Hackney Festival of Learning: Introduction to Life Writing Session

On Weds 25 May, 3.30 to 5.00pm at Dalston CLR James Library, we'll be running a one-off workshop focused on life-writing and memoir. If you'd like to attend, please register on Eventbrite here.

The workshop will help us tap into the memories and events that shape us. Using prompts, examples and the techniques of fiction-writing, we'll form those events into stories. Whether you want to keep a journal, reflect on your own life and development, share your experience with the world or incorporate them into fiction, this session will help you find your voice.

The event will be run by Jon, and forms part of Hackney's Festival of Learning, a week-long celebration of lifelong learning with FREE workshops and classes across the borough for residents of all ages. View full details of all the events here.

May Meeting & More...

Next meeting of Dalston Writing Group will be at Dalston CLR James Library on Weds 11 May, 6.00 to 7.30pm. (Please note - the shift to Weds is for this month only. In June we'll be back to our usual Thursday slot on 9/6/22)

For this session we are very pleased to have Catherine Madden leading a  workshop. Cat is studying for a PhD in The Contemporary Novel Practice as Research at the University of Kent.

This workshop will explore writing about relationships from different points of view. Using an exercise partly based on chance, we'll generate a piece of fiction based around a character’s life experiences and connections with others.

Even more events!

As part of Hackney's Festival of Learning, on Weds 25 May, 3.30 to 5.00pm, Jon will be running a special memoir and life-writing workshop at Dalston CLR James Library. If you, or anyone you know, would like to come, drop us a line via the 'comment' option.

On Thurs 30 June, 6.00 to 8pm, we're delighted to have novelist Lorraine Brown back to host this year's City of Stories Home Celebration event at Stoke Newington Library. Details and registration here.

A brief compendium of other interesting things

Writing a story set in a half-remembered place? Here's how one author used Google Street View to help.

May is StoryADay Month. Here's a cool blog with daily short story prompts.

Here are details of a nature writing walk and workshop run by the London Wildlife Trust, taking place in Walthamstow Sat 7 May, at 10:30am.

If you're back on the commute (or even if you're not) here's another round-up of creative writing podcasts.

Plastic Paradise by Moira Coupe

Here's some wonderful new work from writing group regular Moira Coupe...

Plastic Paradise

When your dad is an Industrial Chemist,

High Density Polyethylene, pass the milk,

Polypropylene, why did I ask for yogurt,

Urethane, Polystyrene and PVC,

are everyday terms.

Dad taps open his egg, trying not to spill yolk

on the Bakelite eggcup his mother gave him.

He reads and marvels out loud at the contents

of the Polyunsaturated fat he puts on his toast.

Yawning, I search for the repeat pattern in our Formica tabletop.

Finally excused, I run into my future, 50 years away.

Ethereal in late winter sun, a blue planter sings to me.

Mesmerised, I watch branch shadows scud across its surface,

and, with my finger, trace a Celtic design embossed on its rim.

Yesterday, I counted at least 83 plastic flowerpots in my garden.

In 3 months, this plastic embarrassment will be covered by 

Primroses, Petunias and Forget-me- nots.

Look now and see my need for lightweight flowerpots.

Look now and see my contribution to planet destruction.

Look now and see my tribute to dad, to human invention.

New Writing from Kim Horrocks

Writing group regular Kim Horrocks got in touch with new work to share. The source material may possibly be familiar, but the treatment is brilliantly unique!

Party Prompts

On Thurs 14 April, after two years online, we were delighted to be back in Dalston CLR James Library. To mark the occasion, we challenged ourselves to write the ultimate party scene. Below you'll find some of the session's prompts.

1. Your character is a precocious 10-year-old girl, describing her birthday party. She is an acute observer of the politics, rivalries and tensions among her friends. And also their parents. 

2. Your character is this same girl's mother or father. They are describing their child's party, which is proving exhausting. They are also beginning to feel that their daughter is judging them. 

3. A couple are hosting a dinner party at home. One other couple is invited. When the guests fail to turn up, something is revealed about the first couple's relationship… (This is how The Dinner Party by Joshua Ferris begins.)

4. Your character is a teenager gatecrashing a party of entitled rich kids. One of them inadvertently tells your character a secret. Your character wonders what to do with this information.
   
   

5. Someone gives, or receives, an inappropriately expensive gift, and suddenly things get awkward.
   
   

6. Your character is getting ready. They will be using this party to exact revenge.
   
   

7. It’s another Saturday night at The Feathers, an unremarkable pub in a medium-sized town that's really nowhere special…
   
   

8. It's your character's 100th birthday…
   
   

9. A song comes on, and in that moment  your character experiences a moment of pure, unadulterated and absolute joy.
   
   

10. Your character's friends have organised a surprise party for her. Your character has got wind of the fact, and is strangely irritated that they have done this. She must now feign surprise as she enters the room…

Next Meeting: Thurs 17 March 2022

Next meeting of Dalston Writing Group will be, very much as the header of this post suggests, on Thurs 17 March, 6.00 to 7.30pm. Our regulars have been on fire so far this year, coming up with astounding pieces of fiction in the 40 minutes or so we spend writing. Stay tuned for details on what we'll be up to in March... 

Parrett Women's Poetry Fiesta: Poetry and Painting Workshop with Geeta Roopnarine

You can register now for what promises to be a fascinating poetry workshop run by prize-winning painter, sculptor, poet (and Dalston Writing Group regular), Geeta Roopnarine.

Geeta will draw attention to how rivers have been captured through paintings by artists globally across the ages, and encourage us to compose our own poems in response. The workshop explores connections between the visual and emotional domains.

Find out more and register for a place at the workshop, on Tues 15 March  2022, 17.00 to 19.00, here.