Creative writing workshop: The Pirate The Library and the Sea with Linda Cracknell
Linda Cracknell leads a free one-day creative writing workshop with a historic book-borrowing and maritime theme at Kirkwall Library, Orkney, on Saturday 14th May 2022.
Get inspired by materials from the Orkney Archives! A free workshop based on Orkney Library's unique records, led by writer Linda Cracknell
During the workshop we will imaginatively explore the role of the sea and travel aboard a ship for a crew of characters. How might a ship's library and particular books affect relationships and individuals in the face of limitless horizons? What letters will get written or 'posted' in a bottle? How might imaginations be aroused for good or ill?
The Borrowers' Register from Kirkwall Library (one of those studied for the project, Books and Borrowing 1750-1830) reveals enthusiastic readerships in the nineteenth century for both local Mary Brunton's best-selling novel of moral excellence, Self Control, and Scott's The Pirate, set largely in Kirkwall and dealing with the morally dubious antics of Orkney's Pirate Gow. We won't have time to write a novel, but hope to spark ideas and to produce short pieces of fiction or narrative poetry.
This workshop is led by writer Linda Cracknell whose seafaring forbears from Devon acquired Pirate in 1900, a coastal sailing Ketch built at Coplands Shipyard on the land at Stromness known as Gow's Garden .
Date: Saturday 14 May 2022, 10:30 – 16:30 BST
Location: MacGillivray Room, Orkney Library & Archive, 44 Junction Road, Kirkwall KW15 1AG
Cost: Free
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