MASTERCLASS: Archives as Inspiration: a Day with Novelist Sarah Smith

Archives as Inspiration: a Day with Novelist Sarah Smith  
Saturday 20th July, 10.30am – 3pm
Tickets available here. Masterclass tickets are £65 and include a two course lunch and a tea or filter coffee. 

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Do you feel drawn to historical fiction, but don’t know where to start? Are you drawn to your own family history, but baffled about how to go about the task of putting the information together? Then this day masterclass with novelist Sarah Smith is for you. 

The day will give you confidence in how to find and use archival material. Sarah’s aim is to demystify the process of archival research: explaining what an archive is, demonstrating the range of materials available to you, and how to use what you find as a jumping-off point for your own writing, whatever medium you choose. 

Sarah will introduce a variety of archives – big and small, general and specialist, local and global – and how they can be accessed. You might be surprised to find how much is freely available to you online! The class will then look at some recent examples of creative practitioners have developed work in response to archival records, before starting to draft work of their own (be that an original piece, a research plan, or something else). 

Participants will end the day with a discussion, leaving with renewed confidence about accessing historical materials. 

Sarah Smith is a writer from Glasgow, Scotland whose poetry, flash fiction and short stories have been published in a wide variety of print and online anthologies and magazines. Her debut novel, Hear No Evil (2022) was inspired by the landmark case of Jean Campbell, the first deaf person to be tried in the High Court in Scotland.

Whatever the format, Sarah’s work explores themes around marginalised individuals, social history, and popular culture. As well as writing, Sarah has spent thirty years working on projects that support disabled people to access learning, employment, and cultural opportunities; she still works as a creative writing tutor, most recently with Glasgow Mental Health Network.

Tickets available here. Masterclass tickets are £65 and include a two course lunch and a tea or filter coffee. 

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This event is in-person only. Please note, tickets cannot be refunded or used for another event if ticketholders are unable to attend. All ticket purchases support us to care for the Library building and the collections it holds. As a charity, Gladstone's Library receives no government funding, so all purchases, Gift Aid and donations, are deeply appreciated.

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A print and collect service is available to those without access to email facilities for a small charge to cover our admin costs. Call 01244 532350 or email [email protected] for more information. Printed tickets will be available to collect from Reception before the event.