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Literacy and Literature Events at Yeovil College 2014-2015

Looking Back: Our Literacy Events.
 
The Yeovil College Learning Resource Centre is  enthusiastic about promoting literacy and literature. As we reach the end of 2015, we thought we would take a retrospective look at our previous successful literary events which have taken place over the past eighteen months - and start excitedly planning our 2016 schedule. 

 We hope you enjoy finding out what we have to offer. For more information, or if you are a writer or literacy initiative who would like to work with us, please contact us at: learningcentre@yeovil.ac.uk 
 

Poetry Day - October 2015
For National Poetry Day, the Learning Centre took inspiration from the famous "Poems on the Underground" initiative and asked our staff to choose their favourite or most significant poems for display around campus.


Learning Centre Co-Ordinator Chris Canning with a Poetry Day poster.

Students, staff and visitors alike were greeted with visually arresting posters across campus, and the poems provided a great talking point about literacy, literature and its place in our lives. Poems chosen included a wide ranging selection: there were quintessential "classic" poems such as Dylan Thomas's "And Death Shall Have No Dominion" and William Blake's "Jerusalem"; nonsense verse from Edward Lear and Spike Milligan; children's classic poems from "The Wind in The Willows"  and A.A. Milne; fantasy epic poetry from JRR Tolkien; and even poetry from films and TV, such as the poem from the teen movie, "Ten Things I Hate About You." 

 Our Poetry Day choices will be featured in more detail in a future post - watch this space for future poetry and spoken word initiatives coming soon!

 Grassroots Creative Writing Workshops - June 2015
 

Joffre White leading the Creative Writing Workshop at Yeovil College

 We received funding from the LiteratureWorks Grassroots Funding scheme in the summer term of 2015 to hold two creative writing workshops with esteemed South West authors, Joffre White and Belinda Seaward.
  South-West author Belinda Seaward, journalist and novelist, ran our community workshop at local arts hub For Every Cloud in Langport.The focus was on writing from life, and Belinda guided participants through the process of creation; from conception and ideas, to drafting and editing within a dynamic, supportive group environment.
Belinda Seaward (second from right) and Donna Vale of For Every Cloud (centre) with participants at Yeovil College's Creative Writing Workshop.



Aiming at building confidence and developing understanding of writing skills and techniques, Belinda was fantastic in guiding and involving the group in creating individual short stories .

Our free college workshop for students was ably run by YA author and creative writing advocate Joffre White, who used a variety of techniques, exercises and an inspirational and engaging style
Joffre talked passionately about his own writing journey, then guided participants through creative ways to generate ideas. He then demonstrated techniques and exercises to turn these into pieces of creative writing.

Reading Passport 2014

Yeovil College hosted the Reading Passport author's tour in 2014 with great success. Two award-winning authors, Adam Nevill and Gareth L. Powell, discussed their work and chosen genres - horror and science fiction respectively- while engaging in a lively debate and discussion.
Check out the videos taken with Gareth and Adam below:
http://readingpassport.org/2014/12/03/video-adam-nevill-in-yeovil-library/
http://readingpassport.org/2014/12/03/video-gareth-l-powell-in-yeovil-college/

Previous and current Book Club Managers April Cursons and Carey Bastin with South West authors Adam Nevill and Gareth L.Powell..


National Libraries Day Shelfies (#NLD15)

This year, for National Libraries Day 2015, the Learning Centre team decided to get involved. With some light-hearted "shelfies" on Twitter, we promoted some of the excellent choices available in our library collection, ranging from fiction to journals and magazines - and demonstrated our continued dedication to innovative and evolving digital literacies and social media engagement.  We look forward to National Libraries Day 2016!

Carey Bastin, Student Support Practitioner.

April Cursons, Book Club Manager.

Kern Vickers, Librarian and Systems Manager.

World Book Day 2015 : "Why We Can't Live Without Books"

 This February, Yeovil College entered the World Book Day Award 2015 competition.
The theme was "Why We Can't Live Without Books." Students and staff from the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) created this video, listing all the different reasons why we can't live without books - whilst exploring exactly what books do offer us.

From learning, education and culture to laughter, joy, friendship and fantasy, this is why we can't live without books.

(To view on YouTube, Click Here)


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