Hello and a very warm welcome!
I’m Sophie.
I'm a writer, teacher and researcher, with twenty-three years experience of teaching writing - online and in person.
Although I’ve been doing this for a very long time now, I’ll always be a life-long apprentice to the process of writing and learning.
Apart from writing, my favourite thing in the world is building supportive, fun and compassionate online learning communities. I’m a bit of an online learning geek. I’ve been doing it from the very beginning of what used to be called ‘e-learning.’
My passion for writing and creativity and my passion for helping people to learn online have coalesced over the years in many beautiful ways; and I feel very lucky that I can spend my time designing courses and communities that help people to rediscover their creativity and realise their creative aspirations - whether that’s writing to get ‘better’ at the craft of writing, writing to feel good or process difficult experiences, writing just for you, or writing to share your work with the world.
My bestselling novels, The Dress and Miss Mary’s Book of Dreams, have been translated into eight languages. I’ve been the recipient of a number of awards for poetry including the Arvon-Jerwood Young Poets Award and the Ted Hughes Award. My collection Refugee was published by Salt in 2012.
Over the past twenty years, I've led courses and workshops in writing and creativity, online and in person, for universities, businesses, voluntary organisations and in the community.
Drawing on my background in psychodynamic therapies and mindfulness, I research the connections between creative writing and wellbeing and the ways in which writing and other creative practices can help us to think, learn, understand ourselves and other people, collaborate, innovate and grow.
I think of writing as a lifelong apprenticeship. Like makers in any form, we writers are continually learning our craft and working out how to build our lives around our creativity.
My own creative path has been a winding one and it has taken me time to find my way of being in the world. The ongoing challenge of how to make a creative life of writing, mothering, teaching and still doing the laundry and cooking dinner is something I’m still continually trying to work out.
Everything worthwhile that I’ve learned about life I’ve learned from writing, and vice versa.
This is me, aged seven, winning my first writing competition for a poem entitled ‘Why I Like Being a Brownie.’ The prize was Hodder and Stoughton’s entire children’s list and my Dad had to build extra bookshelves in my bedroom to fit all the books into our house.
Back then, writing was all I wanted to do. I knew I was going to be a writer. It was that simple.
But for all kinds of reasons, life got in the way and it took me many more years to finally write and publish my first novel, The Dress.
What I now know with certainty is that, if you long to explore, express and share your creative gifts with the world, it's so important that you find a creative community of people who will support you in doing that.
I love teaching. For me, it’s not just a sideline, or something I do to pay the bills when I’m not writing.
It’s something I’m truly passionate about.
Helping people to move through blocks and stuckness, develop their skills and confidence and - above all - rediscover the sheer pleasure of writing, is the best thing ever.
Since 2004 (oh, my goodness, that’s twenty-five years ago!) I’ve helped people with many different levels of experience - from complete beginners to experienced published professionals - to write, write more, write better, move through blocks and stuckness and keep writing.
I’ve worked with postgrad students at university, private mentees and business execs. I’ve worked in hospitals, hospices and other health care settings, using writing to help people to make sense of difficult or traumatic experiences.
Over the years, I’ve designed all kinds of online courses, including two very successful postgraduate degrees and a range of private courses and communities.
In a former life, I also worked as a training consultant for Reuters, the global news agency, where I designed online learning for staff and clients at the very beginning of what, back in 1997, we called ‘e-learning.’
I love that I can be here online with you because it means that, wherever you are and whatever your personal circumstances might be, I can help you achieve your goals. I’ve seen online learning courses and communities transform people’s lives, over and over.
I wrote and published my first collection of poems and my first novel when I was pregnant with my daughter, at the age of 39.
During that time, my partner also became seriously ill and his health continued to deteriorate over several years.
For a while back then, I thought I would never be able to write (or sleep) again but, in the end, it was writing and creativity that pulled me through all of the most challenging times.
These days, my daughter constantly helps me to see the world with new eyes. She’s my inspiration and the biggest of my Big Whys.
She’s also an avid reader and a storyteller in her own right and I’m always excited to talk books with her and discover new writers together.
Finally, if qualifications are important to you (and I fully understand that lots of people think this has nothing whatsoever to do with anyone’s ability to create or teach) then here are the things you’ll want to know about me.
I graduated from the University of Edinburgh with a First Class degree in English Language and I have a PhD in Creative Writing from the University of Sussex, where I pioneered research in the connections between writing and wellbeing, working as the first doctoral student of the amazing Celia Hunt.
I am a Principal Fellow of Advance HE, a member-led, sector-owned body that works with institutions and higher education across the world to improve higher education for staff, students and society. I am a Fellow of the Institute of Leadership and Management.
Love creativity, writing, learning new things? Want to join me in exploring ways of nurturing your wellbeing and living a creative life? Want me to send you lovely free things?
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P.S. You get a free download of my Creativity Inventory, designed to help you to explore and grow your relationship with your creativity, when you pop your name and email in the box.