Explore Your Archive: Tea and Testimony Creative Writing Workshop

Find inspiration in the archives at the Royal Asiatic Society with Creative Writing Tutor Emma Filtness and Archivist Nancy Charley. You’ll have the opportunity to explore a range of materials, such as manuscripts, letters, paintings and more, to help you find inspiration for your own original writing. Nancy will discuss the archives and tell you a little about the items on display, and Emma will help you plan and begin to write a poem, story or other creative piece inspired by an item of interest. This workshop is suitable for those new to creative writing as well as those more experienced who are looking for fresh inspiration and the chance to work with original historical documents. This workshop may also be of interest to anyone with a passion for the history and culture of Asia who would like the opportunity to explore materials and write about their interactions with these fascinating pieces of the past.

This workshop is part of the Explore Your Archive week coordinated by The National Archives and the Archives and Records Association across the UK and Ireland.

The workshop is free, but places are limited. Please book a place in advance by emailing e.filtness [at] brunel.ac.uk

About the tutors:

Dr Emma Filtness is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at Brunel University London. A writer of poetry and short fiction, Emma has run a number of workshops using archives to inspire creative writing, namely at Brunel University London Library’s Special Collections.

Nancy Charley is the Archivist at the Royal Asiatic Society. She also is a published poet (Conversation Paperpress 2011) with a further collection forthcoming with Smokestack Books in 2017