Freddy Macha, who attended our London School for Writers course at Holmleigh Primary School in Hackney, has described it as ‘a beautiful experience’.
The course had been recommended to Freddy by Exiled Writers Ink. “As writers we are read and cherished so we must upgrade and improve,” he said. The School for Writers coordinators particularly encourage applications from writers from diverse backgrounds and underrepresented groups, while Exiled Writers Ink bring together migrants, exiles and people from repressive regimes, with a shared interesting in writing.
The course is made up of three days of expert training, including a visit from an expert who regularly delivers workshops for young people. Deliverers of training on Freddy’s course included Man Booker-nominated author Wyl Menmuir, writer and performer Laila Sumpton and Spread the Word director Ruth Harrison.
Participants have the opportunity to deliver activities in a local school in their final session. For Freddie, the children’s feedback was the best bit of the course: “That sealed the bliss. Summed up things. It is not what you know, how you write or who you are. It is what benefit children get. How their perception is enriched. That is what writing is about.”
For an application to the course to be considered, writers have to have had at least one of their own works published. Freddie described his course mates as a very interesting cluster of writers which whom he shared three memorable sessions: “Nothing beats social interaction… Meeting new people. Engaging. Networking. Getting inspired.”