Ripon House Approved Premises for Women

"PUTTING PEN TO PAPER"

A new addition to the hostel programme is the Creative Writing group - called "Putting Pen to Paper" - which started at the hostel this month.

James Nash, a published writer and poet in his own right runs the weekly workshops, encouraging hostel residents to improve their literacy skills and explore their written creativity. James has previously run workshops all over the UK for adults in both writing and performance. He has worked with the visually impaired as well as with men in prison. He has run sessions as part of literary festivals, and was ‘Writer in Residence’ for the Beverley Literature Festival in 2002.

Whether a resident wants to try their hand at writing stories, poetry or just wants to write letters to loved ones, they can take an active part in the weekly workshops, which James himself describes as potentially being “fun and purposeful”.

After trying the first session a resident commented: “I didn’t know what it was about and thought I’d give it a try It was interesting-it makes you think about what you write. I was proud of what I did."