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Tessa Ransford
Tessa Ransford was born in India, educated in Scotland and has lived all her adult life in Scotland apart from eight years working in Pakistan in the 1960s. She has published eleven books of poems since the mid-seventies, and has also led a busy working life as founder/director of the Scottish Poetry Library since it opened in 1984 until after its establishment in new premises in 1999, as founder/organiser of the School of Poets poetry workshop (1981-99) and as editor of Lines Review poetry magazine from 1988 until its final issue, number 144 in 1998. Poems, essays and articles have been published in many magazines and anthologies and in translation. She is now working as a freelance poetry adviser and practitioner, with special interest in relating poetry to those working creatively in other fields. Tessa set up the Callum Macdonald Memorial Award to encourage the publishing of poetry in pamphlets. It organizes an annual Christmas pamphlet fair with the support of the National Library of Scotland and other sales/fairs for pamphlets throughout the year. She is helping, through Scottish PEN's education section, to open up seminars and workshops in schools on censorship and freedom of speech issues, together with the responsibilities of the professional writer in today's world. She is working with others towards establishing Edinburgh as a city of refuge for asylum-seeking writers.
Here is a description from the course publicity: The best lack all conviction, while the worst "Was Yeats right? Can we find a balance so that we can use our creative skills effectively? Can writing change anything? Should writers be engaged in the public domain or should they remain 'outside the action'? Should we look for meaning in anything? What are we writing for? More and more thoughtful people are concerned to use their skills in the service of a larger cause, perhaps to save the planet, perhaps to promote international understanding with new ways of thinking and living that are more sustainable and just. They want to develop their skill in writing to communicate such ideas. Not only through articles and journalism, but also through creative writing in poetry, stories, novels, it is possible to search for meaning and explore hopes for a better world. Action alone can be misinterpreted. The word is still a strong creative force. Are we remaining silent for the wrong reasons? Is there a 'time to speak and to write'? Whether you are a writer who wants to be more of an activist or an activist who wants to do more writing, this course will help you to focus and to achieve your aims. The weekends will offer information and inspiration; the tutorials will make the opportunity to look at your work and to build up a folder of good writing in various forms. A suggested reading list will be provided." The course ran from January to April 2004 with three full-day workshops and three sets of three intervening tutorials. Session One Session Two Session Three
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