Details
Emilie Lauren Jones is a Coventry based poet, running monthly workshops for both Positive Images Festival and Writing West Midlands' Spark Writers Scheme as well as regularly visiting schools and community groups.
Emilie is passionate about spreading her love of poetry and encouraging others to write, no matter what their age or previous writing experience is. She has been into many different schools across the UK and internationally to run workshops, and teachers are often left pleasantly surprised by the quality of poems their children have been inspired to produced during the session. In a previous life, Emilie worked as a HLTA at a Coventry Primary School and gained much experience working with children of varying abilities, needs and backgrounds.
Emilie also has experience in guest speaking and has been a speaker for many independent social groups, as well as for larger organisations like Age UK. She offers talks on poetry (both her own experience as a poet and talks about poetry in general), her role as co-editor of Chatterbox Magazine and talks about the positive impact writing can have on mental health and well-being.
Emilie is willing to travel to perform and run workshops, long distance travel may be reflected in the price quoted. References available on request.
Full Author Bio:
Emilie Lauren Jones has performed across the UK and internationally. In 2021, the year Coventry became UK City of Culture, she became the city's first Poet Laureate.
Emilie has performed alongside poets such as Simon Armitage, Roy McFarlane and Hollie McNish. Her poetry has been featured on local and national radio, including BBC Radio 3, 4, 5Live and 6 Music. Her poetry has also featured on national television including Sky Arts (as part of the Unlocked series of short films) and BBC4.
Her poems have appeared in magazines including 'Under the Radar' and ‘HCE Magazine’, and anthologies including 'The View From Olympia' (Half Moon Books), and 'Places of Poetry‘ (One World Publications). Plus award winning anthology 'Bloody Amazing' (Beautiful Dragons Collaborations’), and Saboteur award nominated anthology 'Elements' (Fawn Press).
She facilitates writing workshops for adults and young people, and also enjoys visiting schools, care homes, community groups (and anywhere else!) to share her love of words. She has delivered sessions in person and online for a variety of organisations including NAWG, Arvon, Writing West Midlands, Positive Images Festival, Wilderness Festival, BBC CSL and more!
Emilie also offers poetry critiques via Christopher Fielden - click Here for more details
One of the commissioned poets for UK City of Culture 2021, she took parts in events across the city including the Show Windows Project, Community Connectors and the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival.
During lockdown, Emilie worked with international concert pianist Mikael Petersson to create 'Healing and Hope', a collaborative classical music and poetry show, which is now available for venues to book.
In January 2022, Emilie worked alongside Ivor Novello winning composer, Nitin Sawhney, on his creation Ghosts in the Ruins, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Coventry Cathedral.
In 2020 and 2021, she represented her city in the Coventry-Cork Poetry exchange. She holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham, was part of the 2020/21 Nine Arches Press 'Dynamo' scheme and is part of the 2022/23 Room 204 programme with Writing West Midlands. She was Artist in Resident for Methodist Central Hall, Coventry From September 2022 - May 2023.
A strong believer that art and creativity are for everyone, she is passionate about making poetry accessible to a wide audience, this is reflected in the projects and commissions she takes part in. As someone who is neurodiverse herself, she believes that seeing the world in a slightly different way is something to be celebrated!
Emilie is available for and experienced in: performances, commissions, community projects, residencies, guest speaking, school visits, workshops (adults and children), poetry critiques and mentoring.
