Have a Go Month Workshops!
Join us on Teams for these fun, interactive workshops led by professional writers.
During Have a Go Month we have arranged four workshops with the Royal Literary Fund. If you would like to book in for any of the workshops just click on the links below:
Friday Sept 18th 11-12: Walk in my shoes
To book a place: click here
Tuesday Sept 22nd 11-12: Be a film critic
To book a place: click here
Wednesday Sept 23rd 10-11: A day in the life
To book a place: click here
Wednesday 30th Sept 30th 1-2pm
The brighter side of lockdown
To book a place: click here
Are you a writer or have always wanted to write?
Hello all!
I’m Clare Shaw and I work with Mary Colson at the RLF – the Royal Literary Fund.
Amongst other things, the RLF works with USDAW to set up writing projects in workplaces across the UK. We’ve been working with the Learning Curve to deliver writing skills workshops in Widnes and Acton Gate sites: since Covid, all our workshops are delivered online.
Everyone who works in the RLF is a professional writer – Mary writes books and I am a poet. We’d really love to share some work with you in the coming weeks; for you to get involved in some of our forthcoming projects.
For now, here’s a poem by my friend Jane Burn.
Jane has been a machine operator, a waitress, bar staff and a jeweller/silversmith before becoming a mother. After long battles with physical and mental health issues she worked for three years in a shoe shop before going on to work in a supermarket for five years as a checkout operator. Throughout her life, art and poetry have been incredibly important to her and in her spare moments she read and wrote. Her latest poetry collection Yan, Tan, Tether is available from Indigo Dreams. She is now an associate editor at Culture Matters Press, where she encourages other women writers to find their voices. She says:
“This poem, Imagine Your Words was written three years ago and I never showed it to anyone as I was worried that people might think it silly, or sentimental– just the work of a dreamer. I realised that I was proud to be a dreamer and used to pass my hours at work, imagining all the words I wanted to speak flying from my mouth and swirling over my head as if they were birds. It gave me hope”.
Imagine Your Words by Jane Burn
Imagine your words are water – each letter a droplet, helping you describe the sound of rain. Imagine rivers, flowing from your tongue and sparkling. Each noun a leaping fish, each verb a babbled brook.
Imagine your words are the sun, rising no matter how long the night. Imagine telling the brightness of each new day – a story of hope, warm upon our skins. Speak in tales of shine and shade, so that each may hear in scripts of dappled light.
Imagine your words have wings So that they can make bright flocks above the grey houses. Imagine a peaceful song of flight and feathers. Imagine the sky alive with what you speak.
Here we have a link to a video of Clare doing what Clare does best.
Please have a look, and if it is something you would be interested in please use the contact form to let me know as we can set something like this up for you all to attend.
Click below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVh9dY_YHQk