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

24 April 2023

Posted by Alice Flynn & Emma Scattergood

Stories From Our Streets at Bournemouth Writing Festival

We had a fantastic time at Bournemouth Writing Festival’s inaugural weekend. What a joy to meet so many writing enthusiasts! The whole weekend was a fantastic success with hundreds of BCP residents as well as writers who had travelled from afar to be there!

Stories From Our Streets shared two fully-booked free creative writing sessions and hosted a drop-in space at the Festival Hub. We were very glad to be present amongst the exciting programme of talks, workshops, spoken word events, play readings, genre breakfasts and panels.

On the Saturday, Emma and Alice arrived at Bournemouth Library – who kindly hosted us at no cost – to set the space for the sessions. We shared our flagship sessions: Windows into Worlds (Place and Space) and Creating Captivating Characters. We were joined by brilliant, enthusiastic writers of all ages and backgrounds. Some people came to share time with their family, friends or partners, some came alone to be among writers and enjoy creative practice and time to nurture their own writing skills and imagination – such as the two mums we met who had travelled from London and Manchester to take time out for the weekend to prioritise filling their creative cup.

In sessions people explored multi-sensory approaches to creating a sense of atmosphere and environment, reflecting on their favourite BCP places. We also practised creating character sketches of local people with a focus on details and the senses, as we wrote about the characters of BCP!

On the Sunday we hosted a drop-in space at the Festival Hub, where people could write ‘local love notes’ celebrating the people and places of BCP. We were in the beautiful old Echo newspaper building, stylishly converted by This Work Space.

We met so many wonderful people and thoroughly enjoyed finding out about the people and places you celebrate locally – from a 500 year-old tree in Kinson, that has seen so much since the time of Henry VIII! – to your beloved pets and friendly neighbours. 

We are looking forward to adding these words, memories and moments to our community story map! Remember you can email us, too, and download the activity pack from our blog page and enter our competition before the 21st July, 2023. Here’s the link to the pack and competition:

https://artfulscribe.co.uk/blogs/753/writing-competition-stories-from-our-streets

A HUGE thank you to all who came to say hi and join in, and to Bournemouth Writing Festival for having us! Special thanks to Arts Council England and BCP Council for making the Stories From Our Streets ArtfulScribe project possible and accessible to all! 

Reel 1: Music Credit: Felix Laband: Falling Off a Horse

Reel 2: Music Credit: Ellie Goulding: Anything Could Happen

Downloaded with sound via: https://saveinsta.app/en/instagram-reels-video-download


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