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Regular news and insight from our many poets, writers, educators and facilitators

30 November 2024

Posted by Susan L. Edser

Tundra Tales

Ali Sparkes is a children’s author who leads writing sessions for Junior and Young Writers every Saturday morning at MAST Mayflower Studios. To learn more about her, visit her website: https://www.alisparkes.com.

Susan L. Edser, MA graduate in Creative Writing and Publishing and winner of Bournemouth University’s Vice Chancellor Award 2024, is Ali’s assistant and writes the weekly blog. 


Our penultimate session saw the children and young people exploring ice fields and frozen landscapes. Ali began by asking the groups what it would be like to travel across this type of environment, what they might encounter, and what they would need. She wrote their answers on the flipchart, which included items such as a torch, a sledge, and a jumper, as well as seeing penguins, polar bears, and possibly even Father Christmas. Ali told them about the hazards her friend (a polar explorer) had experienced, including falling through crevasses. 

Ali said, ‘Make it visceral, let the reader taste what your character is going through.’ 

The writers paired up and wrote consecutive sentences about their journeys across an ice field. The Junior Writers told tales of brave explorers, friends discovering a reindeer, and people swimming with marshmallow-headed fish. The Young Writers kidnapped someone, wrote about an assassination team, and told stories of lost detectives.

Ali encouraged the children and young people to continue the story after traversing the tundra and surviving trauma. She explained that they were heading home and had entered a forest, where they stumbled across a person they met in the first week of the Winter’s Tale series: Ascapart, Southampton’s legendary giant. 

‘Now he is back and wants a poem,’ she said. 

Ali suggested they tell the famous character from English folklore about their perilous journey, and if it pleases the giant, he will let them continue their journey home. They all did a brilliant job with touching and amusing poems, which he (and Ali and Sue) liked. Ali then presented the ‘Diamond Dominoes’ with one word printed on each. She said the words created a poem written by Ascapart that he wanted to share with them. The writers worked together, and with only minimal guidance from Ali, they solved the puzzle. The photos show the completed version. 

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