I am delighted to announce that I have been awarded funding from the Arts Council to work with Kate Fox to offer (deep breath) creative writing opportunities for late-diagnosed neurodivergent adults. That was the official wording on the bid, and what it means in practice is that we’re offering online and in-person workshops for neurodivergent people to have a go at creative writing.

You get to decide whether you’re neurodivergent and, if so, whether your official or self-diagnosis was late. You must be 18 or over and be able to write in English. Other than that, you don’t need any specific writing experience or skills, just an interest in creative writing and a willingness to give it a try and have fun. We will be including prose and poetry, fiction and non-fiction, dialogue and even opportunities to incorporate drawing or images for those who wish. We are also likely to include neurodivergent forms including zuihitsu, language as stimming, the links between biodiversity and neurodiversity, neuroqueering forms, and generally exploring neurodivergent self-acceptance through creative writing and reading.

The in-person workshops are at Heath House in Uttoxeter on Tuesday 22 September, and at Cheese & Grain in Frome on Thursday 24 September, from 10-4.30. Our funding is enough to subsidise the workshops quite heavily, so the charges are between £30-£60 – you decide how much you can pay within that range.

The online workshops are on Zoom, on Sundays from 27 September to 1 November from 3-4.30 pm BST/GMT. Again, these are heavily subsidised, so the charges for all six workshops are between £30 and £95 – you decide how much you can pay within that range. We are only accepting applications to attend all six workshops; it is not possible to sign up for just one or two workshops.

In excellent news, there are two bursaries for each of the three workshop options. These bursaries only cover the cost of the workshop, so for an in-person workshop you would need to cover any other costs such as travel and accommodation.

Places on our workshops are limited; click here if you want to book.

(We’re also running a residential version at Lumb Bank, the Arvon Foundation’s house near Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, but that one sold out before I got around to writing this.)

The funding isn’t only for the workshops. We are going to evaluate those thoroughly, then use our findings to produce a draft toolkit for writing facilitators who are, or may be, working with neurodivergent writers. We will pilot that toolkit with staff at the National Centre for Writing in Norwich, Norfolk, and then finalise it and share.

I’m so excited about this project! It’s different from anything I’ve done before, yet it draws on a lot of my experiences and skills. My experiences and skills, and Kate’s, are complementary and I’m delighted to be working with her.

If you have any questions, you can either leave me a comment below or email ahappyplace.enquiries@gmail.com.