I’ve written a fair few poems over the years, but I’ve never read one in public before. The thought of these things is often scarier than the reality, and I decided to submit a poem I wrote specially for Refugee Week following a call out for poetry and prose at a local Norwich venue. The […]
This may not sound very exciting, to have a short 300-word piece of creative non-fiction published in a magazine. But for me, it is a real triumph. Let me explain. I have been subscribing to Mslexia Magazine for about eighteen years, a fantastic women’s writing magazine filled with through-provoking articles on writing, plus a selection […]
For a few months now, my family and I have been putting our screens away from Saturday to Sunday evening. Everything goes into a locked box (yes, laptops, phones, i-pads, all of it) and I place the key in a hidden place in case it feels too tempting to take a quick peek. Have my […]
A couple of years after moving with my family to Nairobi (where we lived between 2013 and 2017), I started thinking about the fact that the school my children attended didn’t have a library and I felt unhappy about this. A reading culture in a school is so vital and I don’t need to go […]
I realise that I’m pretty good at telling myself – and other people – carefully crafted stories that have endured over a long period of time; stories that I’ve never thought to question. In my non-fiction book coming out later this year in which I explore living for many years with chronic insomnia, I talk […]
When my children were really little, I used to read poems to them in the bath. I had a stack of poetry books down by the side of the tub and I found that while they were splashing around, it was a good opportunity to grab a book and read two of three poems to […]
I have been teaching creative writing to a child called Carina, aged 7, for about a year and a half now. Even writing that sentence gives me pause for thought, because can creative writing actually be taught? Well, I prefer to think of it as enabling, empowering and encouraging, but obviously this doesn’t roll off […]
In my previous blog, I penned a few thoughts around the curbing of my incessant travel habit. As I was writing it, I considered a poetry competition I entered last year with Trip Fiction (a brilliant online resource pairing books with travel). The remit was to write a poem with a strong sense of place, […]
✰ Caveat – Before anyone reads a word of this, the following blog is not intended to make anybody feel guilty. Guilt is such a counter-productive, ungenerous emotion. It leaves no space for change, for reflection, for openness. Everybody has their own realities and family / personal /professional circumstances that they are trying to balance […]
Published by Nine Arches Press and edited by Jo Bell and guest poets, this wonderful book is a year of poetry-writing prompts. I can’t quite remember when it first came on to my radar – possibly through a podcast. But I am now up to week 40 of 52 and could not be more delighted […]