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Sam North - Senior Lecturer (E&S)

University Career

Profile

As a Senior Lecturer at Exeter, Sam North teaches 5 Creative Writing modules:

  • Introduction to Creative Writing
  • Creative Writing: Finding a Voice
  • Writing the Short Film
  • The Poetry of Events - Building a Plot
  • Writing for the Screen

His main research areas are:

  • Current fiction in both dramatic and prose form
  • The history of narrative and genre development
  • The mechanical/imaginative processes of story-telling
  • Has written 9 novels and 2 films
  • The Unnumbered was long-listed for the Man-Booker prize
  • The Automatic Man won the Somerset Maugham Award
  • He grew up in the British country side but has also traveled in Europe, North and South America
  • He went to Bournemouth Film School
  • Married Abigail Pilbrow and had three children: Esme, Diggory and Lou
  • Is currently a Senior Lecturer at Exeter in Creative Writing
  • Published a PhD titled 'Five Analogies' in 2012 which explores the imaganitive landscape of narrative from a practitioner's point of view

Controversially, this year in March, Sam North was fired from the University of Exeter for failing "to gain the required research grants that are a criterion of his contract, despite applying for two such grants."

However, this caused an uproar with current and ex-Exeter English students. An Exepose article written by Claire Smy makes it clear why: "Sam North may not have ticked the boxes that secured sufficient funding for Exeter University, but I know from first-hand experience that he has the most wonderful ability to make his students think for themselves. He is able, through his skill and expertise, his care and compassion, to facilitate the ability in students to go inside their own minds and find the amazing creativity that lurks in its darkest corners. This is a rare skill indeed, and one that Exeter University and its students – past and present – are incredibly lucky to have the benefit of."

Sam North was quickly reinstated and asked re-join the English department, whilst the Director of Education for English, Dr Jo Gill, assured students in an email that “Sam is continuing in his current role and will be running and marking his modules, and supervising and assessing undergraduate dissertations as normal and with his usual commitment and the full support of the department.”

His Fiction

-The Automatic Man (1989)

‘A striking debut, sharply written and worrying...the writing has an urgent, visceral immediacy.’ D.J. Taylor, The Sunday Times

-The Gifting Programme (1992)

-Chapel Street (1993)

-By Desire (1996)

-The Lie of the Land (1999)

The Interview

Our group went to interview Sam North and find out a bit more about him. This is what we found.

His typical day:

Reading PhD thesis through

Teaching seminars

Supervising dissertation students

Novel writing

Planning a tour of India to promote film making and Exeter

Bibliography:

http://humanities.exeter.ac.uk/english/staff/snorth/

http://www.samnorth.co.uk/

http://exeter.tab.co.uk/2013/03/12/not-so-grim-up-north/

http://xmedia.ex.ac.uk/wp/wordpress/university-of-exeter-a-business-or-a-centre-for-education/

http://exeter.tab.co.uk/2013/03/13/sam-north-in-his-own-words/

His influences are:

White Noise by Don Delilo, a book called National Velvet and Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell

By:

Ollie Hogg, Ollie White, Chris Filsell, Amelia Harwood, Sophie Killip & Grace-Emmanuelle Kabeya

-The Unnumbered (2004)

“North's prose is simple and observational, and his narrative wafts by gently, like a discarded sweet-wrapper floating in the warm backdraft of a passing tube train.” Matthew Collin, The Guardian

-The Velvet Rooms (2006)

“Will all this give North another chance at the Booker? The Velvet Rooms is a very different novel from The Unnumbered. For a start it is funny, at least in part, but it is also original and thoroughly modern and, as in his previous book, North excels at giving substance and dignity to the dispossessed or dispossessing.” - Unknown

-The Old Country (2007)

How does he find the balance between writing and teaching at Exeter?

It's difficult but he wakes up at 5am to write. He finds that bumping alongside academics and students helps creative writing and stimulates ideas.

Quotes:

'"University is about one feeding the other".

"You don't have to be a novelist to teach creative writing".

"Everyone can be improved".

"You don't necessarily need to be a talented creative writer to teach it as it is a craft, like teaching history, but to become a writer you need to have a level of talent."

Interesting fact: Sam North did not attend University, so only became an academic at Exeter because of the novels he has written.

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