RURAL WRITES: OUR LOVELY LAUNCHES...

It's official and it's out! Gull Stones and Cuckoos has been launched at events in Watton, Gorleston and Swaffham, hosted by the three local libraries. Here are some of the readers.

WATTON

M.C. Gardner at Watton

Jayne Winterbone

Nichola Lovell

Gill Ashton

It has always been a special project and the launch events just seemed to bring out the unique warmth and supportive ethos of the groups even more. The community librarians supporting Rural Writes have been marvellous, especially Kathryn Jennings who oversaw both Watton and Swaffham - but everyone involved in the project has given time, energy and goodwill. This project has been generously supported by the Arts Council and Norfolk County Council. This project illustrates how creative libraries are, how critical they can be for creating material change in the heart of rural communities. Women have discovered new things about themselves, developed their skills, made new and lasting friendships and had that adventure of writing and publication.

GORLESTON

Hilary Hanbury at Gorleton

Jane Rudd

Our first launch was in a very well-attended Watton - just as many of the women were first time writers, almost all of the writers had never read in public before either - but it would have been hard to tell. Gorleston brought in some surprise audience members mesmerised by what was going on next door to their meeting, Swaffham was packed. It was really inspiring. It takes courage to write about your life and then read it publicly and so our Rural Writes women are all brave. The proceeds from the sale of books will all go back to the libraries to continue to support the women's groups.

The book is out but this isn't the end of the project - the beauty of the experience lies in the continued existence of the groups, all of which are continuing to meet, all the women are continuing to write and their first masterclasses with a poet and novelist will start in November and early December. Their work will feature on this blog over the coming year. Please come back and read their words.