Interests: OUTLET will be charting the history of the Creative Writing movement in the Tees Valley - Cleveland - North Yorkshire from 1960 to Present. It will replace earlier sites established in 2004 on Tees on Line and 2006 on Teesside University Community Media sites which ran in to funding or technical problems. It is titled after a community based poetry magazine I ran in the 1980's and which was a launching pad formany things. The site is run by Trev Teasdel (Tutor, poet, songwriter, editor). Trev also has another Vox charting Coventry's musical history in the 1970's where he ran Hobo magazine - Here OUTLET was formed in 1986 and edited originally by Trev Teasdel, Terry Lawson, Pauline Plummer, Viv Harland, Mel McEvoy and the later team were - Trev Teasdel, Pauline Plummer , Terry Lawson, Margaret Weir, Andy Croft, Richard Bridon, Steve Gillgallon. Also involved at various stages were Cath McKenna,Vera Davies, Mark Beevers, Bob Beagrie, Peter Stockill and many more that willbe written about as the site develops. . Introduction The Teesvalley has enjoyed a lively and groundbreakingcommunity based writing scene for over 25 years. This is named after OUTLET, the 80's magazine that took the Teesvalley literary underground - overground and set the ball rolling for an unprecedented explosion of writing and literary activity on Teesside and its surrounds. A ball that is still rolling today with the buzz of recent performance venues like The Writers Cafe, Verb Garden, Hydrogen Jukebox and newer magazines such as Kenaz. There are also literature development projects in schools, the University of Teesside and in the community. Not only that but there have been international and regional exchanges, new imprints and much much more. Such richness and diversity of literary activity was unthinkable in the early 1980's when I and other literary pioneers in the area tried to get a 'pinch' of funding to run a performance venue or a magazine. Lack of adequate funding is still an issue in the Tees Valley however and struggle goes on.This site is story of the literary history in the Tees Valley and North Yorkshire since 1960 to present. A sister site on Vox will be established for the very interesting earlier hisotry from 600AD to 1960 but the timeline for that can be seen on the old Outlet site HERE. Meanwhile the present site is the story of spirit and determination to forge a strong and dynamic ground-based literary culture in the area, despite, often, the lack of funding and encouragement from the literary establishment and negative viewpoints of the area which view us as a 'Cultural desert'. The Tees Valley has made its own literary culture, unique and thriving, and now, at last, reaching beyond its borders to interact, influence and be influenced by the wider worlds of international literature. Outlet wasn't the beginning however. It was merely the catalyst, the spark that lit the tinder, that forged an issue with the literary establishments - "The Fist of Cleveland Writing" that made possible the cultural empowerment from the bottom up rather than from the top down. Nor was this the end - the story continued and continues. There is a wealth of material to come to this site - so bookmark it and watch it grow; comment your thoughts or additional information; or correct us if you think we got something wrong.