Raising Voices: Events
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Digging in the Dirt: Adventures in Ecopoetry (Masterclass)
Tuesday 5 August 2025, Zoom, 7.00pm - 8.30pm; £15/£12
In partnership with Poets for the Planet, a masterclass in writing about place and location with the acclaimed ecopoets Clare Shaw, Rishi Dastidar, Caleb Parkin and Jessica Mookherjee. Profits will be donated to Give Peat a Chance, and poems can be submitted later to Poets for the Planet or our Raising Voices project.
Writing the City: Non-fiction workshop with John Grindrod
Thursday 7 August 2025, 8 Sunset Walk, centre:mk, MK9 3ES, 6.00 - 8.00pm; Free (Places limited)
Do you enjoy observing and writing about places – be they your everyday surroundings or somewhere new and exciting? Join Milton Keynes-based writer John Grindrod for an inspiring, fun and productive creative non-fiction workshop. Free event for writers aged 16+: places limited.
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City of Stories: Fiction workshop with Will Burns
Wednesday 13 August 2025, 8 Sunset Walk, centre:mk, MK9 3ES, 6.00 - 8.00pm; Free (Places limited)
Join local author Will Burns for a place-based creative writing workshop that will provide a framework and a space for writing new work with Milton Keynes and its environs at its heart, using our intimate relationship with the physical environment surrounding us. Free event for writers aged 16+; places limited.
Writing Poetry about Place: Poetry workshop with Helen Bowell
Tuesday 19 August 2025, 8 Sunset Walk, centre:mk, MK9 3ES, 6.00 - 8.00pm; Free (Places limited)
Helen Bowell will lead you through writing activities to help you write poems about places in Milton Keynes. You’ll think about the distant and not-so-distant histories of the places you walk past every day, consider your place in the city, and find poetry in the most unexpected places. Free event for writers aged 16+ places limited.
Writing 'Place': A Creative Location-Based Non-Fiction Masterclass
Wednesday 16 October 2025, Zoom, 7.00pm - 8.30pm; £15/£12
Let's transform place into story. In this 90-minute masterclass, we’ll explore creative non-fiction techniques, from personal memory to Gonzo, to hidden histories. Through readings, discussion, and writing prompts, we focus on capturing the atmosphere, detail, and social context, to make locations come alive on the page.
The Raising Voices Project: Open Submissions
Ongoing
Our Raising Voices Project is collecting and curating poems, short stories and creative non-fiction that relates to or has been inspired by specific locations in the Milton Keynes city area, building an online interactive audiovisual StoryMap to captures the raised voices of our community. Submissions are open now.