Medical Histories: Creating Health Narratives

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This project will generate new creative writings from north Staffordshire. Rooted in the occupational-health legacy of the past this network will bring together residents, employees, and patients with poets and novelists on one hand, and medical practitioners and policy makers on the other, to reflect on experiences of health, illness and medicine in the region. Through creative writing it is envisaged that participants will come to terms with their health experiences. This will be achieved by a series of workshops to be held in community, health and academic locations, featuring at least one guest writer at each event. Discussions, activities and readings will draw on personal experience and local knowledge to produce a series of writings from lay, creative and academic perspectives. Using an approach which places participants at the centre of the activity will ensure that the detail of the creative work produced will be driven by the community and our partners, rather than imposed by academics, and create a sense of worth and achievement which can be built upon in the future. The narratives generated by participants will provide a rich source of qualitative data for sociologists, historians and health experts to explore, analyse and interpret.The long-term aim of the network will be to secure funding for a peripatetic writer in residence (to be attached to one of the partner organisations ideally to the NHS in north Staffordshire) with a view to establishing a permanent published and performance legacy for the project such as a play, short stories, or other creative output. The creative writer will be based in the community, accessible and responsive to local residents. The creative writer will facilitate encounters between practitioners and community to achieve significant creative output.