University of Cumbria lecturer shares his talent

By Kieron Sutton

‘34/26’ was written by Mike Smith, an award winning Cumbrian author and Creative Writing lecturer at the University of Cumbria. “I love the Lake District and Cumbria,” says Mike, “I’ve been influenced by many great writers, but I still find Cumbria as a place to live and work continually inspiring.”

Mike has been published in various magazines and anthologies since the 1970s, and recently won the Sir Patrick Geddes Memorial Trust award for a collection of poems.

One of the accusations levelled at Words by the Water is that it overlooks the local writing community in favour of TV celebrities with a book to sell. But what does Mike, a member of the writing community in question, think of that?

“I think it cuts at the heart of why people write,” he says, “It’s a fact that good books and saleable books don’t always have the same titles – celebrity books sell. Some local writers have campaigned long and hard to win a toe-hold within the festival, but I think the festival needs to promote the active writing communities of the area, in which Cumbria – and I suspect most other areas if truth be known – is rich.”