A Literary Estate
From Oxhey Library to the Palace Theatre Watford
By John Schad
On Friday June 1st 2012 seven writers from the South Oxhey council estate took part in a day-long writing workshop led by the poet and former South Oxhey resident, Michael Crowley, and drawing on John Schad’s recent novel The Late Walter Benjamin, which is set on the estate, where John too grew up. The event was much enjoyed by all the participants who were put through a number of exercises by Michael and produced, by the end of the day, a range of excellent work, which has been posted on the ‘Our Oxhey’ website
On Saturday June 2 at the Watford Palace Theatre the ‘literary estate’ project became an evening of readings, featuring not only John Schad and Michael Crowley but also David Reidy, author of a new history of the estate and yet another former resident of the estate. All those who attended the workshop on Friday were also invited and encouraged to read but in the end declined the invitation.
Both events were picked up on by the Watford Observer “Was new estate heaven or hell?” and will provide, we hope, the basis for future work on and with the estate.
This project is funded by University of Lancaster Knowledge Exchange
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