in The Mall. I worked there as the lone maintenance man and so found plenty of time to read. I read thrillers and novels about barrel-chested men, with firm chiselled jaws, and women with hour-glass figures and names like Storm. In my spare time, I continued to write. I only ever shared my writing with my wife. No one else. I had trouble with my spelling \u2013 and still do.<\/p>\n

One day I acquired an electric typewriter \u2013 it was being replaced with a new model. I set it up at home and imagined myself to be Hemingway even though I\u2019d never read a word he\u2019d written. I smoked while I wrote. One roll-up after another. I hung doors in the daytime and typed words out at night. Hanging doors is hard physical work but isn\u2019t anywhere near as knackering as digging trenches.<\/p>\n

Time passed and the PC came along. Now I could see my words on a screen, as if they were in print, and I could correct my spelling as I went along. I wrote short stories about working-class people \u2013 caf\u00e9 workers, shop workers, road workers. I wrote what I know.<\/p>\n

I fell ill. I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis and so my life on site was over. I lost my job, my income and my dignity. I had no idea what I would do next. I considered work in B&Q or as a storeman at the building firm where I\u2019d worked as a carpenter. But my wife had started a course at our local college, and I decided to follow suit.<\/p>\n

I wrote my first full length play in the 2002. It was called Roger and Gerald<\/em> and I didn\u2019t have a clue what I was doing, but I did it. I sat up late into the night and I wrote. I heard their voices in my head, these two men, talking, laughing, arguing, loving. I finished the play and I sat back, and I rolled a cigarette and I felt good.<\/p>\n

My college studies took me to Bath Spa University<\/a> where I gained a BA and an MA in Creative Writing. Later on, I taught there on their undergraduate programme, and it was then that I saw an advert for Associate Lecturers with the Open University<\/a>. And here I am.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been an interesting journey.<\/p>\n

If I am being honest, I\u2019ve always felt a little apart from my colleagues. They are all lovely, but they seem very posh to me. And so much smarter than me, and well educated. In a nutshell, middle-class. And I, well, I was a road worker masquerading as a clever person.<\/p>\n

I still am.<\/p>\n

I lived too long in that world to suddenly become something else. And I am proud of that world too. I don\u2019t see why, as a working-class man, I can\u2019t enjoy these things that I\u2019ve been led to believe can only be appreciated by the middle-classes. But don\u2019t get me started on that.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

You can listen to Martin Sheen read Steve’s work on the BBC’s Margins to Mainstream<\/a> (about 14 minutes into the programme). This episode also features the work of another awardee, Maya Jordan, who studied creative writing at the OU.<\/p><\/div>\n

Now I am on this wonderful programme fronted by Michael Sheen<\/a> for underrepresented writers, and I am seeing my writing take off in a way it never has before.<\/p>\n

And the thing is, I have my arthritis to thank for it. So, good things can come in painful packages. Had the AS not got a hold of me I would still be out on site. I wouldn\u2019t be writing this and would never have met all the fine and good people I have taught and worked with over the 16 years I\u2019ve been employed by the OU.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Stephen Tuffin<\/p><\/div>\n

Stephen Tuffin<\/a> was born in 1958 on a council estate on the south-east coast of England. A former butcher\u2019s boy, cook, cab driver, door-to-door salesman, care home assistant, road worker and builder, he now lives in Swindon and teaches creative writing at the Open University. He is a working-class writer writing working-class stories inspired by the remarkable and raw world he has lived and worked in for most of his life.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Stephen Tuffin, Associate Lecturer on OU Creative Writing courses A215 and A363, has recently won A Writing Chance\u00a0bursary \u2013 an award that celebrates fresh perspectives and great stories from people whose voices have not historically been heard in publishing and … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[204,188,207,218,219,220,217,214,215,212,210,205,209,211,213,208,206,216],"class_list":["post-978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-research","tag-a-writing-chance","tag-a215","tag-a363","tag-ankylosing-spondylitis","tag-bath-spa-university","tag-bbc","tag-city-and-guilds","tag-creative-writing-and-class","tag-creative-writing-and-disability","tag-daily-mirror","tag-joseph-rowntree-foundation","tag-margins-to-mainstream","tag-michael-sheen","tag-new-statesman","tag-northumbria-university","tag-open-university-creative-writing","tag-steve-tuffin","tag-writers-bureau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=978"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/978\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}