Staffordshire Poet Laureate Mel Wardle Woodend will run Fairy Tales re-imagined, a Virtual Creative Writing Workshop for 7-11-year-olds, from 10am until 11am on Saturday, 18 April 2020 via Facebook Live for Lichfield Literature Festival.
When the Coronavirus outbreak demanded that Lichfield Literature Festival postpone events, the team worked hard to re-develop some of the festival schedule to be shared online instead. Adult audiences have watched and voted on ‘book speed-dating’ videos, choosing the book they’d most like to spend the evening with; families have taken on the ‘post-it note challenge’ with Craig Glenday from Guinness World Records and young writers can now join published poet and author Mel at her Fairy Tales re-imagined workshop, which also highlights modern tools such as an AI detector for enhancing digital literacy.
Budding authors will hear some of Mel’s own fairy tales with a twist – including ‘Red Riding Hood and the no-nonsense grandma’ and ‘The Four Little Pigs’ – a poem about books to get them into the creative spirit and participate in writing activities including setting the scene; understanding the three-point story arc; painting pictures with words, story board construction and free write time.
The workshop will end with a Sharing Words session, where children can share the stories they have created so far. Mel’s workshop uses dyslexia-friendly prompts and resources, making it accessible for all aspiring young writers.
There will also be the fantastic opportunity for children to continue working on their stories after the workshop, email their final pieces to Mel and she will read these out or post them to her Facebook Author page (details below).
‘Fairy Tales re-imagined’ will be streamed via Facebook Live, so young writers will need to ask a parent/ carer to log in via their Facebook account. The workshop can be found by searching for The Lichfield Festival Facebook page, or going directly to the event page here.
Mel will be sharing some writing resources from this page during the afternoon of Friday 17th April. These are not essential for Saturday’s workshop, but an added extra for kid creatives to use.
This is a free event. Lichfield Festival is a registered charity and will be running the event as ‘Donate what you can, if you can’, as they attempt to prepare for their 40th anniversary in 2021.
About Mel Wardle Wooded
Mel Wardle Woodend is an author and poet – with several dyslexia-friendly books published. She is a member of the National Association of Writers in Education and regularly facilitates dyslexia-friendly creative writing and poetry workshops in schools and libraries around the West Midlands. Her children’s stories are inspired by nature, animals & the fantastical and often explore themes of friendship.
To find out more about Mel’s writing and other work, visit Mel’s website or Facebook page, where any young writers’ material submitted after the workshop may also be published.
The next virtual event from Lichfield Literature Festival will see Sports Journalist Phil Cartwright discussing his latest book, about some of the most shocking moments from football.
This will be hosted as part of Big Book Weekend, 8 to 10 May 2020 – virtually bringing together a selection of the best book festival events which have had to be cancelled across the country due to the Coronavirus outbreak. Keep an eye on this page, or go to the Big Book Weekend website for more details.
By: Sharon Corbally
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