Practice, principles and approach

My approach to creative writing education brings together literary craft, imaginative experimentation, embodied experience and critical reflection. As a poet, educator and researcher, I am interested in how we develop environments in which writers can take creative risks, deepen their understanding of language and form, and discover new possibilities within their own writing.

I believe creative writing education should be intellectually stimulating, artistically ambitious and inclusive. It should equip writers with the technical knowledge and critical awareness to make informed creative decisions, while encouraging curiosity, uncertainty and a willingness to explore beyond familiar approaches. At its heart, my teaching is concerned with helping writers develop both the confidence and the craft to discover what their writing might become.

Writing as a process of discovery

I approach writing as a process of discovery: a way of paying attention, exploring ideas, developing imagination and finding new ways of understanding ourselves and the world around us. I am interested in what happens when we approach writing with curiosity and openness, allowing language to take us somewhere we might not have anticipated.

My teaching places value on the process of writing as well as the finished work. Through generative exercises, exploratory writing, close reading, discussion, drafting and revision, I encourage writers to develop an understanding of their individual creative processes and the decisions that shape their work.

I often begin with an invitation to notice something: an image, a sound, a memory, an object, a fragment of language or an encounter with place. These starting points provide opportunities to move from observation into imaginative exploration, developing material through association, metaphor, perspective and experimentation.

I am interested in creating a balance between structured creative activities and the freedom to follow unexpected directions. Prompts and exercises can provide an initial framework, but I encourage writers to move beyond the original invitation, question their assumptions and discover possibilities that emerge through the act of writing itself.

Embodiment, experience and imagination

A central strand of my teaching explores the relationship between writing and embodied experience. I am interested in how sensory awareness, memory, emotion, movement and our relationships with place can become starting points for creative exploration.

Drawing on my background in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, alongside my doctoral research into embodiment, silence and experimental poetic witnessing, I incorporate approaches that invite writers to pay attention to what is often overlooked, difficult to articulate or not yet fully understood.

My practice draws on techniques including freewriting, sensory exploration, metaphor, focusing, reflective writing and imaginative experimentation. These approaches can help writers access unfamiliar perspectives, develop richer relationships with language and explore the possibilities of writing beyond conventional autobiographical forms.

I am particularly interested in the relationship between the body and the imagination, and in how creative writing might emerge through attention to our surroundings, material environments and encounters with the more-than-human world. Objects, buildings, landscapes, sounds and spaces can all become sources of narrative, perspective and poetic possibility.

I see embodiment not as a prescribed subject for writing, but as one of many ways of approaching creative attention. My aim is to offer writers possibilities for exploration while respecting individual boundaries, choices and relationships with their material.

Poetry, literary craft and experimentation

I believe that creative writing education should nurture both imaginative freedom and a rigorous engagement with literary craft. Encouraging experimentation does not mean dispensing with technique; rather, understanding the possibilities of language, form and structure allows writers to make increasingly conscious and adventurous creative decisions.

My teaching explores the craft of poetry through close reading, discussion and practical experimentation. This includes attention to imagery, metaphor, sound, rhythm, lineation, form, voice, structure and the relationship between language and meaning.

I am interested in introducing writers to a broad range of poetic traditions, contemporary voices and experimental practices, encouraging them to consider how poets use and transform established forms. I enjoy exploring the relationship between constraint and creative freedom, using poetic forms and structural exercises as opportunities to discover unexpected approaches to language.

My own creative interests include fragmentation, silence, white space, shifting perspectives and the possibilities of writing through alternative or distributed voices. These interests inform my teaching, encouraging writers to question conventional approaches to narrative, authorship and poetic perspective.

I place considerable value on reading as an essential part of developing a creative practice. Through close reading and discussion, writers can examine how poems work, recognise the choices made by other writers and develop the critical vocabulary to articulate their own creative intentions. I encourage students to read widely, engage with work that challenges their expectations and develop an understanding of their own literary influences.

Creative practice, feedback and revision

I see the development of a writer as an ongoing process of making, reflecting, questioning and remaking. An important part of my teaching is helping writers move beyond the initial generation of ideas towards a more considered understanding of how their work functions and what they want it to achieve.

I value constructive, attentive approaches to feedback that balance encouragement with critical engagement. I encourage writers to consider the intentions behind their work, listen to different interpretations and become increasingly confident in making decisions about revision.

Peer discussion can offer valuable opportunities to encounter a piece of writing through another reader’s perspective, while also developing the ability to articulate a thoughtful and constructive response to the work of others. I aim to establish workshop environments in which critical discussion is generous, specific and attentive to the creative intentions of the writer.

I am interested in helping writers develop an independent critical awareness of their own practice: understanding not only whether a piece of writing feels successful, but why, and what might be possible through further experimentation.

Inclusive and collaborative learning

My approach to teaching is informed by a longstanding commitment to making creative writing accessible, inclusive and responsive to different experiences, abilities and ways of communicating.

Through founding and leading The Word Association CIC, I have spent many years developing creative writing opportunities with communities whose voices and experiences are frequently underrepresented. This experience has shaped my understanding of the different ways people encounter writing, the importance of creating meaningful opportunities for participation and the value of recognising multiple forms of creative expression.

I value the different perspectives writers bring to a shared learning environment and seek to establish spaces in which curiosity, generosity, critical engagement and mutual respect can flourish. I believe that meaningful creative development benefits from both individual exploration and the exchange of ideas with others.

I am interested in approaches that offer multiple routes into writing, recognising that writers arrive with different relationships to language, confidence, experience and creative expression. This includes offering varied starting points, allowing space for individual interpretation and recognising that there is no single correct way to approach a creative task.

My aim is to support writers in developing their own approaches to writing rather than prescribing a particular voice, aesthetic or understanding of what poetry should be.

Reflective and research-informed practice

My teaching continues to evolve through my creative practice, academic research and ongoing reflection on the ethics and responsibilities of working with stories and lived experience.

I hold an MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes, awarded with Distinction, and am currently undertaking doctoral research in Creative Writing at the University of Birmingham. My research explores embodiment, silence, experimental poetic witnessing and the relationship between individual, communal and spatial narratives.

These interests inform my understanding of writing as a complex encounter between language, experience, imagination and the world. I am particularly interested in the ethical dimensions of creative practice, including questions of representation, authorship, voice, disclosure and the relationship between writer and reader.

I see teaching as an evolving and reciprocal practice, in which educators and students remain open to new ideas, perspectives and ways of working. I value reflective approaches that allow writers to develop an understanding of their creative processes, recognise their influences and make informed decisions about the work they produce.

I am also interested in the relationship between creative and critical practice: how making work can generate questions for research, how theoretical perspectives can illuminate creative decisions, and how critical reflection can deepen an individual’s understanding of their own writing.

Developing independent writers

Ultimately, I want the writers I work with to leave with more than a completed piece of writing. I want them to develop a deeper understanding of their creative processes, an expanded sense of what writing might make possible and the confidence to continue exploring their own literary interests.

Whether working with emerging poets, experienced writers or people encountering creative writing for the first time, I am interested in creating opportunities for experimentation, discovery and meaningful engagement with language.

I believe creative writing education should equip writers with the skills to read critically, write imaginatively, engage constructively with others and develop independent creative practices. It should encourage students to question, experiment, take risks and recognise the value of their own perspectives, while remaining attentive to the literary traditions and contemporary conversations in which their work sits.

For me, teaching creative writing is about opening up possibilities: helping writers develop the technical understanding, critical curiosity and imaginative confidence to discover ways of writing that might otherwise remain unexplored.