Raymond Antrobus Poetry Workshop At Cheltenham Literature Festival

SFC English Literature students concluded their Half Term with a visit to the Cheltenham Literature Festival in Montpellier Gardens.

We attended a workshop with poet Raymond Antrobus, who started the session with Orwell’s quote: “For a creative writer, possession of the 'truth' is less important than emotional sincerity.” Students then used this as inspiration to draft a poem about identity. 

Raymond performed some of his most notable poems and, with the assistance of his BSL translator, answered some questions from the audience.

We were particularly interested in his background and how he was inspired to start writing poetry, especially being deaf and needing to overcome many barriers in his childhood.

See here a video of Raymond performing ‘Dear Hearing World’:

Students’ main takeaway was that they are encouraged to start writing and get their stories down on paper without worrying about being perfect.

Ms Meyrick, Head of English