‘So what exactly is “creative letter writing”? Well, I’ve sort of made up that term myself to try and describe what the workshops are about. They are essentially creative writing workshops, but instead of using poetry, short story or scriptwriting, they take the letter as a starting point. Letter writing is beautiful because it offers total freedom. Rather than worrying about whether your writing is ‘good’ or if you’ve chosen the ‘right’ subject, you can just focus on writing freely and communicating whatever it is you want to.

Letter writing is a form of freewriting – letting ideas and thoughts flow freely without censoring every word as soon as it meets the page. Of course, these aren’t letters you necessarily have to send (although Foyles provided envelopes and stamps for the last workshop), but they are creative explorations into territories you might not have visited before. To me, writing a ‘creative’ letter is a bit like writing a poem addressed directly to someone, or something, but without worrying yourself about the term ‘poem’.

To demonstrate: in my first letter writing workshop, one participant wrote a letter to the science cabinet at his primary school. He described the mystery of the cabinet, with its skulls, skins and odd-smelling plants. For him, the cabinet represented everything that science promised to be: delicious, strange and tempting. On his first day at secondary school, he was deeply disappointed to discover that there, ’science’ was all about categorisation. All the excitement of the cabinet was forgotten.

This letter was written in response to an exercise where I asked participants to make a list of objects that were important or significant for them and write a letter addressed ‘to’ one of them. This participant’s letter had many ingredients of a poem – detail, epiphany, striking imagery – but had I asked him to write a ‘poem’ he probably wouldn’t have arrived at the same place, in fact, he probably wouldn’t have come to a ‘poetry’ workshop at all. That doesn’t mean that what he had written was some kind of ‘poem in disguise’ – it was a letter. The point is, the letter opened a door into something this man, who was now a teacher, had wanted to explore for some time but hadn’t known how. This is the long version of what I mean by a ‘creative letter’.

These workshops are not about how to write letters, they don’t push letter writing as something we should be doing more of, but they do give people the chance to explore creative writing in a form they feel safe with, and in doing so, they draw out some beautiful, original and unexpected material.’

The next Snail Mail Workshop takes place on 28 November 2009.

To book a place please visit the Foyles website:
www.foyles.co.uk/events.asp (Please scroll down)

Image by jcoterhals on flickr

Sample and buy from over 30 stalls offering sustainable and traditionally prepared produce:
•organic and off-beat wines, ales and beer
•artisan cheeses
•craft bread
•exotic spice blends and oils, vinegars
•gourmet burgers from 21 day aged beef and rare breeds of beef, lamb and pork
•spiced Venezuelan hot chocolate shots
•award winning marshmallows, Halloween toffee apples as well as British honey and jams
•sizzling hand dived Dorset scallops fresh from the grill, fresh sustainable fish, oysters

Drop into the Slow Food demo tent for free weekend events.

Saturday 31 October 2009

12.00 Apple bobbing & pumpkin carving!

13.00 Sarah Moore: Mushroom risotto

14.30 Mark Temple: ideas on how to cook with pumpkins and squash

15.30 A talk and tasting of British Native Oysters from 5th generation oyster grower Richard Haward

16.30 Isabelle Legeron: Wine tasting & comparison

17.30 Phil Godsmersham Game: Cooking venison

Sunday 1 November 2009

12.30 Tim Robins of Rainha Santa: Portuguese roast lamb with fennel

14.00 Masterchef star Steven Wallis will be creating an unusual and rich classic dish “Pepian” which has its roots in Guatemala and is normally eaten on “the Day of the Dead” (El Dia de los Muertos or All Souls Day – 1st November)

15.00 Darren Brown: how to skin a rabbit and cook it

Admission is free.

Southbank Centre Square
Belvedere Road SE1 8XX

www.slowfoodlondon.com

Image by Amy Miller (Flickr)

Following the success of the inaugural Snail Mail workshop during the 2009 Festival, poet Miriam Nash returns to Foyles with a series of opportunities for you to rediscover the creative potential of picking up a pen. Sign up for one, two or all three of these Saturday sessions to explore what happens when you stop texting and start thinking.

Lunchtime Yoga is also making a triumphant return to Foyles with a six-week course of Wednesday classes to help you release morning tension and re-energise for the afternoon ahead. No experience is necessary for these gentle, but dynamic, classes which will be led by Tessa Watt, co-director of Slow Down London.

And Tessa will be joined by her fellow directors, Deepa Patel and Amanda Stone, to ease you through a full day’s worth of slowing down on Saturday 21st November 2009. Come along to Slow Down London Day and immerse yourself in slowness by, amongst other things, introductions to deep breathing and the pleasure of eating slowly enough to taste.

Further information can be found by scrolling down on the Foyles website, along with details of how to book your place for any and all of these mellow events.