I am Diane Woodrow. I live in Abergele, Conwy. I love encouraging others enjoy creative writing and to explore the world and themselves through writing which is why I run writing groups for adults and teenagers on differing themes; how to write a story/novel, using writing for well-being, how to enjoy writing, writing in nature. I have put together some writing for well-being courses one of which is based around the children’s book “We’re Going On A Bear Hunt”.
I have run workshops for Gwrych Castle in both the local primary schools and in Emrys ap Iwan high school. With Emrys we did put on a play about World War One on 4th July 2018 in the Castle grounds where the young people performed theirs and other people’s work. I ran the Abergele Young Writers group throughout this past summer. I have been running adult writing groups which have covered well-being as well as memoir and general creative writing from 2017. These have been attended by participants from aged 16-82 attending. I have run a few writing for well-being sessions with Conwy Well-being both in person and online before and after lockdown.
My degree, which I graduated with in 2014, was in History, Heritage and Creative Writing. I also have a PGDip in Using Writing For Therapeutic Purposes and a PGCE in Celtic Studies. This means I do angle a lot of my writing towards history, culture and well-being.
I have a book published with an illustrator friend called The Little Yellow Boat which is wonderfully received but because it came out in 2020 I’ve struggled with marketing it. I’ve also self-published a book of poems inspired by photographs from my dog walks called Inspirations From Wallking In North Wales which was fun to do because I learned about formatting and things from that. I also had a piece in a young womans’ BA Art project which was a fairy tale about a penguin. The penguin was carved from coal.
I have submitted pieces for the Science Museum’s annual poetry competition, winning with my entry The Bell-Shaped Bronze Mortar Jar in 2021. I did a similar piece with a writer in Llandudno library before lockdown but can’t find it.
