Lewisham Writes: a Poetic Life

A series of four free writing workshops in the run up to Deptford Literature Festival 2025.

Helen Bowell smiles towards us. She has short black hair and wears a black velvet top, pearls, red lipstick and dark glasses.

Come together this spring for some relaxed writing sessions facilitated by Helen Bowell, a poet based in southeast London.

As part of the Lewisham Writes programme run by Spread the Word in partnership with Lewisham Libraries, Helen Bowell will be running a series of free taster workshops across the borough.

We’ll be thinking about the theme of ‘community’ and exploring what’s important to us and why. We’ll write from objects, people and places, becoming archivists of our own lives.

Everyone is welcome – you don’t need any experience to take part, just an open mind. This series of workshops will finish at the Deptford Literature Festival on Saturday 29 March.

Four workshops will take place at four libraries across Lewisham Book via eventbrite using the links below for each session:

  1. Thursday 27 February, 1pm-3pm at Grove Park Library, Somertrees Ave, London SE12 0BX – Book via Eventbrite
  2. Tuesday 4 March, 5.30pm-7.30pm at Forest Hill Library, Dartmouth Rd, London SE23 3HZ – Book via Eventbrite
  3. Saturday 8 March, 12pm-2pm at Catford Library, Catford Centre, 23-24 Winslade Way, London SE6 4JU – Book via Eventbrite
  4. Monday 10 March, 2pm-4pm at Corbett Community Library, 103 Torridon Rd, London SE6 1RQ – Book via Eventbrite

About the artist:
Helen Bowell is a poet and producer based in southeast London. Her debut pamphlet The Barman (Bad Betty Press, 2022), which follows the relationship between a barman and the speaker backwards through time, was selected as a Poetry Book Society Choice. She co-directs Dead [Women] Poets Society, a live literature organisation that ‘resurrects’ underappreciated women poets of the past; edited the first anthology of bi+ poets, Bi+ Lines (fourteen poems, 2023); and produced the Poetry Translation Centre’s 20th birthday programme of events in 2024.

Useful information about this event:
This event is wheelchair accessible, with accessible toilets.

If you require additional access provision in order to attend or take part in this event, for example, larger print handouts, please get in touch before the day at: [email protected]

 

Image credit: Helen Bowell by Hayley Madden