11th October 23
On Wednesday 11th October, poet Ash Dickinson visited Dunottar School to run a creative writing poetry workshop with Year 9.
A full-time poet, Dickinson is also a multiple slam champion who has performed in Australia, Canada, USA, Spain, Jordan, the Czech Republic and Germany. He has headlined countless shows and festivals throughout the UK. He is in great demand to run writing workshops in schools, galleries, museums and with writing groups across the country.
Kerry Lewis, Head of English, said: “The students have been studying war and conflict poetry, including a poem written by Ash. In the session, he talked to them about his poem and presented a range of hands-on activities to encourage the students to experiment with rhyme, structural features and poetic forms. This was a wonderful opportunity to bring poetry to life.”
Year 9 student Harry commented: “I learnt lots of interesting things about matching syllables in tricube poems. I also learnt about quatrain poems and how rhyme can make a poem more memorable.”
“I like how it was an interactive workshop,” Henry added. “I enjoyed writing poems using the structures that he gave us.”
Dickinson’s debut collection, Slinky Espadrilles was the very first title published by Burning Eye Books. His second major collection, Strange Keys out in 2016. A collection for younger years, Show Cats In Transit, came out in 2019. His latest collection Instructions for Outlaws has recently been published.