| Next month, I’ll be bringing the larks and fun with an all new 30-day writing event — Summer Fling: 30 Day’s of Play, kicking off on 1 August 2023. If you’d like to kick up your heels and indulge in a little creative playtime, this is your chance! Research shows that embracing our playfulness boosts self-confidence, sharpens problem-solving and communication skills, hones adaptability and resilience, and improves mental and emotional wellbeing. In short, it transforms our quality of life. The word ‘play’ comes from the Old English pleg(i)an meaning ‘to exercise’, and plega meaning ‘brisk movement’, both of which are related to the Middle Dutch word pleien meaning ‘to leap for joy, to dance’. In modern English, play covers everything from childhood activity, sport and exercise, games and gambling, to musical and dramatic performance. For Summer Fling | 30 Days of Play, we’ll be reconnecting with our inner child, embracing the beginner’s mindset and trying out lots of new ideas in our writing, just for the fun of it. It’s the perfect way to shake up your writing routine, break out of a rut, clear a writing block, or simply let loose on the page! In addition to the usual prompts, creative exercises, images, music and writing tips, we’ll also welcome special guest UK poet and artist, Helen Ivory, whose practice includes everything from painting to collage to felting — she’ll be treating us to work from ‘Wunderkammer: New & Selected Poems’ (Mad Hat Press, 2023), and chatting about bringing a sense of playfulness to our work. There are a number of free places available for low income and under-represented writers — click on the link below and go to the FAQs for more details. Scholarship applications are welcome until 20 July 2023. For more information and to book, go to Summer Fling: 30 Day’s of Play on the Wordbox website. If you haven’t taken part before, the 30-Day Writing event is the ideal accompaniment to a daily writing practice, with bite-sized daily exercises, inspiration, opportunity to explore, and a supportive and encouraging community of writers in the private Facebook group. For those of you using this time to send your work out, there are still plenty of opportunities available in the July Poetry Competitions, Submissions & Opportunities list! I completely understand that this might not be the right timing for you to take part and that’s OK. Nurture your creative self in any way you can – DO WHAT YOU LOVE – play, read, make art, make something with your hands, knit, sew, mend, grow seeds, bring something new into the world this August. If you’d like to join in the fun, all the information is on the website – just click the link below for details – and if you have any questions, please drop me a line. |
a dreaming skin 