Who is The Writing
Linda Cleary is a Literary Arts Consultant with a Diploma in Recreational Arts from Manchester Metropolitan (specialisation Creative Writing 1991), a Diploma in LAMDA Speech and Drama (1989) and a HND in Theatre Studies (1996). She is Director of the Free Writers Centre offering in-person and online Creative Writing courses and workshops, Coaching for writers, a suite of Editing Services, Literacy Consulting Services (including for publishing) and literary events. She set up a Literary Fiction Department, as a time bound curatorship 2019 to 2022, for Hypatia Publications, imprint of Hypatia Trust, where she was Editor and Publishing Lead. She conceived, commissioned, collated, edited, typeset, did layout, published and subsequently did publicist work for four releases in that time starting with the poetry and short fiction publication Invisible Borders. New Women's Writing from Cornwall, a collection of 23 women writers connected to Cornwall - which went on to win the Holyer an Gof best poetry anthology award 2021. She then went on to project manage Natasha Carthew's new release Born Between Crosses and Rupam Baoni's chronicles of entering my body. The fourth and final publication, a debut novel, Whistling Jack by Cornwall based writer Joesphine Gardiner was released 31st May 2022. Both Natasha Carthew and Josephine Gardiner appeared at the North Cornwall Book Festival on 24th September 2022 and Whistling Jack was selected for the Cream of Cornish slot. Linda has most recently created and project managed the Women in Word festival for Hypatia Trust in 2023 - a two day literary festival celebrating female creatives.
Linda also works in Adult Education (since 1999) holding several certificates in Teaching in Adult Education and providing literacy support to a wide variety of students including adults with specific learning difficulties such as dyslexia and autism.
She has been working with writers and delivering workshops in Creative Writing, Theatre and related Arts, to a wide demographic of age and ability and in many varied settings, since 1991; working in UK, Holland, Czech Republic, Australia and Egypt – living in Cairo from 2009 to 2015 where she initiated and ran an arts residency and gave her Creative Writing courses at Diwan Bookstores, Egypt as well as taking writers on writing holidays and retreats across Egypt including launching a writers' cruise on the Nile, oasis retreats and desert explorations.
As a British born Irish diaspora poet – writer – performer with a northern England background her work as a spoken word performer has been celebrated by Apples and Snakes who promoted her on a South West UK tour in 2005-2006 saying, ”Powerful, uncompromising, rhythmic verse. Tough, lyrical beauty. Packs poetic punches with aching sensitivity. A unique new voice. If you need a comparison, think; ‘a young Joolz Denby, laced with Patti Smith overtones.’ She was Writer in Residence at Canserrat Art Residency, Barcelona and her work has been published across written and spoken word, audio and poetry film platforms including Poetry Bay, Long Islander, Citizen 32, Poetry Film and Berlin Zebra Poetry Film Festival. She has won various grants for developing film script, performance and writing.
Her own creative platforms are: www.lindaclearypoetry.blogspot.com which houses her written work http://www.soundcloud.com/lindacleary for her audio work of spoken word and music fusions. See her poetry film Kill Your Darlings and other poetry films on her Youtube channel. Kill Your Darlings has been selected for the Bloomsday Poetry Film Festival 2023 and other films have appeared in notable international poetry festivals over the years including the Berlin Zebra Poetry Film Festival, Double Bunny Press and Poetry Film Live. She has also created installations such as The Tarantismo Project using text/audio and image exhibited in several prominent galleries and funded by ACE.
Linda is currently in the early stages of developing a collection of stories told by several characters:
a woman living through the Arab Spring, a man leaving prison, a woman in a loveless life, a man stalking his neighbour, a woman exiled from her home, a person crossing gender experience and cultural acceptance, a ghost story in post punk Thatcher's Britain and a policeman abandoning his post during a revolution – all themed around the premise of ‘What do we do with freedom?’.
See here for her side hustle venture Lit Wear litwear4u.blogspot.com/ a preloved poetic clothing and items online shop.
Linda Cleary Linktree: linktr.ee/freewriterscentre
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