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A Life Written is a collaboration between the English department of ARU, Cambridge, and the National Centre for Writing, Norwich, which has been running since Autumn 2021. It is designed to foster intergenerational relationships between two groups of people who tend to be polarised and stereotyped in society.
In each programme, a group of 12 people aged 70+ take part in a series of life-writing workshops before submitting work to an anthology which is launched at Dragon Hall, Norwich. A group of five students from English Literature and Writing degrees, selected from open applications, choose one of the pieces to write a response to and this is also included in the anthology. At the launch, both groups read their pieces. In addition to learning about life-writing, and paying attention to other people’s stories, the students ...
learn about working in an arts organisation in a visit to Dragon Hall
form strong friendship groups with fellow students in English and Writing from different courses and year groups
learn about editing from Kate Swindlehurst, a graduate of the MA in Creative Writing at ARU who also helps the elders to edit their work
The project has run five times so far and we are working with community groups to extend and continue it.
A Life Written 5 (Spring 2024) was facilitated by Dominique De-Light, whose PhD is funded by a VC Scholarship. Dominique and the participants co-created the workshops and feedback from the programme will contribute to Dominique’s research into Writing and Wellbeing.
Former student participants’ feedback:
KIERA HEWITT
“From the Life Written project, I gained a wealth of knowledge around the effect of the form that is used when writing about a life experience, the emotional connection that it can evoke and the importance of sharing human experience.”
SHELL MEADS
"Rather than feeling out of touch with one another or lacking understanding the pieces written and responded, helped to bridge any perceived lack of understanding between ages and show that human connection was at the root of all the pieces. […] Since then I have examined my own writing and been able to submit my own reflective writing for a university task. Something I would never have felt brave enough to do before."
Find out more about A Life Written here.