Dr Eleanor Perry, Lecturer in Creative Writing in the School of English, has launched a new online creative resource entitled Writing Minds.
Creative writing can engage us in new ways of thinking and reflecting. To assist you in these new discoveries, Eleanor has designed an online resource that aims to guide you into new forms of inspiration drawn from the everyday world around us, as well as from within ourselves. You don’t need Creative Writing experience to take part; all you need is a desire to get involved.
The Writing Minds project grew out of a series of creative workshops delivered in 2019 for University of Kent School of English students across all year levels who experience barriers to participation linked to mental health. The workshops were designed to be inclusive of all levels of creative ability and to enable students to explore and articulate their identity in an empowering and non-prescriptive way. Participants felt that the workshops and activities allowed them to “blow off creative steam,” in a context where whatever they “chose to make was for fun.”
As a consequence of the success of the workshops of 2019, Writing Minds has now grown into a virtual space where anyone – Kent students, university applicants, and aspiring writers – can participate in, and benefit from, creative and experimental writing exercises that might provide a “pocket to breathe,” or a means to “blow off creative steam.” The online resource is not designed for feedback or grades; the intended outcome is writing for enjoyment and well-being.
Eleanor will post a new prompt on the website several times per week. The website will also host videos from our Creative Writing Reading Series; and other updates, including showcases of our current students’ creative-critical work.
On the website, you can also find work shared by other participants, and share your own work by emailing it to Eleanor at e.j.perry@kent.ac.uk.
Get involved with Writing Minds here:
https://www.writingmindscommunity.com/