OPPORTUNITIES FOR WRITERS: LIBERALIS Suzanne Ruthven talks to Leon Conrad about this exciting new imprint at John Hunt Publishing, covering the liberal arts, education and storytelling. SR: There’s rarely a day goes by that some aspect of education doesn’t appear in the media, and just to clarify exactly what you are looking for, would you say that you cover everything from the old favourite Ladybird books to the university thesis? LC: Ladybird books! That takes me back—I used to love them! Then I started getting into Arthur Mee’s books. Early on, apparently, when I first discovered his Children’s Encyclopaedia, I leaped into my mother’s room—I couldn’t have been more than 6—shouting, ‘Mum! Mum! Do you know how they put the wheels on railway engines?’ It was 6 o’clock in the morning and my mother wasn’t best pleased at the time, but ended up dining out on the story for years. Looking back now, what made these books appealing, I think, was that in both the Ladybird books and Arthur Mee’s works, the contributing authors knew how to tell good stories and connect facts to universal values. Liberalis isn’t an academic publisher. We wouldn’t publish university theses, but we definitely value academic rigour. We don’t publish novels, but we value storytelling. Liberalis books will typically cover factual information, good storytelling and universal values, presenting the content in a form that’s relevant and appealing to readers of all ages today. That’s really what Liberalis is about. At Liberalis, we aim to combine the best of the old with the best of the new. You mentioned education. The ideas that Ancient Greek philosophers thought about; the questions they asked are still relevant today, even when modern research about how we learn and how we think has extended our understanding and changed the way we do things. To give you one example, we understand far more than the Ancient Greeks did about how our brains work and how the brain processes memories. Carol Dweck has done some great work in this field. However, memory masters today still use techniques that were first described by early orators such as Cicero and Quintilian which are highly useful, very practical, yet sadly overlooked in many modern approaches to education today. I’d love to publish a book that offers a clear, practical way of combining the best of both worlds in this field that would help people of all ages make the most of their memory to help them learn and retain stuff that’s useful to them. And that’s just one example of something I think would be valuable in the educational field. SR: You say that you will cater for primary, secondary and higher education markets, home-schoolers, parents and members of the general public who have a love of ongoing learning. Is it necessary for potential authors to be qualified teachers in order to write for Liberalis? LC: Not at all. There’s absolutely no need for potential authors to be qualified teachers. They just need to know their stuff, be passionate about what they want to explore and be able to express their thoughts clearly and engagingly in their writing. Being able to structure a good argument is useful. Good storytelling skills are handy as well. At the end of the day, we’re looking to build long-term relationships with writers who can write in a way that can engage readers and inspire a love of learning in them. SR: Traditional storytelling is an art form in its own right and one area that is guaranteed to appeal to writers. Would you care to be more specific about what you’re looking for? LC: You’re right about storytelling being an art form. As I mentioned, we’re looking for educational writers who can tell good stories that inspire curiosity, learning and ongoing enquiry, but we’re also looking for books on the art and craft of traditional storytelling – the nuts and bolts of how to do it. This could include books on the oral storytelling tradition and how to integrate that into learning and teaching, how to write for the ear rather than the eye, perhaps even collections of original stories, traditional stories or adaptations that bring particular themes or issues to life. I’m very open to proposals. There’s a wealth of books on structuring arguments for public speaking, for instance, but far fewer on structuring stories that go beyond the standard Hollywood format and even fewer good ones on different types of story structures and how to use these to make material come alive. Argumentation isn’t the same as narrative. They share common elements, but there are key differences. A practical book on the subject would be an example of something I’d be keen to see Liberalis publish. That’s just one example out of many possibilities – and I’m sure there are writers, educators and storytellers out there with even better ideas I haven’t even thought of. There’s nothing like being brought face to face with something you never realised you needed. SR: Are there any particular subjects you’d be interested in considering at the moment? And what sort of proposals do you not want to receive? LC: Storytelling. Education. The liberal arts. That’s what Liberalis is about. At the heart of our offering is an integrated approach to liberal arts education, which Sister Miriam Joseph likens to an intransitive verb (a rose blooms), describing it as working on a person from the inside out. Dorothy L Sayers called them The Lost Tools of Learning. That was back in 1947. We’ve made some progress since then, but the liberal arts approach—in its integrated form, which is where its power lies—is often misunderstood. You can start learning about the liberal arts at any age and benefit from them, but it’s hard to do so if you don’t know about them or how to access them. I’ve was reading Kenneth Baker’s book, 14-18: A New Vision for Secondary Education recently. He used to be Secretary of State for Education. He advocates the idea of liberal arts colleges, but likens them to present-day academic institutions. ‘Because this style of education is so familiar, there is no real need to describe it in detail,’ he wrote. I was shocked. There is a world of difference between the integrated approach to a classical liberal arts education and the compartmentalised, syllabus-driven approach to primary and secondary education today. The skills of thinking, communicating and being able to express yourself clearly and confidently (which is what grammar, logic and rhetoric are all about) are all interdependent and they’re vital skills that I believe everyone needs in order to get the best results out of life. Master these and you can apply the same skills to maths and the sciences. A whole load of arguments and misunderstanding in both private and public spaces could be avoided by mastering these. And I’m convinced that we could get maths levels to improve if students were taught to construct analogies like ‘toe is to foot as foot is to …?’ or even ‘seed is to tree as you are to …?’ and apply the same patterns of reasoning to maths problems like ‘10:100::100:?’ Will this happen in the schools and colleges Kenneth Baker writes about? Not if they’re built on the present-day system I’m familiar with, as he assumes they will be. Why doesn’t this happen? Search me! I just don’t understand it. Cue Liberalis. Liberalis is set up to help bring the integrated approach to the liberal arts to life. I’m looking for writers who are excited about the liberal arts tradition, can make ideas leap off the page, and jump about in readers hearts and minds; writers who can make interesting ideas relevant to people in practical sense, so they can see how they can use them in their everyday lives; writers who are excited about sharing our rich and varied world cultural heritage, great ideas, the beauty of language, literature, poetry and the exciting mysteries of science or maths. For me, a liberal arts education doesn’t just stop at the humanities. It is the foundation for all disciplines, even the Creative subjects like drama, design or applied arts. A book which combines a liberal arts approach with puzzles, in a fun way, to help develop thinking skills would be great. Storytelling and theatre improvisation have a lot to offer teachers and students – in fact, they have a lot to offer communicators in general. I’d be keen to consider proposals which fit any of the above remits, and other approaches as well. As I said, I’m sure there are other ideas out there – I’d love to hear about them. SR: Have you any additional advice for any potential Liberalis authors? LC: Advice? I think advice is overrated. It’s like a yellow brick road – if you follow it, you’ll end up in a whole heap of trouble, only to find out what you knew deep down already! So – the only advice I can give is: be yourself and put your heart, mind and soul into your writing. Be passionate about your subject. Dig deep and stretch wide. Have a clear readership in mind and present your ideas in a compelling way. There’s a whole wealth of editorial and marketing support behind the imprint that you can benefit from if you want to see your ideas made available in print and e-book formats across the world. We back what we believe in. Why not share your work with us? What do you have to lose? If you have a proposal that you think would be of interest to Liberalis, submit your inquiry in the first instance via the website: liberalisbooks
Posted on: Mon, 10 Jun 2013 21:59:51 +0000
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