The sap is rising! I’ve been incredibly busy lately with my insect poems, workshops and readings. I’ve been working with some brilliant projects and organisations and wanted to celebrate some of them here. It was a joy to join the LeedsLit Fest Spring Rhythm event last week at the University of Leeds Poetry Centre, with …
Author Archives: Rachel Bower
Mothering in Neonatal Intensive Care: Exhibition Launch
Last year I was lucky enough to work with Sushila Chowdhry (University of Dundee), Maya Chowdhry and Jessica Howarth on an incredible project facilitating creative workshops with mothers of preterm babies who have experienced neonatal units. The project drew on creative methods to listen to women in holistic ways, focussing on the embodied experience of …
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Insects & miniature works
It’s an honour to be travelling to Uppsala University at the end of October to explore possibilities around short works, biodiversity and climate change. I’ll be taking part in a range of workshops and meetings, including a day-long day gathering with a school called HOME in Östervåla, hosted Anna Björkman and Dougald Hine. The following …
Your Mind Matters
It’s been brilliant working with young people from Forces Children Scotland to explore the unique challenges they face in relation to their wellbeing and mental health. Earlier in the year, we ran a residential weekend of creative workshops to co-produce materials for the Your Mind Matters website. The young people also produced a stunning group …
Insects, bees, poems
June is a strange month for bees. On the one hand, it seems that everything should be blooming, but on the other, we get what beekeepers call the June gap – a sudden and significant reduction in pollen and nectar, which means that honey bees are at risk of starvation. This is a phenomenon of …
Festival of Debate
It’s awesome to see South Yorkshire’s Festival of Debate back with a packed programme after everything had to be cancelled at the start of the pandemic. One of the events that promises to be brilliant is Helen Mort in conversation with professional climber Shauna Coxsey MBE about her new book A Line Above the Sky …
Let’s Talk About Cough
It’s exciting to be working with other artists, researchers and facilitators on the Let’s Talk About Cough story exchange. It’s an online creative project, which will bring together people who’ve lived with cough, carers and researchers to share stories and knowledge in friendly, informal sessions. For some people coughs can become long-term and researchers in …
Poetry Film: Water Birth
It’s been wonderful working with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation and Poet in the City on a new film of my poem, “Water Birth.” The poem is about the babies born in the Mediterranean Sea, many of them in treacherous conditions or on rescue boats. The film is out now, directed Matthew Thompson: This poem …
Hive Fiction Workshops
If you’re a new or emerging fiction writer aged 17-30 based in the North of England, there’s still time to apply for the subsidised 6-week Hive Online Fiction Programme I’m running with Hive South Yorkshire, starting on Thursday 10th February! The sessions will be weekly on Zoom (Thursdays, 6-8pm) and it will be super friendly …
Poetry Film: From Blossoms
It was such an honour to make a film of one of my favourite poems with the Adrian Brinkerhoff Foundation, directed by Matthew Thompson and produced with Poet in the City. Li-Young Lee‘s “From Blossoms” explores joy and loss, darkness and light, sugar and dust. It is one of those enviable poems that powerfully connects …
Bees, bees, bees!
Winter is a quieter time for beekeeping, but I’ve been busy over the last few months writing, filming and talking about bees! You can read my article about the beauty of beekeeping (and collecting a swarm of honey bees!) in Sheffield’s brilliant Now Then magazine. I was also commissioned to write a new poem for …
Rachel Bower 