I’m really excited about the poetry masterclass with Liv Torc later this month, on Sunday 27th November. This will be a fantastic opportunity to work with an inspiring poet, who will bring joy into your heart, who is very much part of my own writing “journey”.

To book your tickets, click here! Liv Torc: an evening workshop with a Hot Poet! Tickets, Sun 27 Nov 2022 at 19:30 | Eventbrite

I first came across Liv on a festival spoken word stage, performing her wonderfully cosy, laugh-out-loud poem about her family’s bed. Here’s a link to that poem, so you can see Liv in action (54) Liv Torc – The Family Bed – YouTube 

It was probably at the Hip Yak poetry stage at WOMAD, in 2018, taking a moment to sit in the shade of the arboretum to listen to poetry in between the music. Or perhaps at the poetry stage at Shambala festival, the Phantom Laundry, where some of the best poets and spoken word performers in the country have performed.

As a writer, I’ve always loved poetry, but as I was grounded in fiction and the challenges of writing novels, I always thought that poetry had to be about something grand. A poem about something as ordinary as a bed was something that really stuck with me. Just turning up, sitting down and listening to live poetry really influenced my poetry journey and inspired me to give poetry writing a go!

Then the Covid 19 pandemic struck and lockdown happened. Two major things also happened to keep me writing poetry. The first was our own Beverley Ward’s Keep Calm and Carry on Writing Facebook page, which she set up at the start of lockdown in 2020, providing people with a daily writing prompt. The daily discipline of writing something – anything – every day, helped to keep me sane that strange spring and summer! The second thing was the wonderful ZOOM poetry events, Yes We Cant, run by the Poets, Prattlers and Pandemonialists collective, which I discovered through following Emma Purshouse, a poet I’d first seen live at the Shambala festival poetry slam.

Yes We Cant is still running on Zoom on the first Sunday of every month, and on Sunday 6th November, the headline poet has strong links with Sheffield, Jonathan Kinsman.

Liv Torc was the headline poet at one of the first Yes We Cant nights I attended and she completely entranced me. For starters, every school day, Liv writes poems on bananas for her children’s lunchboxes! This has inspired a banana poem revolution. Banana Poems – Liv Torc . During lockdown, Liv coordinated the Haiflu project, using poetry (haiku of course!), music, photography and film to tell the story of the Covid 19 pandemic as it was happening.

I was also inspired by Liv Torc’s writing about climate change, especially as part of Hot Poets, an Arts Council funded project that brings poets together with partners working on solutions to climate change, for example, the RSPB and Forest Schools. The Hot Poets performed at COP 26 in Glasgow and they are also heading to COP 27 in Egypt to perform their vision of a better future.

This year, at the first WOMAD festival for three years, I virtually lived at the Hip Yak Poetry Shack, which Liv Torc produces and co-hosts. I got to hear some of the Hot Poets poems performed live, and I even entered the WOMAD poetry slam, which was very exciting. I even went to see poets perform under a giant model of the moon suspended in a woodland clearing.

I’m really excited (as you might be able to tell) about bringing Liv Torc to the Writers Workshop, albeit virtually, as she is based in Somerset with a young family (the recipients of those banana poems!). But that means that you can also participate from anywhere in the world. Hopefully Liv’s workshop will inspire you to write about your bed, on bananas, to document the world around you through words, and change the world for the better!

Here’s more information about all the events coming up at the Writers Workshop! Events — The Writers Workshop