I’m pleased to announce that from 2020-21, I’ll be working with Kirklees Council & Libraries and have the honour of being their official Writer in Residence. My mission is to get more people writing using the many – and varied – wonderful resources that our public libraries provide.
In particular, I want to ensure that we don’t ‘lose’ children from both reading and writing (for the sheer joy of it, not just for the academic stuff) once they reach those tricky teenage years. I also want to show those who are more ‘reluctant readers’ that our libraries are not just about novels, that these ‘people’s palaces’ of ours – our heritage, our sources of liberation and elevation – are today, more than ever, rammed full of information, help and very different forms of storytelling and information!
This might be a very strange time to become Writer in Residence for Kirklees. However, with the backing of the library team, I’ll be carrying out online chats with other authors, workshops and masterclasses as well as doing some good old-fashioned ‘real time’ sessions, once the libraries are in a position to open safely to the public.
Starting in September 2020, I’ll be running online Writer in Residence usually on the first Thursday of every month. The sessions will be streamed on the YouTube and Facebook pages and will be available to catch up later if you miss them. If you want to plan ahead to see what’s happening – have a look at Kirklees Libraries’ page here
- The Book In You – Catch up here
- Reluctant Readers Panel – Part 1 – here
- Writing Fiction? Or Non-Fiction? here
- Reluctant Readers Panel – Part 2 – here
- An Extraordinary Story; Muslim Victorian Convert, Robert R Stanley – here
- Christmas Jollity here
- Dementia and Writing with Emma Decent here
- Women (British Library talk) A Room of One’s Own? I Wish! – here
- Writing for Gaming with Steve Ince – Part 1- here
- Writing for Gaming with Steve Ince – Part 2 – here
- The REAL Peaky Blinders – with Professor of Social History, Carl Chinn – here
- Fair Trade Towns & Life Story/Memoir Writing, with Bruce Crowther CBE – here
- Comics, Graphic Novels & Manga; Lifesavers in a Panel. With Conor Ibrahiem and Tas Kausar – here
- 6 APRIL – ‘Writing and Local History’ – NEXT UP
If you want to send any questions in beforehand, you can do so using the links above – or send them in through this website.