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What's happening?
The 20th anniversary of Leeds Trinity University's Writers’ Festival will draw together students, staff, and members of the public to participate in workshops provided by eight different writers on a topic of their choice. Each writer will run their two-hour workshop twice: once in the morning and once in the afternoon.
The day will begin with registration at 10:00am in the Auditorium. Morning workshops will run from 11:00am-1:00pm. Afternoon workshops will run from 2:00pm-4:00pm. The day will finish with readings by our guest writers from 4:00pm-5:30pm.
Tea and coffee will be provided at registration and again in the afternoon at 4:00pm. Lunch is not provided, but campus catering services are available and guests are also welcome to bring their own lunch.
Workshop Information
Nicky Bray – Waxing Lyrical
This will be a fun and interactive workshop providing suggestions and examples of how to write playful and engaging lyrics, with a specific focus on rhyme. We will look at different types of rhyme, the relationship between rhyme and music, and how shaking off the shackles of perfection can help you to release your creative juices, avoid clichés, and explore more interesting and inventive use of language in music. There will also be an opportunity to sing together, but you are equally welcome just to listen and shake a percussive egg (provided).
Nicky Bray is a musician, singer-songwriter, and freelance Community Music Worker with 30+ years experience performing solo and in bands. She specialises in humorous musical storytelling, exploring unconventional subject matter and playing with language, rhythm and rhyme to produce lively and distinctive lyrics. She also co-runs popular songwriters’ night Tower of Song, which challenges musicians of all abilities to write songs on a given theme each month and provides a supportive and inclusive space in which to perform them.
Gill Connors – Paper Chains and Parallel Lives
In this workshop we will examine the links between ourselves and others. We’ll use poetry, prose and images to start off pieces of work that will join together in a conversation with others. You will also begin a written conversation between you and another person (either real or imaginary) from another time, and think about how we can write our own experience through that of others. Suitable for all modes and genres of writing.
Gill Connors is from North Yorkshire where she lives and works. Her previous publications are Uninvited Guests (Indigo Dreams, 2017), Tadaima (Yaffle, 2019), and A Small Goodbye at Dawn (Yaffle, 2022). Gill is working on a third full collection which will be the result of her PhD, on the subject of the links and parallels between sixteenth century and twenty-first century women. She is a managing editor of Yaffle and Yaffle's Nest.
Mia Lofthouse – Writing Immortal Characters
Whether your character is an ancient vampire roaming the streets of Victorian England, or a forgotten god seeking new worshipers, immortals come with their own unique challenges for writers. In this workshop, Mia will provide tips for writing in the POV (point of view) of characters who have lived and experienced more than we ever will, before taking a look at alternative stakes (not just the wooden ones) for your work if death is off the table for your character.
Mia Lofthouse is a Creative Writing PhD student at Leeds Trinity University interested in the presentation of divine and demonic characters in contemporary fiction. She is a prose writer who mostly works on novel-length projects but who has had the odd short story published.
Miles Salter – “It really happened”: Life Writing – People, places, memories
This workshop is for people who have lived a life worth writing about. Don't think that your life isn't interesting – all lives are, it's how we put it into words that count. We'll have a chat, look at autobiographical texts by A. A. Gill, David Nobbs and Esther Freud, and conjure some wonderful paragraphs from our experience. Exercises will focus on people and places that are part of our experience.
Miles Salter has produced three collections of poetry (most recently Fix in 2020), fiction, journalism and drama scripts. He has contributed to the BBC and to national and regional newspapers. He is a former Visiting Lecturer at Leeds Trinity University and is currently storyteller in residence at Dallowgill in North Yorkshire.
Edwin Stockdale – The Wildlife of Writing
In this workshop, suitable for poets and prose writers, we will be looking at nature writing, working with prompts from writers such as Sean Hewitt, Pascale Petit, Sarah Holland-Batt, Mimi Khalvati, Yvonne Reddick, Ian Humphreys, Niall Campbell, Sarah Westcott, Katrina Naomi, David Clarke, Hannah Copley, and Katrina Porteous. In a stimulating environment of birds, animals, flowers and trees from all over the globe, we’ll explore nature from a personal perspective and our connections to it.
Edwin Stockdale was the first person to gain a PhD in Creative Writing (Poetry) from Leeds Trinity University. Red Squirrel Press have published two of his pamphlets: Aventurine (2014) and The Glower of the Sun (2019). Recently he has completed his debut full collection about the bisexual medieval monarch Edward II, funded by Arts Council England through their Developing Your Creative Practice fund.
Hannah Stone – What3Words? Writing transition and transformation
Through a combination of written and aural prompts, supported writing time, and sharing of our work, this workshop will galvanise your writing (be it in prose or poetry) on the theme of transition and transformation. How do we get from a to b (or c, or d ...)? How does writing help us to process and transform past experiences into creative outputs? Hannah will suggest ways of using just three words to move our thinking and writing into new places. Suitable for writers at all stages of evolution.
Hannah Stone is an alumna of the Leeds Trinity University MA in Creative Writing. Since completing her course, she has established a profile as a poet and editor with multiple solo and co-authored books published. Last year her work was selected as Poem of the Week for the Guardian. Her involvement with local poetry communities includes facilitating the Leeds Lieder Poets-Composers Forum, compering Wordspace open mic., and editing Dream Catcher literary journal for Stairwell Press.
Clare Wigzell – Writing from the Authentic Self
In this workshop, we will spend time setting up a safe, creative and inspiring space, enabling each of us to unlock new sides to our writing. Using meditation, body scanning, sensory experiences, music, and simple movements, we will get beyond our inhibitions and self-imposed rules to mine the rich seams of words within us. We will use these spontaneous outpourings to craft a new way of writing.
Clare Wigzell is a Leeds-based poet who writes poetry in response to place, nature and works of art. As a Quaker she enjoys writing from silence. She regularly performs her Hepworth poems and her long poem at Kirkstall Abbey. She has been published in a number of anthologies with Indigo Dreams. She collaborates separately with a book artist and a photographer.
Lucy Wright – Chance Encounters: Workshop Your Way Through Surrealism, Dada, and Bacon
Artist Francis Bacon once said, "My ideal would really be to just pick up a handful of paint and throw it at the canvas and hope that the portrait was there.” Bacon was one of many early to mid-20th century artists and writers who employed unconventional methods to create their work, and for whom process was as important as subject. This workshop will look at a range of methods used by the likes of Bacon, the Dadaists, and the Surrealists, to encourage us to focus on the process of writing, allowing chance to contribute to our creative practice.
Lucy Wright is PhD Candidate in Creative Writing at Leeds Trinity University. Originally from the North East, Lucy has spent the last six years studying, teaching, and enjoying the creative scene in Yorkshire. She has published short fiction and poetry, and also travelled the country offering papers on artist Francis Bacon, and workshops on the importance of the Arts.
When
Wednesday 5 March 2025, 10:00am - 5:30pm
Where
Leeds Trinity University Main Campus in Horsforth.
How to book
Booking for the event has now closed.
Further Information
For any queries regarding this event, please contact Hilary Dockerill (h.dockerill@leedstrinity.ac.uk).