City of Stories is back this summer with 42 workshops taking place across 21 London library boroughs in the city.
All workshops participants will be eligible to enter the City of Stories competition which will be judged by this year’s writers-in-residence: Olumide Popoola, Gary Budden, Meena Kandasamy and Leone Ross. The winning story will be published in the City of Stories 2018 booklet and the winner will be offered a place at StoryLab masterclass in October and have the opportunity to read their story at City of Stories celebration events in November. These workshops are for adults aged 18+ and are free to attend.
Find out which workshops are taking place at your local library from the list below and book your free ticket here: http://bit.ly/LondonCityofStories.
Barking and Dagenham, Barking Learning Centre, 2 Town Square, Barking, IG11 7NB
Monday 18 June, 6-8pm
Monday 25 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Anita Belli
Bexley, Central Library, Townley Road, Bexleyheath, Kent, DA6 7HJ
Thursday 14 June, 2:30-4:30pm
Thursday 28 June, 2:30-4:30pm
Workshop leader: Bidisha
Brent, The Library at Willesden Green, 95 High Road, Willesden, London, NW10 2SF
Monday 18 June, 6-8pm
Wednesday 20 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Jarred McGinnis
Camden, Holborn Library, 32-28 Theobalds Road, WC1X 8PA
Wednesday 6 June, 4:30-6:30pm
Tuesday 26 June, 4:30-6:30pm
Workshop leader: Lewis Buxton
City of London, Barbican Library, Barbican Centre Level 2, Silk Street, London, EC2Y 8DS
Thursday 14 June, 6-8pm
Thursday 28 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Jarred McGinnis
Croydon, Central Library, Katharine Street, Croydon, CR9 1ET
Saturday 2 June, 2-4pm
Saturday 30 June, 2-4pm
Workshop leader: Anita Belli
Ealing, Acton Town Hall Library, Everyone Active Acton Centre, High Street Acton, W3 6NE
Thursday 14 June, 5:30-7:30pm
Friday 15 June, 5-7pm
Workshop leader: Rachel Long
Greenwich, Woolwich Central Library, 35 Wellington Street, London, SE18 6HQ
Sunday 3 June, 1:30-3:30pm
Sunday 10 June, 1:30-3:30pm
Workshop leader: Leone Ross
Hackney, Dalston CLR James Library, Dalston Square, E8 3BQ
Wednesday 13 June, 6-8pm
Wednesday 27 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Jarred McGinnis
Hammersmith and Fulham, Hammersmith Library, Shepherds Bush Road, W6 7AT
Thursday 14 June, 6-8pm
Thursday 21 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Olumide Popoola
Islington, Central Library, 2 Fieldway Crescent, Highbury East, London, N5 1PF
Monday 4 June, 6-8pm
Monday 11 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Anita Belli
Kensington and Chelsea, Chelsea Library, Chelsea Old Town Hall, London, SW3 5EE
Tuesday 5 June, 6-8pm
Thursday 21 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader, Rachel Long
Kingston, Surbiton Library, Ewell Road, Surbiton, KT6 6AG
Wednesday 20 June, 10:30am-12:30pm
Wednesday 27 June, 10:30am-12:30pm
Workshop leader: Tom Mallender
Lewisham, Manor House Library, 34 Old Road, London, SE13 5SY
Saturday 2 June, 11am-1pm
Saturday 9 June, 11am-1pm
Workshop leader: Tom Mallender
Merton, Morden Library, Merton Civic Centre, London Road, Morden, SM4 5DX
Tuesday 12 June, 3-5pm
Tuesday 19 June, 3-5pm
Workshop leader: Gary Budden
Newham, Stratford Library, 3 The Grove, Stratford, E15 1EL
Thursday 7 June, 6-8pm
Thursday 21 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Lewis Buxton
Redbridge, Redbridge Central Library, Clements Road, Illford, Essex, IG1 1EA
Tuesday 12 June, 6-8pm
Tuesday 19 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Meena Kandasamy
Tower Hamlets, Idea Store Whitechapel, 321 Whitechapel Road, London, E1 1BU
Tuesday 12 June, 6-8pm
Saturday 16 June, 1-3pm
Workshop leader: Bidisha
Waltham Forest, Leytonstone Library Plus, 6 Church Lane, Leytonstone, London, E11 1HG
Saturday 9 June, 3-5pm
Saturday 23 June, 3-5pm
Workshop leader: Lainy Malkani
Wandsworth, Balham Library, 16 Ramsden Road, Balham, SW12 8QY
Wednesday 6 June, 6-8pm
Wednesday 27 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Lainy Malkani
Westminster, Victoria Library, 160 Buckingham Palace Road, London, SW1W 9UD
Monday 4 June, 6-8pm
Monday 11 June, 6-8pm
Workshop leader: Bidisha
If you would like to attend a City of Stories workshop and have an access requirement, please do get in touch with Aliya Gulamani at [email protected] and we will do our best to facilitate your needs.
About the City of Stories workshop leaders
Anita Belli is a compulsive writer and creative tutor, who caught the writing habit as a child and has spent a lifetime trying to get other people hooked. She is passionate about Art and History, and writes novels about the consequences of the past catching up with us. She is now a full time novelist, and also works with local communities, writers and non-writers, aiming to encourage more people to tell their own story in their own way, and to publish their work.
Bidisha is a compulsive writer and creative tutor, who caught the writing habit as a child and has spent a lifetime trying to get other people hooked. She is passionate about Art and History, and writes novels about the consequences of the past catching up with us. She is now a full time novelist, and also works with local communities, writers and non-writers, aiming to encourage more people to tell their own story in their own way, and to publish their work.
Jarred McGinnis was the creative director for ‘Moby-Dick Unabridged‘ at the Southbank Centre. His short fiction has been commissioned for BBC Radio 4 and appeared in respected journals worldwide. Most recently he has been shortlisted for the Galley Beggar Story Prize, the Wasafiri New Writing Award, and the Royal Academy Short Story Prize. He is an Associate Writer for Spread the Word, a mentor for the Word Factory‘s Apprentice Scheme and a writer-in-residence at First Story.
Lewis Buxton is a poet and arts producer. Having read English at the University of East Anglia, he now leads creative writing workshops in school and libraries around the country. In 2016 he founded TOAST, an arts project dedicated to the professional development of poets in the U.K. His work has appeared in Ambit, Oxford Poetry, Butchers Dog and Ink, Sweat & Tears. He is currently working on his first pamphlet about sport, masculinity & boyhood.
Rachel Long is a poet and the founder of Octavia – Poetry Collective for Women of Colour, which is housed at Southbank Centre, London. She was shortlisted for Young Poet for Laureate for London in 2014 and awarded a Jerwood/Arvon Foundation mentorship in 2015. Rachel has run poetry workshops for The Poetry School, The Serpentine Galleries and at University of Oxford. She is Assistant Tutor on the Barbican Young Poets programme 2015-present.
Leone Ross is the author of two critically-acclaimed novels, All The Blood Is Red and Orange Laughter. Her fiction has been nominated for the Orange Prize, the V.S Pritchett award, Salt Publishing’s Scott Prize and the 2018 Jhalak Prize. Her short story collection Come Let Us Sing Anyway (Peepal Tree, 2017) was called ‘searingly compassionate’ by the Guardian. Ross teaches at Roehampton University in London.
Olumide Popoola’s publications include essays, poetry, the novella this is not about sadness, the play text Also by Mail, the short collection breach, which she co-authored with Annie Holmes, and the critically acclaimed novel When We Speak of Nothing. Olumide has a PhD in Creative Writing and has lectured in creative writing at various universities.
Tom Mallender is writer often found wearing differing hats of genre and form. Born and raised in rural Derbyshire he moved to London as a mature student, and stayed. Tom’s work sees him working across London and the South combining poetry, history and prose with archive work and community projects.
Gary Budden’s debut fiction collection, Hollow Shores, was published by Dead Ink Books in October 2017. He was shortlisted for the 2015 London Short Story Award, and his story ‘Greenteeth’ was nominated for a 2017 British Fantasy Award and adapted into a short film by the filmmaker Adam Scovell.
Meena Kandasamy is the author of five books. Her latest, the auto-ficitonal novel, When I Hit You, was listed as one of the best books of 2017 by the Guardian, Observer, Daily Telegraph and Financial Times. She lives in East London.
Lainy Malkani is a London born writer, broadcast journalist and presenter with Indo-Caribbean roots. In 2013 she set up the Social History Hub to bring the stories of ‘unsung heroes’ in society to life. Her two-part radio documentary, ‘Sugar, Saris and Green Bananas’, led her to write, ‘Sugar, Sugar Bittersweet Tales of Indian Migrant Workers’, a collection of short stories inspired by historical archive and the memories of the descendants of indentured Indians living in the UK. She has written for the British Library, the Commonwealth and the BBC.
Published 14 May 2018