Residencies and Workshops

I take on residencies and run creative writing workshops in community and school settings.

Writer-in-residence, Central Line

I was writer-in-residence on the Central line from March - September 2009, a commission by Art on the Underground which involved working with staff across the whole of the Central line. The project was launched on 15th September. New writing, by myself, in collaboration with London Underground staff, is available online. Posters and booklets have been distributed across the whole of the Central line.

New commission: Canal Club, PublicWorks

I was commissioned by PublicWorks to write a new fiction for a stretch of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal which formed the focus of Liverpool Biennial's 5 day conference, Urbanism 09.

The magical story aimed to explore the potential of a place which is frequently dismissed as a 'wasteland'. The story is called 'Fishing For Stars' (inspired by the star shaped lanterns attached to the 'Club'). It follows three characters, Caib, Rhaw and Bywell (their names are drawn from a mural of ancient tools painted on one of the canal's walls) who all discover their own routes into a magical parallel universe, where their wishes for the canal come true. Vinyl-cut extracts from the story were installed onto the Canal Club itself, copies were hung by the seating areas, and visitors were given copies to take away. You can download the story here.

City of Stories

I worked on the City of Stories project in Kuala Lumpur, with the British Council, Malaysia, and Spread the Word in February 2009. Myself and the writer Jeremy Sheldon worked with advanced and beginner writers to explore how to use the city of Kuala Lumpur as a starting point for fiction.

Almost an island?

I was writer in residence on the Greenwich Peninsula, along with the fantastic poet and writer, Aoife Mannix. There is an archive of the project on the Almost an Island blog. We created a soundscape as part of the project, which you can listen to online, or download from the UrbanWords website.

Other, recent work includes:

Spread the Word

Taster creative writing workshops for Spread the Word's Write Next Door project in Redbridge, East London. Participants' work was showcased at an event at the Broadway Theatre in Barking, and published in an anthology, available from Spread the Word.

Write Now and Then

These workshops were organised as part of All Change's Write Now and Then project, inspiring young people in Islington about the rich literary heritage of their Borough. I worked with a film and a performance artist, running workshops with year 8 students at Holloway School and year 11 students at Mount Carmel School. You can visit the project website, and obtain a copy of the Write Now and Then digital book by contacting All Change on 020 7689 4646 or via email.

Cross Country

As part of An Exploration in Rural Art Practice, Public Works' residency at Wysing Arts Centre in Cambridgeshire, I ran a guided walk and writing workshop exploring personal responses to place.