Creative Writers

  • Eight Transformative Moments from Our Reciprocal Teaching Day at Goldsmiths

    🖋️ “It didn’t have to be clever. It just had to be true.” At a recent MA Creative Writing and Education sharing day, alumna Maryam Ahmadi led a powerful storytelling session exploring how fables can carry emotional and moral truths that essays and arguments often can’t. The bold linocut-style image here captures the spirit of the session: a teacher and group of students surrounded by symbols of learning and connection—a heart, a lightbulb, a book, and leaves. A chalkboard shows the simplest of equations: 1 + 1, reminding us that real learning is reciprocal. When we share stories, we’re not just transmitting knowledge—we’re transforming one another. Maryam began by reading Patrick and Flippa, a deceptively gentle children’s book about a lonely polar bear and a persistent penguin. The group then wrote their own fables, revealing themes of exile, regeneration, defiance, and hope. One participant wrote about a deer who could only speak in questions. Another told of a fish who forgot how to swim in clean water. These were not writing exercises. They were acts of quiet truth-telling. 💡 As one attendee put it: “It’s easier to say something difficult through the story of a fox. You get closer without flinching.” 📚 This workshop was part of the MA in Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths, University of London—a unique programme where writers become educators, and educators deepen their creative practice. 🔗 Find out about the MA: www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-creative-writing-education/ #MACreativeWritingAndEducation #GoldsmithsUniversity #StorytellingAsPedagogy #MindfulTeaching #Fables #CreativeWritingWorkshop #WritingToHeal #WritingToLearn #RadicalPedagogy #TeacherWriter #ReciprocalLearning

  • Six Things The Salt Path Can Teach Us About Publishing, Truth, and the Power of Memoir

    I wrote this blog after reflecting on The Salt Path by Raynor Winn and its powerful impact, not just as a personal story, but as a case study in how publishing shapes truth, healing, and cultural desire. Drawing on over a decade of teaching creative writing and publishing, I explore what the book teaches us about agents, editors, marketing, and the ethics of memoir. 👣 Who decides what gets published—and how truth is framed? 📚 Why do memoirs like this resonate so deeply? 🧭 What role does publishing play in offering hope or illusion? 🔗 Read the full post here: https://www.francisgilbert.co.uk/2025/07/six-things-the-salt-path-can-teach-us-about-publishing-truth-and-the-power-of-memoir/ #TheSaltPath #RaynorWinn #PublishingEthics #CreativeWriting #Memoir #Pedagogy #WritingLife #FrancisGilbert #Goldsmiths

  • How Much Truth Is Enough? Reflecting on Raynor Winn’s Response to The Observer

    What happens when the story you loved starts to shift? In this piece, I explore Raynor Winn’s recent public defence of The Salt Path—a statement both moving and evasive. While condemning the abuse Winn has received, the article interrogates what her response reveals (and conceals) about the ethics of memoir. Did the omissions distort the truth? What kind of trust do memoirists owe their readers? And when real-life complexities surface, do they deepen a story—or destabilise it? This isn’t about cancellation—it’s about accountability, narrative framing, and the quiet power of what’s left unsaid. #MemoirEthics #RaynorWinn #TheSaltPath #NarrativeTruth #LifeWriting #CreativeNonfiction #MindfulWriting #EthicalStorytelling #WritingCommunity

  • Ten Ethical Complexities of Memoir: After The Salt Path, and Two Decades After My Own

    In my last post, I explored Thirteen Ways of Looking at The Salt Path. This follow-up dives deeper. Raynor Winn’s The Salt Path moved many. But recent reporting has raised ethical questions about omission, accountability, and the seduction of “emotional truth.” What are the responsibilities of the memoirist—especially when their story brings them sympathy, sales, or status? In this new article, I reflect on my own memoir—and what I got wrong. I explore what I’ve learned as a writer, teacher, and mentor of emerging voices on the MA in Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths. 🧭 Memoir is a journey, not a monument. 🕊️ Truth needs ethics, not just emotion. 🌊 The Salt Path leads us to difficult but necessary questions. 🔗 Link in bio/comments #MemoirMatters #EmotionalTruth #CreativeWriting #TheSaltPath #EthicalWriting #FrancisGilbert #WritersOfInstagram #NonFictionNarratives #GoldsmithsWriters

  • Five Reasons Why Mindfulness and Creative Writing Weave Together Well

    What happens when we stop judging our writing—and simply listen? In this new blog post, I reflect on a recent workshop where writers used mindfulness to unlock voice, memory, and emotion. Together we explored how freewriting, object meditation, and mindful noticing can transform both what we write and how we feel about writing. Participants wrote about lipstick, tissue packets, Kindles—and discovered surprising characters, deep emotional truths, and stories of presence, loss, and joy. These moments reminded us that mindfulness is not about calming down—it’s about showing up. Drawing on my book The Mindful Creative Writing Teacher (Gilbert, 2025) and C. T. McCaw’s concept of “thick mindfulness,” I share five practical and poetic takeaways from the session. If you teach, write, or are simply curious about the link between awareness and creativity, this one’s for you. 💡 Read now and see how mindful writing can be radically freeing. #MindfulWriting #CreativeWritingTeacher #Freewriting #MindfulnessInEducation #WritersOfInstagram #AmWriting #WritingWorkshop #GoldsmithsUniversity #FrancisGilbert #WritingPrompt #MindfulLiving

  • Thirteen Ways of Looking at The Salt Path After the Truth Came Out

    I wrote this blog because, like so many readers, I had been profoundly moved by The Salt Path and felt shocked and saddened by the revelations in The Observer’s investigation. My piece, Thirteen Ways of Looking at The Salt Path, reflects the emotional complexity of this moment. It explores how we process betrayal, how beauty can be real even when built on broken foundations, and how storytelling must be held to ethical account. This is not a takedown. It is not an attempt to erase what people found meaningful in Sally and Tim Walker’s journey. Instead, it is an invitation to hold the story up to the light and examine its layers. I use the structure of Wallace Stevens’ poem Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird to acknowledge the many truths that can coexist, and the importance of distinguishing between them. This is a moment for honesty in publishing, compassion for those misled, and responsibility for those harmed. It is also a call for readers, writers, and teachers to think more deeply about what it means to tell the truth. I hope this blog opens a space for reflection and dialogue, about literature, justice, and the real salt of life.

  • Why English Teaching Still Matters: Insights from the 2025 NATE Conference

    What does it mean to teach English with creativity, care, and courage in 2025? At this year’s NATE (National Association for the Teaching of English) conference, I joined a passionate group of teachers, academics, publishers, and educational innovators, some seasoned, others just starting out, to explore that very question. In this new blog post, I reflect on five powerful lessons from a day filled with poetic metaphors, Generation Alpha pedagogy, and mindful creative writing. From Clare Lawrence’s unforgettable lentil metaphor, to conversations about inclusive teaching for a post-2010 cohort, to the joyful solidarity of English educators nationwide: this was a conference where research met emotion, and practice met possibility. I also had the pleasure of leading a mindful creative writing workshop, inspired by my book The Mindful Creative Writing Teacher (Gilbert, 2025), and saw first-hand how freeing and transformative creative writing can be when rooted in reflection rather than performance. If you care about teaching English in ways that centre imagination, identity, and student voice, and want to explore this further, take a look at our MA in Creative Writing and Education at Goldsmiths. 🔗 MA info: https://www.gold.ac.uk/pg/ma-creative-writing-education/ #MindfulWriting #NATE2025 #CreativePedagogy #EnglishTeachers #TeacherCommunity #FrancisGilbert #MindfulCreativeWritingTeacher

  • Let Poetry Jump Up: Five Key Ways to Teach Poetry Effectively

    Let Poetry Jump Up: Five Powerful Ways to Teach Poetry I wrote this blog after attending a fantastic workshop led by the brilliant Fiona Plant, a warm and inspiring poetry educator. Her session was a powerful reminder of how poetry can create joy, connection, and confidence in the classroom. Fiona shared five inclusive, creative approaches that make poetry teaching feel fresh and purposeful—ranging from “I Am…” Post-it Poems and metaphor games to redacted newspaper poetry and the thoughtful use of sensory prompts. She also explored how to use the CASTERS lesson planning framework (which I developed) to bring intention, reflection, and creativity into every stage of the process. Most strikingly, Fiona urged us to model the process of writing—not just share polished work. When children see poetry unfold, with all its mess and magic, they begin to see themselves as writers too. You can find Fiona’s slides, activity ideas, and lots more in the full blog post on my website: 👉 www.francisgilbert.co.uk If you’d like to receive occasional curated updates about creative writing, education, and mindful teaching, you can sign up here: 👉 www.francisgilbert.co.uk/subscribecontact/ #PoetryTeaching #MindfulLearning #CreativeWriting #FrancisGilbert #CASTERSFramework #FionaPlant #TeacherInspiration #EduBlog