The project’s focus is on the ephemera, memories, and experiences of warfare from within communities that have often been underrepresented within national commemorations such as the First World War Centenary.

The project is interested in ephemera and material relating to any conflict that Britain has been involved with since 1914 up to the present day. The start point for our timeline is the First World War but it is not its only focus.

Requirements for a Creative Writing Workshop Facilitator
The University of Exeter portion of the project is organised by Prof Catriona Pennell and Dr Chris Kempshall. We are looking to hire a prose writer skilled in participatory creative writing practices and with experience of designing workshops to facilitate our community engagement plans. This creative practitioner will assist in the running of several online collaborative community workshops and to produce co-created outputs from them.

We envision the creative practitioner as being a key part of our project and its eventual outputs. They will be responsible for the facilitation of two online workshops with members of the public. Beyond this they will also be responsible for the collaging of ephemera and stories provided by workshop participants into a meaningful creative response.

Workshops
Our project has planned to hold several online workshops with members of the public from historically marginalised communities. These workshops will follow an evolving arc to increase involvement and cooperation with both the project and the creative practitioner.

Workshop 1: This workshop will serve as an introductory event to allow participants to talk briefly about particular items of historical ephemera that they own and some of the stories which relate to them. We will then use this opportunity to discuss with participants the possible future directions for the project.
Workshop 2: This workshop, informed by the previous discussions, will begin to move the interaction with participants into more creative directions. This workshop will be overseen and facilitated by the creative practitioner.
Workshop 3: This workshop will be focused on a collaborative and cooperative interaction between participants and the creative practitioner with the aim of providing the content for publishable output.

The exact nature and approaches for Workshops 2 and 3 will be decided through consultation and discussion with the creative practitioner.

Outputs
The creative practitioner will be responsible for one significant publishable output which encompasses the stories and ephemera of the workshop participants. This output could take the form of, for example, an anthology of short stories or similar writing. It should be created and honed by the creative practitioner through cooperation and collaboration with the participants. It is crucial for the project that the participants of both the workshops and the creative output feel that they are part of a cooperative process.

Schedule
The three workshops will be running online between October 2022 and March 2023, with exact dates to be determined in due course. The final creative output will need to completed by March 2024.

Fee
The creative practitioner will be paid a total of £1,000 for preparation, attendance, and participation in the three workshops, including the facilitation of workshops 2 and 3. In addition to this the practitioner will be paid a standalone fee of £1,000 for all work related to the production of the final creative output (short story anthology) . The size and scope of this output will be determined in consultation with the project organisers and community stakeholders.

Selection process
Interested parties should please submit a brief pitch (1-2 pages) outlining your ideas for workshop facilitation and the potential creative output to c.kempshall@exeter.ac.uk. Please also include a CV (maximum 2 pages) which gives details of your background orchestrating similar activities, outputs, or projects. The deadline for applications is 12pm Wednesday 8th June 2022.

Applicants should have experience in facilitating engaging workshops and in undertaking collaborative creative writing outputs. We will be particularly interested in any applicants who have backgrounds or experience in drawing stories out of historical or contemporary wars. Shortlisted candidates will then be selected for an informal online interview to further discuss their ideas in the week commencing 27th June.