I ran a workshop at the Wise Words festival in Canterbury a couple of weeks ago. This is an excellent community arts event with an ambition to “inspire wonder and engage curiosity.” People were certainly curious about my writing with constraints session. I’d hoped that maybe eight people might turn up. Two minutes before start …
Category Archives: Creativity
Constraints liberate
Bit slow to share my news on this one, but I ran a workshop on writing with constraints as part of the Guildford Literary Festival this summer. All of the 20 tickets for the event sold, which was very pleasing. It was wonderful to see a room full of writers beavering away with their pens and notebooks, and …
A poem full of holes
Here’s a quick update about an interesting project I worked on recently. Writer John Simmons asked me and a few other people to create a collaborative poem on the theme of ‘home’. The idea emerged from a conversation between John and designer Mike Abrahams about a residential property development Mike was working on with Jaccaud Zein Architects. A …
Bespoke stories, written on the spot
A simple question can take you to some very interesting places.I had my second outing as a writer in residence yesterday. This time I was in Oxford Street Books, Whitstable, writing stories inspired by whoever came into the shop. To make life more difficult, I decided to try and write these stories – brief flash …
Taking literature to the streets, man
It’s good to step outside of one’s comfort zone occasionally, and I will be a very great distance away from mine next week. I’m “performing” a short story at the Herne Bay Festival. That is not the scary bit. I have done a few readings before and enjoyed the experience. But in the past I …