I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side.
Audre Lorde
poetry
fiction
workshops
mentoring
I came to writing slightly later in life, as it took me time to value what I had to say, and to build the confidence to say it. I began to notice and develop my thoughts and ideas, instead of letting them be forgotten.
I am interested in working with people who have struggled to find their writing path, or have come to writing via difficulties and detours. These detours can add to the richness of our writing.
I am an experienced workshop facilitator, having spent the last twenty years working with people. I have won a number of awards for my writing and have delivered workshops for the NHS, Nottingham Poetry Festival and Writing East Midlands, among others.
I completed the MA in Creative writing at Nottingham Trent University in 2020. I am currently working on a PhD in contemporary poetry at Manchester Metropolitan University.
Writing is an adventure for me. The challenges can be fiendish, tying me in knots, distracting me, forcing me again and again to take the measure of my almost immeasurable limitations, but the flurries of pure invention, when I’m on with something and hardly dare leave it alone – just in case it melts away before I’ve intuited its shape, before I’ve seen it for what it really is – are too addictive not to chase.
Jacob Polley