Creative writing teaching

I have taught creative writing in a range of contexts, in classes involving both adults and schoolchildren. Some of this work, such as the sessions I jointly led for the PhD in Creative Writing and Criticism at UEA, involved a typical workshop-based creative writing group. Other work has been centred more around the transmission of practical skills useful for the creative writer. I devised a four-day course on ‘Developing your first novel’ which ran successfully in Newcastle, Bishop Auckland and Darlington in 2003-4. The course focused on practical solutions for problems such as the organisation of material, getting over writer’s block, finding an agent and publisher, etc.

In addition to my work with adults, I have given talks and led workshops on the creative process in schools up and down the country, from St Paul’s School for Girls (Hammersmith) to Wellfield Middle School, Whitley Bay. In February 2003 I participated in delivering a series of ‘taster sessions’ for schools in the Sunderland/Durham area that had not previously worked with a writer-in-residence. This week-long block of work involved working with children aged from 6 to 11.

Between 2004 and 2006 I worked on Crossing Borders, an online mentoring project for African writers, organised by the British Council. In February 2006 I visited Accra, Ghana to deliver a series of workshops for Crossing Borders participants.

Since 2005 I have been leading a short course in Creative Writing and Psychology at Newcastle University. For further information please contact Melanie Birch.

I have also worked as a mentor for The Literary Consultancy.

For further details please contact me.