ABOUT
Young Writers Lab is an international experimental collaboration for writers and students. It is a project run by a community of writing practioners/facilitators connected with Coracle Europe and Kultivera. Following two successful years of delivering introductions to imaginative and creative writing in Holavadsgymnasiet, Tranås, writers are set to continue the work in exploratory and collaborative ways.
The writing practitioners who are from Portugal and Wales use familiar dramatic and prompt activities to stimulate written, improvised and performed poetry and stories prose. They are working with students from different classes including, English, Swedish, Drama, Business Studies, Economics/Social Sciences, and Swedish as a Second Language. By establishing relationships with key teachers in the school the practitioners will be extending their contact by offering on-line and virtual sessions to groups of young students in Holavadsgymnasiet until they can visit again in 2017. The practitioners have complimentary styles and literary interests across poetry, short stories, novella, visual writings, installations and spoken word performance.
The international writers work in English and believe that their work can open new opportunities and perspectives in language arts to support their teachers and the formal curriculum. However, the workshops and session between writers & students crosses several languages since writers come from different cultures and countries and students too. Swedish, English, Portuguese, Arabic and other languages/dialects are a tool for sharing culture, writings and ideas. In this project languages are not a barrier it is rather a creative tool of understanding the importance of language and writing.
TEAM
INÊS LAMPREIA
Is a Portuguese writer. Won the Alentejo House Award in short fiction with the story Five fingers of Cork in 2012 and has been published by Pasárgada Editions. Along with the short story, her writing crosses areas such as novel, script, performance and literary installations and visual writings.
Conceive and develop workshops and projects with alternative teaching methods in the areas of visual poetry, language codes and education for media, over the last fifteen years, in institutions such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. She is one of the writers of the project Young Writers Lab - An International Collaborative Laboratory for Writers &Students. www.ineslampreia.com
MEL PERRY
Mel is from Llansteffan, Wales and is a frequent visitor to the Welsh island of Bardsey. Her poetry and short stories inspired by the land and builtscapes she enjoys appear in a range publications, including Two Thirds North from Stockholm University.
She is a regular performer at spoken word events, was a member of the International Yeats Literary Residency in Tranås, Sweden, 2015. In 2016 Mel collaborated with the Carmarthen Symphonic Wind Band to perform her Bardsey poetry to music composed by Chris Potter, the band’s MD. She is now working on a Scandinavian inspired suite.
In addition to studying for the MSc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes Mel is currently delivering writing workshops on-line and face to face for young people in Sweden through Coracle Europe and Kultivera. She is particularly keen for people to find their personal voice through language arts and performing their own work.
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COLM Ò CIARNÁIN
Is the Director of Kultivera a part of Litteraturcentrum Tranås, the lead organisation and financier behind the Young Writers Lab initiative. Colm has worked for many years with international projects and exchanges within both the spheres of culture and heritage.
ULRIKA SÄTERVIK
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Is a teacher in Spanish and Swedish as a second language. She worked as a teacher since 2010, and started her current position at Holavedsgymnasiet August 2015 (upper secondary school) in Tranås. She teach Spanish in the frame of the upper secondary school and Swedish as a second language in the ”introductional program”.
LEIF RISBERG
Is a senior teacher at Holavedsgymnasiet, Tranås, Sweden, where he teaches Swedish and History. Holavedsgymnasiet is an upper secondary school that has about 900 students. The students are between 16 and 19 years old. He especially enjoy teaching literature and he try to do his best to make the students discover the rich world of poetry, short stories and novels. Among his favourite authors are the classics Balzac, Stendhal, Gogol, Turgeniev, Tolstoj and among the newer authors Garcia Marquez, Philip Roth, Teju Cole and the Swedish author Sara Stridsberg. He often read poetry and mention Rimbaud, Verlaine, Edgar Lee Masters, Constantin Kavafis, Paul Celan and the Swedish poet Gunnar Ekelöf among the ones he like the most. He gets very satisfied when a student with shining eyes tells him about a book that has made a profound impact.
LEO STRAND
Was born 1992 in Motala, but raised in Tranås. For the moment he is studying at Umeå University to become a highschool teacher in history and Swedish language/literature.
Since he is studying history and Swedish he has a big interest in history and literature. Among his favorite books you will find Frankenstein, The old man and the sea and Catch 22 for example. He also have a great interest in music, where he listen to classical composers such as Beethoven and modern band such as Led Zeppelin and Muse.
ANNA LARSSON
Anna Larsson is an experienced teacher of drama and theatre studies, having worked in Halmstad and Gothenburg. She has worked and played in theatre for most of her life and is a member of Teater JARMO in Tranås.
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ELISABETH WESTLUND
Elisabeth is a Swedish poet, writer and artist. She likes to combine different artforms into a special piece. In Sörängens Folkhögskola she was educated to a "skrivarpedagog" and likes to share her knowledge with others. At Linneús University she has a Bachelor degree in creative writing. Poetry slam is an artform that she has attended both in regional contests and in SM.
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