Signposts/Writing Yorkshire (07–15) #2
(Signposts became Writing Yorkshire in 2013)
Roles: Freelance writing facilitator & development worker (2007 to 2015)
Key roles and achievements:
As a writer & facilitator
I worked as a freelance writing facilitator and development worker for Signposts/Writing Yorkshire consistently for 8 years. Initially I co-ran Sheffield Young Writers, and then built up young writers’ provision into a South Yorkshire network of groups (along with Sue Shaw). I’ve led Sheffield Young Writers since 2007, and I founded Rotherham Young Writers in 2009. (I now run groups in Sheffield and Rotherham as part of Hive South Yorkshire which I founded in 2016)
Over the years I’ve devised and delivered a wide range of regional writing projects for young writers through Signposts while developing relationships with community and arts bodies such as Off the Shelf Festival of Words and Arvon. I’ve facilitated across a wide range of writing forms including: poetry, fiction, script and journalism.
Other development & coordination work
Other roles included: assisted visiting writers, seeking out, facilitating and co-coordinating wider writing opportunities and projects to inspire young people to write and gain insights into writing pathways and careers. Signposts, via the Arts Council, supported the funding of two issues of Cube Magazine, and I was able to run a creative writing section in the magazine in conjunction with the Signposts network from 2005 to 2012. I also secured funding for several local writing projects through Signposts. In 2014 I solo coordinated and delivered Pick up Your Pens Young Writers Festival 2014 – the biggest young writers festival in the North to date.
As an artist & design
I devised and implemented ways and platforms to showcase young writers’ work through exhibitions, media projects, publication, installation and live performance. I also undertook much of the organisation’s publicity, graphic design and media arts work including preparing work for exhibition, devising online writing competitions, and editing video and radio performances.