Creative Writing and Language Diversity at the Greater Manchester Festival of Libraries 2022

Festival of Libraries

15-19 June 2022 saw the return of Manchester UNESCO City of Literature’s Festival of Libraries. 

Following the success of last year’s inaugural celebration, the 2022 festival showcased a vibrant and varied programme of 80 events in libraries across all ten boroughs of Greater Manchester.

Creative Manchester – the University’s creativity-championing research platform – offered seven workshop sessions in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and the Linguistic Diversity Collective.

Professional writers from the Centre for New Writing facilitated a series of ‘Writing for Wellbeing’ workshops which explored how creative writing can have positive effects on mental health and wellbeing. ‘Have you seen my duckling? – Storytime in mother languages’ was run by the Linguistic Diversity Collective for parents and caregivers from minority language backgrounds and their young children, encouraging shared book reading and building a narrative around a wordless picture book.

The workshops were well received and rated highly, with attendees of Writing for Wellbeing commenting, “A really good session that got me thinking, a very good facilitator,” and “I really enjoyed the session.” 

‘Have you seen my duckling’ attracted parents and caregivers with over 12 languages spoken between them. One attendee commented that “it was amazing to have a chat with a Professor of Linguistics.” 

The workshops took place in several libraries in the Greater Manchester area. 

Find out more here.