An experienced workshop leader, Natalie facilitates writing sessions for a range of diverse community groups, including those living with dementia, vulnerable women, children excluded from mainstream education and adults with special educational needs.

 

Natalie is a qualified teacher, and holds a PhD in Creative Writing, specialising in multimodal poetry and the dramatic monologue form. She has accreditation in poetry therapy from the International Federation of Biblio/Poetry Therapy as a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator. In early 2016, Natalie established Pen Power™ - Writing for Wellbeing, which offers a range of community-focused workshops. See website www.penpower.org.uk for more details.

 

An experienced public speaker, Natalie has been invited to read at festivals and events including Crossing the Tees, T-junction, Poetry at the Parsonage, Sedgefield Book Festival, Middlesbrough Literature Festival and Darlington Arts Festival. In 2017 she was commissioned by Middlesbrough Libraries to work as a writer and tutor for their Arts Council funded project ‘My Town My Future’. In early 2018 she was commissioned to work as a visiting ‘Poet in Schools’ as part of the pre-festival programme for T-junction Poetry Festival. She has been a speaker at the National Association for Writers in Education (NAWE) Conferences in Bristol and Durham, and is a member of the Poetry Society, NAWE and Lapidus.

 

Natalie currently works at Arts University Bournemouth as Lecturer in Creative Writing, specialising in poetry, on the BA (Hons) programme. She is also qualified to teach English Literature, Language and Creative Writing up to post-compulsory level, having gained over fifteen years' experience of teaching and tutoring in further and higher education settings. In these subject areas she also offers private tuition to students of all ages who require some extra support with their studies.