GUY MANKOWSKI

On 01/10/12 at Dance City in Newcastle guests were invited to a performance of 'Letters from Yelena'. The event saw literature and dance brought to one stage. The night opened with a reading from one of the letters which were then performed by ballerina Laila Sanz, with choreography from Dora Frankel Dance and music from Jeremy Bradfield. A short video of the performance can be watched online on the link below- http://vimeo.com/52803418 'Letters from Yelena' can be purchased now at all good bookstores (Waterstones etc) and bought from Amazon on this link- http://www.amazon.co.uk/Letters-Yelena-Guy-Mankowski/dp/1909039101 With thanks to Hal Branson

I'm very excited that at Dance City, Newcastle this evening my second novel is being released. The launch will coincide with a performance of a scene from the book choreographed by Dora Frankel, featuring the Argentinian ballet dancer Laila Sanz (talking with me above during the development of the performance). In case that is a little too far afield, below are some of the advance quotes for the novel which I hope will entice you to buy it-   ‘It’s unusual to find a young male writer who can write with such sensitivity and maturity. Guy Mankowski’s portrayal of the ballerina Yelena is wholly convincing, taking us inside her thoughts and feelings as she describes the course of her life, from harrowing childhood to professional success, punctuated with turbulent emotional crisis. This is clearly a writer of great talent.’  Andrew Crumey, Booker Prize longlisted author. Guy Mankowski’s second novel, Letters from Yelena, is a fantastic literary achievemen...

  On Saturday there was great newspaper coverage surrounding the fact that Victoria Pendleton, one of Britain’s most successful athletes, had revealed a history of self-harm. In a new memoir she describes how she cut herself with a pair of nail scissors, even on the night after she had won her first cycling Gold at the Beijing Olympics. In so doing I feel she has shed a strong light on the way our culture views mental illness. There is increasing acknowledgement of the fact that mental health issues carry with them a stigma. This story had such an impact because Pendleton is ‘a high achiever’, and this disclosure therefore flies in the face of many prejudices about mental illness. The prevailing view seems to still be that some people are ‘mentally well’ and the rest ‘suffer mental illness’, though this binary understanding flies in the face of mental health research, which indicates that mental health problems exist on a spectrum. I noticed one tweet from a sports feed...

I'm excited to announce that Dance City Newcastle are to host the launch party for my second novel ‘Letters from Yelena’ on 1st October 2012. Part of the launch party will be a specially commissioned performance, directed by the acclaimed North East choreographer Dora Frankel, in which scenes from the book will be performed to a composed soundtrack. It promises to be an innovative night of literature, music and dancing set at one of the North's most exciting and original venues. Tickets go on sale at Dance City’s box office soon. In the meantime I’m looking forward to seeing how the piece and its music both develop over the next few months. This is interesting new ground for me! For publicity or further information please contact lucyboguslawski@legend-paperbooks.co.uk Portrait photography by Tony Griffiths for Dora Frankel Dance- http://www.dorafrankeldance.co.uk/ Dance City is online at http://www.dancecity.c...

I’ve been fortunate this week to be given a kind advance notice for ‘Letters From Yelena’ from the exceptional Hanna Jameson, author and aspiring ballerina. Her debut novel Something You Are is published in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands in December (a copy of its exquisite Dutch cover is below). 'I finished Letters from Yelena in two sittings. The mental and physical strain of the professional ballet artist is almost tangible. Mankowski creates a bleak and isolated landscape, where aspiration and ambition can be crushed under the sheer weight of their own internal pressure. 'Yelena' has more emotional and intellectual depth in a chapter than the entirety of The Black Swan. Instead it harks back to something like the visual masterpiece of The Red Shoes; romantic, dark, uncompromising, and beautiful. I defy any woman, and any dancer, to not see parts of themselves in Yelena. Exceptionally talented. Thank God you don't write crime/thrillers or I'd be bitter an...

I was very fortunate to be awarded a grant by the Arts Council to research my second novel, Letters From Yelena, for a week in St Petersburg. The book will chart the life of a Russian ballerina, and the trip gave me the chance to find out what this would have entailed... Day 1- St Petersburg is bewildering, overpowering, and grandly beautiful. I lug my suitcase down the great Nevksy Prospekt, and struggle to make out signs depicted in letters I’ve previously only seen on confectionary. My hotel is situated in between the prestigious ballet academy the Vaganova, and the famous Mariinsky Theatre. As the city darkens I go to visit the Isaac Cathedral. It’s surrounded by neo-gothic statues, with young couples kissing in amongst all its dark corners. Day 2- In the morning I visit the Nabokov museum. A quote by the writer on one of the video installations seems particularly relevant to my situation. ‘Reality’ he says ‘is perpetually eluding. A plant has a deeper reality for a botanist ...

This week I was very fortunate to be awarded by the Arts Council a grant towards the research and development of my second novel 'Letters From Yelena'. The book in progress contains the letters sent by a brilliant ballerina to ‘Noah’ – a writer who first gave her faith in people after the darkness of her childhood. By chronicling her journey first as an immigrant, then as a rising ballerina, the letters will chart how seemingly insurmountable obstacles can be overcome through the connections people make. I'm grateful that the award will allow me to spend much more of my time writing, as well as taking me to St Petersburg in Russia in a few weeks time. Whilst there I hope to visit the prestigious Vaganova Academy and world famous Mariinsky Theatre - places where my lead character learnt to dance. I'm also attending a performance of the famous ballet-blanc 'Giselle' at The Mariinsky Theatre. St Petersburg is a city I have been longing to visit for a while and ...

This week I had the pleasure of observing the work of one of the North East’s most sought after choreographers, Dora Frankel, while she rehearsed sequences for her next show ‘One Small Step, One More Step’. Having made her acquaintance a few weeks ago, and having mentioned that I was undertaking research into the world of dance for my next novel, Dora agreed firstly to be interviewed by me, and secondly to allow me to sit in while she developed her next work in progress. ‘One Small Step’ will see daylight as part of 'Bridging The Gap', an evening of performances, music and events. It is a site specific performance that will take place on and around The Apollo Pavilion in Peterlee, a concrete pavilion which is the work of the artist Victor Pasmore. The show promises to be a striking synthesis of visual art, dance and sound with the composer Peter Coyte supplying a varied, visceral soundtrack for it. Although my novel is set ostensibly in the world of ballet, I was particular...

Writing can be a rather solitary venture; it’s not a pursuit usually requiring the company of off-duty ballerinas, eager to break into dizzying dance sequences at a moments notice. Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a Writing and Dance Workshop at Dance City, a location which has always intrigued me, due to its rather evocative air of artistic permissiveness. I did this out of a combination of intrigue and duty. I’ve just started researching my second novel, Letters From Yelena, which is set in the world of ballet. I was keen to move my research beyond struggling to decipher Russian ballet websites and into the real world. The workshop was organised by the award winning Write Around The Toon, which is Project Managed by the author Viccy Adams. The workshop was ran by Alex Lockwood, a lecturer at Sunderland University. Until yesterday I had steered clear of writing workshops due to a rather precious fear I had about reflecting on the writing process, which I've ...