Tag Archives: creative writing

Chris Packham Creative Writing Workshop, 10 October 2017

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For Lincoln Univ students:

Our Visiting Professor Chris Packham will be delivering a masterclass on Creative Writing on the 10th of October and we currently have 24 places available.

Chris will read from ‘Fingers in the Sparkle Jar’ and talk about the process of writing, personal use of language and style, and changing the copy of the spoken word version.

The masterclass takes place from 8.30am until 10am on Tuesday the 10th of October, in MB3201.

If you would like to attend, please email kdorr@lincoln.ac.uk with the name of your course and level of study.

Talking to tomorrow’s writers at Priory Academy.

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I recently spent an amazing two hours with some sixth-formers at the Priory Academy (LSST) in Lincoln. They’ve just embarked on the first year of their A-Level in Creative Writing.

While I was there I talked to them about the creative writing options available on the English degree at the University, told them a bit about my own career as a poet, read some of my poems and answered some very probing questions. Then I set them to work writing something of their own.

The results were very impressive – great ideas, real creativity and bags of enthusiasm. Not bad considering I gave them less than half an hour to do it in!

Many thanks to Sarah Oliver for organising the session (and to the other members of staff who came along). And special thanks to the writers themselves.

Fay Weldon speaks up for creative writing.

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I would like to see a new discipline, called simply Literacy, taught in our universities and schools, so that the current outpouring of muddy texts can be replaced by a flow of elegant, informative and crystal-clear information – to the benefit of our national pride and dignity. In the meanwhile employers should note that an employee with a qualification in creative writing can be trusted not just to write simply and well, but to be empathic (the fiction writer spends a lot of time pretending to be other people) so is less likely to write tactless emails and cause a scandal unless intentionally. Creative writing is a degree in the effective management of words and emotion and an understanding of how they relate, and yes, it can be taught. And if I might add, should be.

Source: Fay Weldon in Times Higher Education.