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![]() Workshops in Schools,
The Community and at University Schools: Part of my work in schools is an inset session with teachers so that they can become writers themselves and therefore better teachers of writing One recent residency was for Junction Arts in two north-east Derbyshire secondary schools where a Year 8 class from each school wrote poems about their neighbourhood. I worked closely with a visual artist and an editor and together we produced a book of the students’ poems and pictures. The following website explains what we did and shows some of the pedagogy behind the residency: http://junctionarts.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/CommonGround-worksheets-medres-3.pdf Adult and Community: I run Creative Writing and Literature classes for the WEA and other organisations which want to get adults involved in writing. Over the years I’ve worked in secure units, residential homes, centres for the physically disabled and mentally challenged. I’ve done lots of workshops for Sheffield’s literary festival, Off the Shelf, and generally in Sheffield museums and galleries. Referring to an adult workshop at Weston Park museum, Sheffield "Thanks again for a lovely afternoon escaping from the snow. I'm telling all my friends what a good afternoon they sadly missed." University: I'm a tutor and assessor for the Open College of the Arts which offers distance learning degrees in the visual arts, music and creative writing. At the moment I'm tutoring several modules: Foundation Level Creative Writing; Level 1 Art of Poetry, and Writing Skills; Level 2 Poetry , creative non fiction and Life-Writing, and Short Fiction, and; and Level 3 writing your own prose or poetry projects. . It's a great opportunity to help writers who can't attend a university course, but want to improve their writing and/or gain a degree in Creative Writing. Editing and Reviewing: I’m poetry editor for Jewish Renaissance which usually has a poetry page containing new poems by Jewish writers or on Jewish themes and reviews of new poetry books. http://www.jewishrenaissance.org.uk/ I also contribute to the review section and the Poets-I-go-back-to section for The North published by the Poetry Business http://www.poetrybusiness.co.uk/north-menu I recently reviewed the Complete Poems of Jon Silkin published by Carcanet, a mammoth book and a mammoth task, but also a kind of mitzvah, if not a commandment from god, then a commandment from the gods of poetry. Conference Papers I like going to conferences (online) provided there is an organisation that will pay the fees. And I reckon writers who teach should get paid for because conferences are the best kind of CPD as well as being good places to meet other writers, sell your books and make contacts that might lead to residencies, readings and publication. |