Shropshire Libraries Reader in Residence celebration with Deborah Alma at Craven Arms Library

People in Craven Arms and surrounding area were able to enjoy their very own ‘reader in residence’, funded by West Midlands Readers Network (WMRN), as part of a regional programme that links artists with libraries.

Deborah Alma, Emergency Poet, led an array of exciting activities and events revolving around readers and reading. The aim was to develop new ways to enjoy reading experiences, and Deborah worked with the local community, the existing groups within the community centre and schools in the area from October 2015 to February 2016.

Join Deborah Alma and James Sheard on Thursday 11 February 2016 from 7pm at Craven Arms Library and celebrate the end of Reader in Residence residency.

For more information see https://new.shropshire.gov.uk/libraries/library-events/craven-arms-library-love-poetry-event/.

Stuart West, Shropshire Council’s Cabinet member for leisure and culture, said:

“Craven Arms is one of the first libraries in the county to be run by a partner organisation within the community, and this great project demonstrated what can be achieved with this arrangement.”

Maria Darcy, Community Centre Manager, said:

“The reader in residence post at Craven Arms Library and community centre has been a delight; it has brought new people through the doors with the added bonus that we now have a writing group up and running. A big thank you to Emergency Poet Deborah Alma and everybody who was involved in the project.”

Deborah Alma said about her experience:

“My residency with WMRN and Shropshire Libraries at CasCA was lovely. People were so grateful and interested. Everybody involved was very supportive, from the local primary school, to staff at CasCa and even the Knit and Natter group. I’m delighted that the continuing writing group, which is the most obvious legacy of the residency, has already agreed to meet every two weeks, and at the last meeting there were 15 excellent writers in attendance.

“I’m now a familiar face in the centre and hope to do more things there myself. I’ve already arranged a childrens’ writing event in April.”

Deborah Alma is a poet with an MA in Creative Writing, who specialises in working with poetry and people with dementia and other vulnerable groups. She is also Emergency Poet in her 1970s ambulance and performs at literary, music and arts festivals, schools, hospitals and libraries all over the country – http://emergencypoet.com.

She is editor of Emergency Poet – an anti-stress poetry anthology, and her True Tales of the Countryside is published by The Emma Press.

Shropshire Libraries – shropshire.gov.uk/libraries

West Midlands Readers’ Network – http://www.wmreadersnetwork.co.uk/

The Furniture Scheme – http://www.furniturescheme.co.uk/