Grrrl Con is coming!
Jonatha Kottler (Nasty Women, The Guardian) is revved up for creative empowerment at Grrrl Con 2017 and hopes to see you there!
Grrrl Con is coming! I can only tell you how excited I am about this by telling you what it was like for me last year, as someone relatively new in Scotland and the UK writing world.
To start with, let me say that my Write Like a Grrrl class was instrumental in setting me on my path as a writer. Claire’s Edinburgh class opened me up to a world where I could proudly and publicly claim the title of writer for the first time in my life. I took the first course, the Advanced course and just when I was wondering what I’d do next we heard the news that there would be a Grrrl Con.
Read more: Mookychick interviews Claire Askew about the Write Like a Grrrl course
Flash forward to the Saturday morning event: I googled my way to the Scottish Storytelling Centre feeling as I was going to a place where I belonged. Assembled in the rows of stadium seats, listening to Jenny Brown tell us what she and other agents look for I thought to myself – hey, that can be me someday, writing what they want. One word at a time I can work my way there.
I attended four workshops: Lucy Ribchester featured a writing exercise using a huge collection of postcards as visual images to inspire (my writing group has been collecting postcards ever since and using this exercise in our regular lives). Kirsty Logan’s magical realism workshop let a whole room of women remember that imagination freed is playful and that playfulness can fuel great writing. The performance workshop with Khadijah Ibrahim was my first real experience performing my own writing. I have done several public performances since then, always keeping her lesson about our words and our bodies in my mind when standing proudly to read my work. Helen Sedgewick’s workshop had me working and reworking my synopsis until instead of hating to try to summarize my work, I see it as a challenge to myself to convey my story in two pages, one page, one sentence.
Pics from Grrrl Con 2016
Expect this and a whole lot more for Grrrl Con 2017!
The speakers were all wonderful – everyone will always remember Denise Mina reminding us to “fuck it” when confronting fear and impostor syndrome. And Jackie Kay left more than one of us stunned by the brilliance of her words (yes, I cried during her poetry reading, and not dainty little Disney tears). She offered us her fellowship, too, with an easy grace that made us feel we were her comrades in words.
The informal part of the program was just as important – time spent over teas and lunches and at the pub – chatting, commiserating, sharing ideas and contact.
When Grrrl Con 2017 tickets came up for sale they were the top of my Christmas list – I wouldn’t miss this event. Write Like a Grrrl and For Book’s Sake gave me support, inspiration, friendship, advice, encouragement, ownership, pride, and my very own grrrlsquad. They offer writing women a place to belong.
