If the words have stalled during the cold months, come and get things cooking again with this daylong series of workshops. Learn the tricks of TV, dabble with poetry and make a start on your novel. Plus there’ll be a secret creative twist at the end of the day… As part of The Berko Writers’… Continue reading Creative Kickstart!
When we first launched Something Rhymed, a year ago now, concerned well-wishers expressed scepticism about whether we’d discover twelve pairs of historic female writer friends to profile each month over the course of 2014. Thanks to our close-knit community of readers from around the globe, the reverse has in fact been true. You’ve helped us… Continue reading A Year of Hidden Friendships
One of the unexpected pleasures afforded by running SomethingRhymed.com is the chance to speak about female literary friendship on stage as well as write about it on screen. And so, Emily Midorikawa and I are particularly delighted to have been offered the opportunity to present some of our discoveries tomorrow evening, October 15th, at the… Continue reading Ilkley Literature Festival
‘Feel the Fear & Do It Anyway’: This was the headline of the feature on female friendship that I co-wrote with Emily Midorikawa for the Independent on Sunday. Why would such a celebratory subject attract this kind of headline? We focused specifically on friendships between feminists, and we’ve come to think that perhaps intellectual, political, and… Continue reading Double-Page Spread in the Independent on Sunday
Rebekah Lattin-Rawstrone invited me to take part in the ‘Writing Process Blog Tour’, a journey through writers’ websites via questions about their work. I was particularly pleased that she thought of me, since Rebekah and I share a similar philosophy on literary mentorship and I admire her for making her role as a reader central… Continue reading The Writing Process Blog Tour
I am proud to announce that last night Councillor Allan Lawson, Mayor of Dacorum Borough Council, opened Sunnyside Rural Trust’s memorial garden. This beautiful and innovative space is a physical representation of the poems in The Memoir Garden, the collection that documents my Arts Council writing residency with Sunnyside Rural Trust. Each poem is comprised of the… Continue reading A Garden Full of Memories
This week, the Guardian Family ran my piece, ‘Lou, having the time of your life‘. It’s the second article down. The piece is about my parents’ fight to love and raise Lou – who has cerebral palsy and autism – along with her twin, Sarah, and her elder sister, me; it’s about my profound gratitude to them… Continue reading The Guardian Family
“One of the joys of doing this is being open to the experience of how other people’s enthusiasms will wing their way into your life and get you all gee’d up about stories or poems you might never have glanced at twice.” Steve Wasserman. Emily Midorikawa and I were delighted when Steve Wasserman asked us… Continue reading Read Me Something You Love
When I came to evaluate my Arts Council Memoir Garden residency, it struck me that people with learning disabilities are subject to endless evaluation by social workers and carers, doctors and auditors. The official language and value judgements of such forms threaten to strip people with learning disabilities of their humanity. As a way to… Continue reading Anything else you think we should know?
I hope your 2014 is off to a good start. I’m marking the New Year with the launch of a website, Something Rhymed. It is about famous female writing friendships, and it is a joint venture with my own close writer friend, Emily Midorikawa. Each month, we’ll be profiling a different pair of famous writer friends… Continue reading Launch of Something Rhymed
EMMA CLAIRE SWEENEY 