2019, when I had – in a very real sense – wings. A belated and brief round-up of last year (I know – it’s nearly February, but midwinter just isn’t my time). 2019 was the year in which I: Graduated from my MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP), with a dissertation focused on CWTP in museum and gallery settings. I’m immensely proud of the achievement and the training continues to provide me with valuable insights into group process and practical ways of getti

Just back from a double whammy of festivals – Green Man and Shambala. Knackered! Both were very splendid happenings indeed. Will post more fully about those once I’ve recovered –  but in the meantime, here’s a Kit-Kat inspired poem up on Poetry 24 a while back and I forgot to post here. I’m also performing at Satellite of Love on September 12th at the Greenbank Pub in Easton, Bristol – do come along. Event information is here. #Bristol #GreenMan #POETRY #Shambala

A still from The Desktop Metaphor Some good newses to celebrate & projects to update! Firstly, the filmpoem by Helmie Stil of my piece The Desktop Metaphor won the Jury Award at The Weimar Filmpoetry Festival! There’s more information about that here – and you can watch the piece at that link too. Helmie did a wonderful job with the poem; I love the film’s style and rhythm. I’ve also just agreed to be the writer-facilitator on the Cheltenham Literature Festival project, Beyon

From January 23rd, I’ll be hosting a five-week fortnightly course, Letting Your Avant-Garde Down, at Hours here in Bristol. I’m delighted to be working with The Poetry School, who are a great force for making poetry happen, and bringing people together to discover and delight in the process. There’s an interview with me here about the course – do come along and we’ll explore together what ‘the avant-garde’ (if there is such a thing) can do for your writing, and what you can b

Earlier in September, I was invited by Knowle West Media Centre to write a ‘bedtime story for an artists’ at their Artist Hotel sleepover. I borrowed guided relaxation techniques from solution-focused hypnotherapy (thanks, Emma Edwards / Shine for tips on doing so safely), animal creation myths, and lovely rhyming bedtime stories: a bit of A A Milne lyricism, a splash of Dr Seuss sass, with some Channel 4 reality formats thrown in… The story used the animal characters and dre

Hopefully living on Mars wouldn’t be much like The Expanse… Next week, I’ll be compering an event as part of at-Bristol’s ‘Festival of What If…’ – this one being around the question ‘what if we lived on Mars?’ There are details about the event here. I might add in some specks of Martian poetry, references to Ray Bradbury’s ‘Martian Chronicles’, possible allusions to The Expanse, or even some Vogon Poetry…and I’ll be crowd-sourcing a recipe for living well on Mars (though it m

A room with twelve skeletons; skulls all facing the same way. A bony choir: but what songs will they sing us? Songs from long ago – and songs of struggle, murder and conflict. Through poetry, flash fiction and discussion we’ll be inspired by craniums, tibias and mandibles, exploring what we feel in our bones. All skeletons have a tale to tell – what’s yours? M Shed Bristol on 2nd August, exploring their Skeletons: Our Buried Bones exhibition… It’ll be a rich & strange day, wh

I’ve just finished facilitating four sessions, working with Wyldwood Arts  – a group of 18-25 year olds from the Bristol Old Vic young producers worked with residents of Monica Wills House writing around the themes of Earth, Water, Fire and Air. There was a lot of laughter and some really beautiful, playful and moving pieces of writing – and Wyldwood have made a wonderful short film which captures some of this. Here it is! #Bristol #creativewriting #intergenerational #olderpe

In  February 2017, I’ll be running a seven-week creative writing course at M Shed Museum, Bristol harbourside. Here’s a little film I made to tell you more about it: And if you’d like to book, go to the WEA website here. There’s info about the M Shed on its website here too. See you there! #AdultLearning #Bristol #creativewriting #education #WEA #POETRY #MShed #museums

The next WRITE OFF sessions start Tuesday June 7th at Beatroots Cafe, Lower Park Row, 17.00 – 18.30, for six weeks. The young people who attend the group rephave been really enjoying the mix of reading and writing for wellbeing and fun. We try out new activities, experiments and styles – working with words in the very broadest way!  We’ve done everything from experimental sound poems to third-person stories about our morning routines, to ‘story hot house’ verbal storytelling,

Well then: I’ve written something based on Drag Queen Bingo on Saturday night. But I’ve decided it’s probably too offensive to put on here (such is the joy of Drag humour). The poem takes the form of a Bingo Card, of course – with some very interesting rhymes (some adapted from the calls, some entirely new). I might spruce it up to submit it, should the right publication arise… The numbers on the card were as follows – so I set you the challenge of coming up with your own ris

A quick note to say my Write Off sessions will be starting again on Tuesday 1st March. The sessions are open to all young people from 15 – 25 years old. As in the last sessions  (where we tried everything from haiku to surrealism and concrete poetry) we’ll be exploring different creative reading and writing approaches for fun, confidence-building, self-expression and reflection. April is also National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) – so we’ll be delving into the prompts and

The group is for anyone aged 16-25 who feels their writing, wellbeing and creativity would benefit from taking part. It’s a small and friendly group, in a cosy setting (with great tea and cakes). We’ve been exploring a wide range of approaches to writing and reading; different ways to stimulate our creativity, reflection and play. If you or someone you know would like to join – then see you there! My Off The Record email is on the poster above, so get in touch with any querie

Well, it’s been quite an adventure over the Festive Pause – we’ve been away in Europe and, alas, our car conked out while there…This precipitated various transport escapades to get us – and our small dog – back to Blighty by Monday this week…Still: such things are stories in the making. And so it might well become one on here once I’ve taken some time to sit and jot it all down. IN OTHER (EXCITING) NEWS: Having managed to write a proposal for it while on the move, I’m delight

NEWS: I’ll be piloting a creative writing group for young people in partnership with Off The Record Bristol – starting on Tuesday 3rd November. It’s part of their therapeutic and wellbeing choices for young people, and I’m really looking forward to facilitating enjoyable and illuminating writing (and reading) sessions with those who attend. Pass it round, see you there. There will be cake – but Taylor Swift is not yet confirmed. #writing #creativewritingfortherapeuticpurposes

A quick shout to anyone in Bristol, to come along to ‘Words in Motion’ on Wednesday at The Arts House, Stoke’s Croft, as part of the Bristol Spring Poetry Festival. There’s more information here. See you there! #writing #Bristol #POETRY #performance #PoetryFestival

Here’s a short piece I wrote about my experience at the first Bristol Death Cafe. The next event is at Cox and Baloney on Sunday 29th November – hope to see you there. #writing #death #TEa #Bristol #CoxampBaloney #cake #Events #DeathCafe

New Life (created during a videopoetry workshop at Liberated Words 2014) from Marc Neys (aka Swoon) on Vimeo. On Saturday, I joined a splendidly energetic and fruitful workshop with Marc Neys, who makes video poems, as part of the Liberated Words festival. The video we made is embedded, through Marc’s excellent Vimeo site, above. We wrote, recorded, and edited this film in about 3 hours – so the title of this post refers to one of the more baffling lines I wrote (and am still