Writing West Midlands worked with The Barber Institute of Fine Arts to find their Writer in Residence for 2013. The writer chosen is Jacqui Rowe.
An alumnus of the University of Birmingham, Jacqui is an accomplished poet, writer and visual artist. Her work has appeared in Mslexia, The Interpreter’s House, Smith’s Knoll, Poetry Review, Reactions 2 and 3 and many other publications. In 2012, she won the Black Country Living Museum’s poetry competition with her poem, Airfix. Her published collections include Blue, Apollinaire (translations and recreations from the French), and Paint - poems inspired by Wightwick Manor.
In addition to her poetry, Jacqui is a trained screenwriter, who also writes fiction for young people. Jacqui is very active in performing and promoting live literature at spoken-word events. As an independent producer, she hosts and programmes Poetry Bites, a regular event featuring readings by leading poets. Jacqui’s record of leading workshops is extensive, and includes the Ledbury Poetry Festival, after which she set up Making Poetry, a Birmingham-based organisation offering a of programme of poetry workshops. She has also run regular poetry surgeries for Birmingham Libraries and Northfield Arts Forum. She is a tutor for the Poetry School and poetry editor for the Writers’ Workshop. She also works extensively as a freelance writer and consultants in schools, and is co-director of Flarestack Poets, an independent poetry pamphlet press that publishes leading poets such as Mario Petrucci and Selima Hill.
Jacqui has mentored, among many others, a Birmingham Poet Laureate and a Foyle Young Poet of the Year. She is one of a very small number of poets to have been trained by John Killick, an internationally renowned authority on using the poetry with dementia, and she works regularly as a poet in care homes.
As a visual artist and maker of art, Jacqui’s milieu is in metalwork, jewellery, knitting and crochet, and drawing. Jacqui has combined her poetry and art-making skills in a commission for an exhibition at Wightwick Manor, for which Jacqui produced a series of 15 poems and acid-etched copper plates. She has also been Artist in Residence at the Warwickshire Museum, Warwick.
You can learn more about Jacqui Rowe by visiting www.jacquirowe.com.
As part of her residency, Jacqui is running a series of workshops at The Barber including; Writing in the Moment, Writing Monologues, Writing the Senses, Whose Voices and Telling Tales. She will also be hosting an event called Write Night in November which will include readings from Jacqui, former Birmingham Poet Laureate Roz Goddard and award-winning poet, Luke Kennard.
To book for any of the workshops, please click on the links above. You can also book all 5 for £25 (£18 for students). To find out more and book, please email education[at]barber.org.uk.
