Building Hope in Adversity - Writing through Difficult Times

When the world is falling apart around us, it can be hard to find the courage and self-belief to write.

However, when surrounded by destruction and loss, one of the most rebellious and effective strategies for getting through is to create.

In this workshop, poets Julia Webb and Rosie Garland show how poetry can help us come to terms with the past and help us reimagine the future - building beauty from adversity, and finding hope in unexpected places.

The poets will lead a writing workshop and each do a short reading with Q&A at the end of the session. Tea or coffee and cake will be provided.

Rosie Garland writes poetry, long and short fiction, and sings with post-punk band The March Violets. Latest novel, ‘The Fates’ (Quercus) is a retelling of the Greek myth of the Fates, and her first collection of short fiction ‘Your Sons & Your Daughters Are Beyond’ is out now (Fly On The Wall Press).In 2023, she was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, & Val McDermid has named her one of the most compelling LGBT+ writers in the UK today.Her new poetry collection ‘This Is How I Fight’ (Nine Arches Press) is out in June 2025.

Julia Webb is a neurodivergent writer and based in Norwich. Julia has been published widely in journals and anthologies. She has won both The Battered Moons and the stanza competitions and has had two poems highly commended in the Forward Prize (2016, 2022). She is a poetry editor for Lighthouse – a journal for new writers. She currently runs real world and email poetry courses, and mentors for The Writing Coach. Her fourth collection Grey Time is published by Nine Arches Press in July 2025.

Please note due to the historic nature of the building, there is a flight of stairs up to the Distillery workshop space.