Creative Writing Workshops with Steve Dearden

Professional writer Steve Dearden invites people of all ages to come together and celebrate their city through the joy of creative writing! Hosted by Bradford’s most exciting arts venue, Kala Sangam, these workshops represent a unique opportunity to work with this prestigious writer free of charge. Steve will be sharing his expertise in two sessions, taking place on two consecutive Thursday evenings, the 1st and 8th of July.

The workshops follow the overwhelming success of Kala Sangam’s poetry sessions, which ran as part of last season’s programme of free events. Local people once again have the chance to flex their literary muscle and produce expressive works of art that they’ll be proud of.

Steve Dearden says: “We know cities through their writers and stories, both their pasts and their imagined futures. Bradford seems at a crossroads, hung between its industrial past and an uncertain future written by Bradford people from all over the world. It is an incredibly exciting city to be working with writers in”.

The sessions will mark the end of an exciting season of summer arts events at Kala Sangam. “People really like our free events so we’ve decided to carry them on and make them even more diverse. We want people of all ages to come along, enjoy themselves and try something new”, says Programme Manager Ajit Singh.

The Westfield Shopping Centre and the crater left in its place is an issue about which many Bradfordians feel deeply unhappy. In the first workshop, ‘Invisible Cities’, people will be encouraged to create dazzling work to enliven the surrounding billboards and put their stamp on this most controversial of spaces.

In the second workshop, ‘Found Fictions’, participants will explore new and exciting ways to launch their writing into the wider world, ways that will inspire and intrigue their public audiences across the city.

About Steve Dearden
Steve Dearden’s short stories are to be published by Smith Doorstop this Spring. Influenced by Tom Spanbauer’s Dangerous Writing school in Portland, Oregon, he has been Writer in Residence at the Bluewater Shopping Centre. He has also worked as a producer, commissioning writers for found reading projects such as Light Transports and Bradford Square.

Free tickets for both events can be obtained by emailing info@kalasangam.org or calling 01274 303 340.