Avril Joy
Avril Joy is a published novelist and former Head of Learning and Skills at HMP Low Newton a women's prison. She has over twenty years experience in working with groups in the varying roles of teacher, facilitator and trainer. She has recently put this experience to good use running local writing workshops including a series of three, held at the Bishop Auckland Town Hall, entitled; The Road To Publication. In August 2008 she gave up her position in the Prison Service to concentrate solely on her career as a writer.
Avril says:
‘I am very excited about RoomToWrite and looking forward to our first weekend course in November. When I finally 'got out' of prison in August of last year writing became my main occupation. However running writing workshops has also become an important and growing part of my new life. I am passionate about workshopping and always feel at home in group of writers: simply the best people. This is where I believe I can share some of the things I’ve learned, and am still learning, on my own rocky road to publication. I believe in the power of inspiring workshops, as it was in such a weekend workshop, run by Wendy Robertson and the late Julia Darling that I began my novel The Sweet Track, published by Flambard Press in 2007. If I can do it, so can you! I am currently working on a novel about a young woman in prison but have also been writing stories and poems, keeping a journal and developing a blog’
You can visit my blog at - Writing Junkie