THE WRITING SQUAD
“I wouldn’t have an album or a career without the squad, because I needed the confidence, contacts and skills (and cash) as well as the talent and determination.”
Penny Broadhurst, Squad 1
We would like to share some downloads that give you an idea of the thinking behind the Squad.
The Intro is the introduction to an anthology we published of writers from Squad 1 in 2003, imaginatively titled New Work from the Writing Squad. Written by Steve Dearden and Danny Broderick it remains the best rationale of why we set up the Squad.
The NAWE Piece represents our thinking near the end of Squad 3, written by Danny for the magazine of the National Association of Writers in Education, another imaginatively titled publication, Writing in Education, it gives an insight into the day to day life of the Squad and returns to why we do it, revisits our values.
To go alongside Danny's article we asked seven Squad members to give their perspective of the Squad.
“Where the Squad can offer some insight here, is in its reading of what literary value is fundamentally about. For us the pursuit is human excellence - and the value of literature, in its reading as well as its production, only has relevance in that context . There is no such thing as abstract literary value divorced from human value, and human value is what we exist to promote.”
Danny Broderick,
Squad Director
