Convened by CRIPtic x Spread the Word, the Retreat is for 10 UK based d/Deaf and/or disabled writers of poetry, fiction and/ or scriptwriting and aims to encourage people to experiment and broaden their writing practice, get insight into the industry and become part of a writing community.

Taking place online, the Retreat is completely free and runs from Thursday 29 July to Sunday 1 August. Expect a residential retreat – but from your own home.

The 2021 Retreat will focus on poetry, fiction, and scriptwriting. There will be creative exercises, workshops, guest readings, industry insights, and a public sharing event where participants can showcase their work to a wider audience.

Criteria:

• You are d/Deaf and/ or disabled (including: neurodivergence, chronic and long-term health conditions and mental health conditions);
• You must be based in the UK and over 18 years of age;
• You are committed to taking your writing forward and are writing regularly in at least one of the Retreats’ genres: fiction, scriptwriting, or poetry;
• You are interested in joining a community of writers, sharing your work and working across different genres.

Deadline

10am, Monday 5 July.

The Retreat will take place on Zoom.

From Thursday 29 July to Saturday 31 July there will be four sessions each day between 11:00-18:00 – a creative session, a workshop, industry insight video and a guest reading. Creative sessions will last 45 mins, workshops will last 2 and a half hours (including a half-hour break), industry insight videos between 10 – 20 mins and readings one hour each.

On Sunday 1 August, there will be an optional session led by Jamie on ‘reading your work’ to help people prepare for the Retreat’s sharing event, followed by two short focus group sessions about access in the literature sector. After that, there will be a public reading by writers from the programme who wish to do this.

Accessibility:

• All Retreat sessions will be BSL Interpreted (they will announce the names of the interpreters soon). They will also be auto-captioned.
• The Retreat is a relaxed space. People will be given regular breaks and are able to take additional breaks as needed.
• Participants and guest writers will be asked to self-describe when introducing themselves.
• Any images used in the sessions will be described, and participants will be asked to describe any slides or images used in their own work.
• They cannot guarantee a trigger-free space, and while we will request that people put content notes on anything likely to trigger, they will not know in advance what people will be bringing to the space.

https://www.spreadtheword.org.uk/criptic-x-spread-the-word-retreat-for-d-deaf-and-disabled-writers/