Creative Bridges Conference 2021

This two day conference, brought to you by Lapidus International offers a host of inspirational speakers and presenters. Bringing together both theory and practice of writing for wellbeing, whilst exploring and expanding ideas with experiential workshops.

About the event

Lapidus International brings together the varied experiences of researchers, practitioners and participants to explore and expand the diversity of Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes (CWTP) and writing for wellbeing, drawing from a range of disciplines (literature, counselling & psychotherapy, neuropsychology, medicine, emotional geography, socio-spiritual approaches and more). Creative Bridges will showcase relevant research and practice, assess the current picture of the international field and find inspiring and robust ways to bring CWTP research and practice to our diverse communities across the globe.

Who should attend?

This conference welcomes everyone with an interest in writing and using words to promote wellbeing, whether for personal development and healing, or working with others, individuals, families or communities. We welcome creative practitioners and expressive artists from a range of different fields - writers, health workers, counsellors, therapists, teachers and more. This conference is an ideal forum to present masters or doctoral research, or run a workshop showcasing creative, innovative practice: writing with refugees, using poetry with the elderly or creating rap with young people, or new ways of engaging with stories and poems, to foster connection, creativity, promote communication, physical and emotional health, and enjoyment.

Keynote Speakers

Kate Fox is a British poet, author and comedian who lives in North Yorkshire, England. She originally trained as a radio journalist and moved into poetry writing and facilitation in 2005. Her live literature and comedy shows include Where There’s Muck There’s Bras (2018) for the Great Exhibition of the North, two series of The Price of Happiness (2017 and 2015) for BBC Radio 4, and Queens of the North (2017) for the BBC’s Contains Strong Language Festival in Hull. Her work focuses on “Northernness” gender, class, place and neurodiversity. Her ethnographic PhD Stand Up and Be (En)Countered explored the experiences stand-up comedians and stand-up poets have in resisting and articulating Northern English regional identities and has contributed significantly to the field of Comedy Studies.

Sveto Muhammad Ishoq expresses her own and other people’s voices through her writing, as an activist for women’s rights and gender equality, and through running a social enterprise in Kabul, focused on women’s economic empowerment through fashion. She promotes women’s rights through her writing for the Afghan Women’s Writing Project, the Anna May Project, and Star Educational Society’s Interstellar Bulletin Newspaper. Sveto is also an active volunteer with many projects including Everywoman Everywhere where she worked on an International Treaty on Violence against Women. As Afghanistan’s first Schwarzman Scholar she did her master’s degree in global affairs at Tsinghua University in Beijing and a business administration degree at the American University of Afghanistan.