I am currently working freelance as a community writing lecturer and seminar leader and am happy to design and implement creative writing workshops, retreats, public readings, or other arts engagement projects upon request. I have extensive experience in lecturing, writing, reading and community outreach projects aimed to encourage participation and enjoyment in creative writing. Working with and developing writers at multiple ages and in multiple genres is what I love.

I do some freelance development and editing in both creative and critical writing projects. This can range from developing paragraphs into a full length project to content editing for a finished work.

I can also provide mentoring and tutoring services at all levels

Website: http://www.DeAnnBell.com Twitter:@DeAnnWrites

My Professional Memberships include: FHEA -Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2014-Present.

NAWE - Professional Member of the National Association for Writers in Education, 2015-Present.

My research relates to areas of knowledge concerning the way language, form, genre, media and technique stimulate and produce content in relation to cultural identity and representation in prose writing. This can include English literary canonisation but specifically concentrates on the development of cultural identities in Southern American Women’s Writing and the Southern Gothic. Pedagogically, I actively engage in research projects that promote teaching creative writing as an iterative art form. I am also interested in creative and critical projects connected to a variety of areas including, but not limited to: poetry, the novel, short stories, screenwriting, graphic novels, creative nonfiction, writing for performance, speculative fiction, science fiction, Gothic fiction, marginalisation and multiculturalism, and cross-disciplinary or hybrid projects.

Performance and Community Projects Include:

December 5th & 14th, 2019 Christmas Tradition, Superstition, and Ghost Stories storytelling and Flash Fiction Writing classes as part of Art’s Council Wales Winter Light Festival.

December 2016-2019 Weekend Workshops at the Ty Newydd: Writing Centre for Wales with Natasha Tripney of The Stage 2019, Guardian critic Rian Evans 2018 and Lyn Garner 2017, and Mark Shenton 2016 for Critic Young Critics.

November 9th, 2019 “Understanding Creativity through Third-Option Thinking” for the Montage Anglesey Writing Festival.

October 21st, 2019 Teaching at 3rd Space Kitchen, Llandudno- Dr DeAnn Bell as she helps you navigate the pitfalls and peaks of creating fantasy novels from Epic Fantasy journeys to Urban Fantasy etiquette and all of the quirky creatures and features in between.

October 14th, 2019 Teaching at 3rd Space Kitchen, Llandudno- Back to Basics: Plot, Character, and Setting are the basic building blocks of a story this class helps a writer understand how they work together to create characters we care about in unforgettable worlds.

June 26th, 2019 Commissioned Creative Writing presentation of comedy poetry on “Letters to Margery Kemp” for the Speaking Internationally: Women’s Literary Culture and the Canon in the Global Middle Ages conference.

June 15th, 2019 “Making Art Write: Gallery Spaces and Writing Inspiration” at MOSTYN Gallery for the Where Art and Words Collide public lecture series.

November 10th, 2018 “Teaching Creativity through Third-Option Thinking” for the NAWE conference in York.

January 14th, 2018 “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Take p’Art”, a parent/child collaborative writing workshop for Venue Cymru’ s Take p’Art in partnership with Arts Council Wales.

January 18th 2017 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Take p’Art: A Collaborative Creative Writing Workshop for parents and children ages 10-17 at Venue Cymru’s arts and literature festival, Take p’Art.

November 12th 2016 Presentation of Paper “Four Methods for Teaching Creative Nonfiction Outside of the Traditional Workshop” for NAWE Conference 2016 at Stratford upon Avon.

October 24th 2015 Public reading of “In My Kitchen” sponsored by the Bangor University, College of Arts and Humanities at the Conwy Food Festival.

June 20th 2014 Presentation of paper “X-Men vs. Othello: Marginalised Identity and Canon Evolution” with a focus on the evolution of marginalised identities in comic book canons for Current Research in Speculative Fiction conference (CRSF) at Liverpool University.

May 30th 2014 Presentation of paper “X-Men vs. Othello: Marginalized Identity and Canon Evolution” with a focus on canonical evolution in English literary studies for English Graduate conference: Transformations at University College London.

December 8th 2014 Public reading and question session for “Invisible Monsters” sponsored by the Gwynedd Public Library event titled Emerging Fiction.