About Me!

Hello! Dear Reader,

For a long time, my work was about creating space for other people’s voices.

I built programmes, led workshops, worked in communities, always around creativity, always around connection. Writing was there, but quietly. This is the point where it moves to the centre.

For nearly two decades, I’ve poured my energy into teaching, where storytelling became the heartbeat of my classrooms and lectures. I’ve taught at universities, led community workshops, and continue to volunteer at my local library, supporting young writers as they find their voice. But even as I helped others to write, I felt a quiet pull back to the page myself.

I’ve also travelled widely; not quite around the world in eighty days, but far enough for food, music, people and landscapes to shape the way I see and understand the world. Travel and literature, I’ve found, do much the same thing: they offer a moment of escape, while also bringing us closer to others. They ask us to step, however briefly, into someone else’s life and to carry that empathy back with us.

I’m currently studying for a Master’s in Creative Writing, and this Substack is where I document that process: the practice, the discipline, the uncertainty, and the slow shaping of a voice.

Alongside this, I am the Founder of Essex Young Writers, creating pathways for young people to write, publish and share their work. That belief that creativity builds confidence and connection sits at the heart of everything I do.

Here, I write about craft, process, and what it means to take writing seriously. I also speak with other writers, exploring how creative lives are built over time.

This is not finished work. It’s the thinking, the learning, and the making of it.

Speak soon,
Jessica

Why Subscribe?

This Substack is free; an open workshop, a writer’s studio in public.

By subscribing, you’ll receive two to three posts each month:

Writer Interviews (16th of each month)
Guest writers share insights, recommendations, and lessons from their practice

Writer’s Journal (1st of the month)
Sharing my journey through a Creative Writing Master’s and various projects I have along the way.

Work in Progress (ad hoc)
Original writing: excerpts from my novel, poems, and experimental fragments. A space to share the work as it evolves.