Covert 6 workshops - Journeys with Water with Alinah Azadeh

Journeys with water - A short prose writing workshop,

A workshop using personal memory, image and descriptive/ dialogue prompts to craft short pieces of prose based on real or imaginary journeys to and around bodies of water – whether sea, river, lake, spring or other sources – that hold emotional meaning or resonance for us on a personal, spiritual or political level.

Be prepared for a deep dive together, and please bring a photo of a body of water that’s been part of your life in some way, if you can.

Photo credit by Alinah Azadeh in Kamala.

This workshop is part of Covert Literary Magazine Issue 6: Water/Water in People’s Lives. For this issue, we welcome Guest Editors: Roy McFarlane FRSL, Fawzia Kane, Gemma Weekes, Remi Graves and Alinah Azadeh. The editorial team include: Amy Z. Glass, Claire Jacobs, Zita Holbourne FRSA, Jackie Mendoza, and Pauline Rutter.

Location & Access

This event will be online via Zoom. Captions and transcripts will be activated.

BSL interpreters are available upon request. For any questions or requests, please email access@writingourlegacy.org.uk

Who’s this workshop for?

This workshop is open to everyone

About Alinah Azadeh

Alinah Azadeh is an artist, writer, performer and cultural activist of British Iranian heritage. She has worked to foster and amplify the voices of women and marginalised communities for decades, including in public commissions for National Portrait Gallery, Bristol Museum and Art Gallery, Southbank Centre. Her most recent public commission is The Four Directions for Towner Eastbourne.

Azadeh writes poetry, fiction and non-fiction and also records for radio and podcast. She was first writer-in-residence at Seven Sisters Country Park and Sussex Heritage Coast for the South Downs National Park Authority, 2020-24, leading pioneering creative programmes, resulting in We Hear You Now, an audio walk of new literature by writers of global heritage, co-funded by Arts Council England.

Azadeh is working on her memoir and publishes regularly on her Substack. She is an Associate Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Chichester, and a coach on Clore Leadership’s Inclusive Cultures programme.

Her short fiction, The Beard, first published in the speculative fiction anthology Glimpse (Peepal Tree Press, ed, Leone Ross) and Best British Short Stories 2023 (Salt, ed. Nicholas Royle) will be republished this winter in Critical Muslim Issue 55 –Fascism, ed, Naomi Foyle.

Alinah’s website | @alinahazadeh

About Covert Literary Magazine

Covert Literary Magazine is a yearly publication of literature and visual art for Black, Asian and ethnically diverse writers and artists of colour. The magazine is based in Brighton, UK and was established in 2020. We publish fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, hybrid forms and artwork, with future issues embracing more experimental, journalism and audio visual content. Our aim is to provide a platform for new and underrepresented diverse talent for whom mainstream publishing opportunities are inaccessible, whose work is reviewed, edited and published alongside more established names.

Funders

The Covert Talent Development Programme is part of our Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisation programme.

This issue is part of Downs to the Sea, a three-year nature programme that focuses on recovery and resilience in wetland habitats, led by the South Downs National Park Authority and supported by development funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.

The programme brings together a partnership comprising the South Downs National Park Trust, South Downs National Park Authority, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, Western Sussex Rivers Trust, Brighton and Hove City Council and Writing Our Legacy.