You Don't Have to Be a Writer to Start a Writing Group ~ by Minnie Birch

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As a librarian working in a Male Category C prison, I usually use my space on this blog to update on my book group but this month I deviate a little.

I have always wanted to set up a Creative Writing Group in the prison and my manager has felt the same. We’ve been fortunate enough to be shown some of the writing of residents in the prison and there is some real talent that we have felt the library should nurture. We never seemed to have the budget other libraries did, though; to get in a writer in residence or a one-off visit from a writer to kick start a group. A lot of the things we run are organised in our own time and resources are paid for from our own pockets, and sometimes, if I am honest, you start to just think “oh let some other person take this on. I am swamped enough.”

A trip to London for the Prison Libraries training group had me

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attend a really inspiring talk by staff at HMP Ford. I left buzzing with lots of ideas and enthusiasm for starting a writing group and, more importantly, I left with the conviction that “you do not have to be a writer to start a writing group.”

I think that has held me back a lot, although I write songs and poems (and have even won awards for doing so) I definitely did not feel confident to lead a group as if I had any knowledge to share about how to write. What I came to realise is people don’t necessarily want expertise from you, they want permission and space and time to be allowed to write – things which are not so readily available in a prison setting.

So, at our first session, we got to know each other, we shared work, we did some writing activities (which I had come across by the power of googling “ideas for running a writing group”) we laughed…we didn’t cry,, but I certainly had a lump in my throat at times.

I believe that everyone has a story to tell, but prisoners in particular have a story, that perhaps if they have a place and a space to tell it, to talk about the who, how, where, what, why of their lives, then they might just find in that telling of their story a new understanding of themselves and their circumstance. 

Not

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everybody needs that. Some people just enjoy writing. But if there is ever a place to mull over the who, how, where, what, and why of your life... then prison is the place and a creative outlet for those thoughts can be, I believe, therapeutic and make a significant contribution to the rehabilitative culture of the prison.

So, the moral of the story is - don’t wait until there is a professional writer in the building – just go ahead and do the thing yourself – but hey, if there are any writers out there reading this who would like to donate their time to the prison creative writing group we are very open to visitors.