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Steve Dearden

@stevedearden.bsky.social
86 followers 98 following 16 posts
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 17/07/2026
It’s been a pleasure helping Shehla Ali bring this into the world. Not just for the hope despite ghosting by medical professionals as she sought diagnosis of invisible FND, but also its honesty about attitudes to illness among family and the community. Buy @ www.aboutme.group/store
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
“An intense, compelling romantic novel for young adults and old” - the debut from a Squad grad Ellen Osborne arrives at Squad HQ!! Out this week from Guppy Books!! www.writingsquad.com/book-shelf/
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Around Sheffield on Wednesday night? Queer Poets Reading brings together three poets living in Sheffield to celebrate queer poetry in the National Year of Reading. Free tickets!
writingsquad.com
Queer Poets Reading - The Writing Squad
Sheffield poets Sarah Lasoye, Eden Chicken and Beth Davies (Sheffield Poet Laureate) in conversation about their work with Susie Wilson.
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Gregory @gregorykearns.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
In my conversation with @kymdeyn.bsky.social we explore how they use punctuation in their debut collection Folkish, how Tarot card reading can be like structured improv, and the importance of tricksters. Listen wherever good podcasts can be heard
open.spotify.com
Episode 48: Kym Deyn - "My poetry goes squelch"
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 20/04/2026
Always a good start to the week when you receive new books by a Squad writer, especially when it’s a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and contains big thanks to Squad mentor Stevie Ronnie! ninearchespress.com/publications...
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 01/02/2026
The Writing Squad “collective” - I like the sound of that! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
bbc.co.uk
'I'm annoyed I'd never heard of fulfilling Elizabeth Gaskell'
Works from writers-in-residence inspired by the Victorian novelist are published in a new book.
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 20/12/2025
Four brilliant pieces from four brilliant Writing Squad writers in Writing the Archive 2 - responding to Manchester Poetry Library, MMU Special Collections and the Northern Film Archive www.writingsquad.com/push/issues/...
writingsquad.com
ISSUE 20 - The Writing Squad
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 24/09/2025
If you get a chance to catch this brilliant, funny, heartbreaking play by Writing Squad team member Emma Adams - then late your way to Bradford!!
bradford2025.co.uk
Otherhood | Bradford 2025
A story of radical love and found family.
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 28/08/2025
Chatted to Wakefield Museums Senior Curator Steph Webb re possible Squad collaborations. God wasn’t in Creative Cafe today but it was nice to feel the presence of characters from my online novella for - still trapped in my story or a decade older? Judge for yourself at wakelost dot com
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 15/08/2025
Delving back into all the wonderful thoughts, prompts, conversations Squad writers have had as Poetry Business Digital Writers in Residence here's a weird dialogue and some found jewels from our first handover between Helen Bowell and Lenni Sanders poetrybusiness.co.uk/2021/03/06/l...
poetrybusiness.co.uk
Lenni Sanders and Helen Bowell: a weird dialogue - The Poetry Business
Helen Bowell & Lenni Sanders, our February & March Digital Poets-in-Residence create a collaborative poem using answers from questions presented to TPB's Twitter followers...
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
Just been to this excellent one person show/musical by recent Writing Squad recruit Eli Yim - moving, funny, pulls no mental health punches if you’re near Buxton tomorrow afternoon catch their last performance www.writingsquad.com/event/the-ea...
writingsquad.com
The Easy Way Out at Buxton Fringe - The Writing Squad
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Comma Press @commapress.bsky.social · 25/07/2025
The Home Office could allow them in with a click of their fingers (as they did with Ukrainian and Afghan visas) but they’re refusing, write to your local MP now. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/j...
theguardian.com
The Gaza students with scholarships to UK unable to take up their places
Visa obstacles threaten to dash the hopes of 40 students due to start in September. Here are some of their stories
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 17/07/2025
On 2 August, head to SHORTS at Stockroom for 3 new short plays - one by new Squad 12 member Sadie Pearson!
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Mack Sproates has been made a New Writing North Emerging Creative Associate 2025! Mack is one of ten early career writers and artists who are receiving bursaries, individual mentoring, training and networking over six months 🤩
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Mack is a New Writing North Creative Associate - The Writing Squad
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 24/07/2025
Some fabulous Squad reviewers have been working with the Poetry Book Society recently: Tayiba Sulaiman, Gregory Kearns, Kayleigh Jayshree, Jasmine Gray, Beth Davies and Jenny Danes! You can check out their work in the Summer & Autumn bulletins 🗞️
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Meet our poet selectors - The Poetry Book Society
Our expert team of poet selectors read hundreds of poetry books and pamphlets, submitted in an open call to all publishers big and small.
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 11/07/2025
This morning’s treasure at the Writing Squad hq!
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
Fantastic to watch the live stream of ⁦‪Malika Booker‬⁩ dancing to receive her Doctorate ⁦‪at the Uni of Newcastle‬⁩ - we are so lucky to have her as a member of the Writing Squad’s Core Team!
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 17/06/2025
No idea if you’re in Aarhus tomorrow but, if you happen to be, drop by at Godsbanen, Vogn 1 at 19.30 to listen to what this lot cooked up in Aalborg last April and over the last few days here, and if you can’t catch us then, we’ll be at Manchester Literature Festival in October.
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 12/06/2025
Always good to see a Writing Squad writer and erstwhile colleague’s work on a main stage - catch Billie Collins brilliant The Walrus has a Right to Adventure at Liverpool Everyman until June 21st.
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Welcome back Mr Frog! Welcome to Squad 12! Our first Workshop with new Squad recruits was in Leeds today with Core Team member Emma Adams. In How to Find Your Focus we reminded ourselves to play, sketch, is watch, listen, start stuff then do something completely different!
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 28/05/2025
Treasure arrives at HQ @thewritingsquad.bsky.social
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 24/05/2025
All lines lead to York today for Nowhere Places, Squad writers working with @stevieronnie & @SteveDearden to devise and produce personal projects in response to the climate crisis.
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 23/05/2025
Congratulations to Amy Luxton, who has won The Bridge Awards /Moniack Mhor 2025 Emerging Writer Award! This award provides focused development support for emerging writers of fiction 🏆
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Amy Wins The Bridge Awards /Moniack Mhor 2025 Emerging Writer Award - The Writing Squad
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Gregory @gregorykearns.bsky.social · 14/04/2025
My interview with Hera Lindsay Bird dropped this morning. Check it out! We talked about her super fandom of the writer Mark Leidner, children’s literature and the New Zealand poetry scene. Find it on Spotify here
open.spotify.com
Episode 12: Hera Lindsay Bird
The Poems We Made Along The Way · Episode
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The Braag | Press & Journal @thebraag.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
Issue 11.5 of Carmen et Error is here! A gorgeous, queer and very tender issue, courtesy of our guest editor Chloe Elliott. 💚 carmenerror.com?page_id=510
carmenerror.com
Issue 11.5 - Carmen et Error
t-boy brotherhood (for Jay)by Louie Rudge i’ll tell you something/ i hated myselftil i met you/ saw the sun lift you outof your boots/ it’s not fair, so many of uswanting to die in the dark because th...
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 15/02/2025
She tells me she comes here to sleep. In the blue rippling/theatre of the everyday, people find in public pools/what believers search for when they pray. Jay Mitra on pool friendship and northern lights - the Squad in Iceland ~[https://www.writingsquad.com/push/issues/issue-19/two-poems-jay-mitra/
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Beth Davies @bethdaviespoet.bsky.social · 10/02/2025
If you're not already subscribed to Gregory's podcast The Poems We Made Along The Way, you're missing out on warm and insightful conversations with the likes of Helen Mort, Roger Robinson, Ella Frears, and many more amazing poets! Subscribe now and you can catch up before Season 3 😊 tr.ee/MS3R7Y1hKV
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thepoemswemade | Instagram | Linktree
Exploring the power of poetry and friendship one conversation at a time.
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Gregory @gregorykearns.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
The new episode of The Poems We Made Along The Way is now live. The first interview is with the amazing Liz Berry. We talked about the importance of libraries, Liz’s love of zines and the positive sides of the internet. You can listen to it on Spotify
open.spotify.com
Episode 11: Liz Berry
The Poems We Made Along The Way · Episode
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 24/02/2025
‘Evening.’ The casual way he says it makes her teeth grind. Her spine goes rigid. ‘Evening.’ The casual audacity of it. Neighbours - a rare short story from Lydia Marchant - the Squad in Iceland
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The Neighbour – Lydia Marchant - The Writing Squad
Every couple of hours or so she thinks about the things she has lost. Never people. Not yet. Warm chicken nuggets in the car park with the radio turned up and the rain hammering down. Starchy Premier…
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 04/03/2025
Mountains and plains/Waters and cities/Rip off their white fur coat/Moaning sweatily/I can’t breathe in this heat! Ingólfur Eiríksson going down down down - the Squad in Iceland
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Down Down Down – Ingólfur Eiríksson - The Writing Squad
I. Catacombe. There is a great risk of moisture damage here. My nose glued to the damp wall And the bunk that I have buried myself in Decayed like an ancient dock But I have never been afraid of…
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Emma Adams @emmabob3.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
Are you a young writer? Do you work with or know young folks? 👇🏻 Listen up! @thewritingsquad.bsky.social is recruiting 👇🏻 We are AWESOME & FREE. Yes FREE 👇🏻 So? 16 -22, live, work or study in the North of England? 👇🏻 APPLY! 👇🏻 www.writingsquad.com/join-the-squ... Deadline 31st March 🔥PASS IT ON🔥 😘😘😘😘😘😘😘
writingsquad.com
Join the Squad - The Writing Squad
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 15/03/2025
All lines lead to London this morning for a workshop with Squad Grad and Core2 Team Member Helen Bowell on poetry, prose and the lyric essay!
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 14/03/2025
Good to be in Hull today at #CulturalTides2025 for the launch of Hull’s Culture & Heritage Strategy and hear speakers from Rejkjavik (see our Iceland Push) and Aarhus where we’ll be going in June!
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Your great tail will follow me home, In the corner/Of my eye, I see whales. Always whales/In the movement of headlights, the shadow of a streetlamp/Reflections in the window of the bus. @detrivore-core sharing the results of their Squad International Residency in Iceland
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Cetancients – Katie (Tom) Walters - The Writing Squad
Blue Whale Model, Natural History Museum Suspended in the centre of the mammals gallery, and utterly dominating the room, the natural history museum’s blue whale model is an iconic aspect of the…
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 01/03/2025
All lines lead to thinking about arts leadership with Squad grad Laura Attridge and @SteveDearden in York. Who, why, how and in what ways can we support Squad writers as leaders in future?
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 12/02/2025
Arrive back from holiday to find treasure waiting @thewritingsquad hq from the brilliant Dilettante
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 12/01/2025
Massively enjoyed running a public workshop at Helen Clapcott’s exhibition at Stockport Art Gallery this afternoon and a lovely surprise to have her join us to hear our reflections and responses.
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The Writing Squad @thewritingsquad.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
At Elizabeth Gaskell’s House today to plan for residencies by Squad writers to bring her writing and social concerns to a new generation of readers in MCR City of Literature
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
On my way to Leeds for a National Poetry Centre consultation listening to Helen Bowell’s joyful Squadcast with Gregory Kearns www.writingsquad.com/squad-pod/
writingsquad.com
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Steve Dearden @stevedearden.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
We’re not sorry really
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