I'm in the middle of two really exciting writing residencies. The first is in Lower Belvedere, in the London Borough of Bexley. It is a fascinating area, once a broad stretch of marshland, close to the Pleasure Gardens at Erith, it is now home to Crossness Sewage Works, a huge new rubbish incinerator, an industrial estate, and a tiny patch of precious marshland, some of which is designated a protected Nature Reserve. I will be creating new texts to be installed on site and working with volunteers to collect and archive local oral histories about the area. I have also teamed up with CABE's Engaging Places project and am working with year 8 students at Trinity School to develop new writing and a rough guide to the area.

The second residency is the Word Garden. It's a commission by UP Projects as part of The Secret Garden Project. I will be creating an online Word Garden over the next 12 months or so, responding to the other Secret Garden Project commissions, and to an on and offline conversation about urban green spaces. Please visit the blog to read the latest writing, and get involved by answering one of my 13 garden-related questions...

I'm just coming to the end of a creative-critical residency as part of a project called In Between, hosted by All Change. I've been working with three fantastic writers, Yemisi Blake, Joseph Coelho and Aoife Mannix, to explore how their residencies impact on the communities and places they are engaging with over the next couple of months. Please visit the In Between blog to find out more.

Last updated May 2010