Words of a Feather
România
Bun venit! Mai jos găsiți informații despre atelierele pe care le oferim în cadrul studioului de scriere creativă cu sediul în Oradea, România. 💫
Read the story of WOAF & WOAF Romania below!
Despre atelierele noastre:
Din februarie 2024, prozatoarea Livia Creț coordonează ateliere de scriere creativă cu copii și adulți, săptămânal, în diverse locații din Oradea. În plus, Livia colaborează cu specialiști din domenii precum literatură comparată, psihologie, sociologie, muzică ș.a.m.d. pentru a realiza evenimente interdisciplinare.
*Biografia completă a Liviei o găsiți la finalul paginii. De asemenea, puteți citi câteva dintre textele ei aici.
Tipurile de ateliere și evenimente propuse
✒️ Ateliere de scriere creativă pentru copii (9 - 15 ani) și adulți, săptămânal – o săptămână cu copii, una cu adulți.
▶ Pornind de la texte de ficțiune, poezie, mișcări literare, biografii, filme sau alți stimuli, coordonatoarea și participanții poartă un dialog prealabil scrierii. Astfel, se pot naște diferite direcții de interpretare a stimulului propus și se poate aprofunda subiectul. Apoi, Livia prezintă exercițiile concepute pentru atelier și oferă exemple, acolo unde există și își au locul.
Exercițiile pot fi împărțite în mai multe etape sau se pot rezuma la o singură cerință. În orice caz, exercițiile de scriere sunt menite să trezească interesul participanților pentru o temă sau o tehnică literară cu care au intrat sau nu în contact până în acel moment.
Important de menționat este că, în acord cu viziunea noastră non-elitistă, atelierele sunt potrivite pentru orice persoană cu înclinații creative. Nu trebuie să aveți experiență prealabilă cu scrisul sau să fi publicat undeva, ci doar să veniți cu mintea și inima deschise.
Exemple de stimuli folosiți la atelierele de scriere pentru adulți: personajele din romanul Oameni anxioși, de Fredrik Backman, povestea The Last Question, de Isaac Asimov, conceptul cărții The White Book, de Han Kang, citate din filmul Predestination, caligramele lui Jacques Prévert, etc.
Exemple de stimuli folosiți la atelierele de scriere pentru copii: scenarii cu spații libere pe care copiii să le termine de scris și să le performeze, reinterpretarea poveștii din spatele sărbătorii japoneze Tanabata, descrieri pornind de la stimuli tactili, povești cu personaje deslușite în imagini cu fenomenul pareidolia, personificarea fenomenelor naturale, etc.
✒️ O dată pe an, vara, are loc Tabăra de activități literare WOAF România, în Oradea, pe o perioadă de aproximativ 3 zile.
În aceste zile, copiii sunt angajați în jocuri reinterpretate literar (șotron literar cu antonime și sinonime, fazan fără să ne închidem), în exerciții de scrapbooking, found poetry și multe altele.
✒️ Tot o dată pe an, la finalul primăverii, Livia derulează pentru copii un concurs literar. Ea propune o temă pe care o discută cu copiii, stabilind posibilele direcții, iar apoi copiii au la dispoziție două săptămâni să termine și să trimită textul pentru concurs.
Fiecare concurs îi responsabilizează și disciplinează pe copii, iar în urma deliberării, există trei locuri premiate cu cărți și diplome pentru toți participanții/toate participantele. 📚
✒️ Atelierele WOAF România în școli
S-a dus vorba-n târg despre atelierele noastre, astfel încât, încă din 2024, Livia Creț a desfășurat atelierele la mai multe școli din Oradea și Beiuș.
🗞️ Presă
S-a dus vorba chiar mai departe, WOAF România ajungând până la urechile unor persoane care desfășoară campanii de promovare a agenților culturali, precum campania Cine sunt Iele, organizată de cântăreața Leyah. Puteți citi interviul care i-a fost luat Liviei aici.
O altă apariție în presă a avut loc în ziarul local din Oradea – Jurnal Bihorean.
Viziunea noastră
În cadrul atelierelor WOAF ne dorim să închegăm o comunitate de scriitori și oameni creativi din toate domeniile, fără discriminări. Departe de noi gândul de a forma un grup elitist și rigid. Din contră, apreciem insightul fiecărui participant și individualitatea.
Mai întâi și mai întâi scriem pentru plăcerea pe care ne-o procurăm din actul creator. Este cu totul emoționantă legătura cu acest meșteșug atunci când scriem pentru a ne autoexamina gândurile, pentru a aprofunda întrebări sau pentru a dezmorți trăiri.
Cum să vă alăturați
Dacă ce ați citit până acum v-a făcut curios/curioasă, vă invităm să completați acest formular și/sau să o contactați direct pe Livia pe paginile de Facebook sau Instagram (@wordsofafeather_romania).
Contact
Pentru colaborări sau orice fel de întrebări, o puteți contacta pe Livia pe rețelele de socializare ale studioului WOAF România sau la adresa de email: livia@wordsofafeather.co
How did we come to have studios in Australia and Romania?
Each time we mention that we are connected to a studio on the other side of the world, people ask us how we came to work together. So here it is! The story of Words of a Feather (WOAF), founded by Amy Han, and WOAF Romania, led by Livia Creț.
We decided to share the story from both of our perspectives. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have enjoyed bringing our dream studios to life, together from across the globe.
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Amy Han, Founder of Words of a Feather
Livia and I met at a Le Phare Collectif writing workshop in Paris in 2022. We stayed connected on Instagram over the next year, as Livia completed her Masters in Creative Writing, and I moved back and forth between Paris and Melbourne, sharing updates about my own writing and creative writing studio along the way.
In September 2023, I returned to Paris, and for the first time in over a decade, put my whole business on pause. We’d never quite found our footing again in this post-2020 world; I was burnt out and needed space to reassess everything. Who and what were we now? What did we have to offer, that was needed in this time? What kind of world did we want to help create for young and emerging writers? Who did I need to help make this happen?
Livia and I met up a few times, at art and book-filled, hole-in-the-wall cafes, and one of the many lively spoken word events around the city. We talked and talked. For two people who hadn’t really spoken before, conversation came easily. We were both at an in-between moment in life. We were enlivened by similar dreams - to use our skills and passion for creative writing for good - and the belief that a way existed for us to spin these dreams into reality. As we encouraged each other, it became clear that we were also encouraging ourselves.
Days before Livia was set to move back to her hometown in Romania, she asked if there was a way for us to work together. She wanted to do what I do, and I wanted to connect with people who wanted to do what I do. I knew she’d be great at it. She is passionate, a fantastic writer, had teaching experience, and is so engaging to listen to! Her energy sparks off her and makes me want to dive straight in - to writing, to the business of creating spaces for writers, to building a community. So of course I said I’d support her to start up her own branch of Words of a Feather in Romania. I wish I’d had some guidance when I started. I have loved supporting her over these first few months (it feels like much longer!), working together, writing together, dreaming together, and seeing her take WOAF Romania from strength to strength. It is becoming more her own business every day.
I’m so glad we met and have no doubt we’ll find ourselves in the same corner of the world again one day! Till then, the internet is an amazing thing, making the distance barely existent. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for WOAF, WOAF Romania, and all of us. With the right people by your side, anything is possible.
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Livia Creț, Coordinator of Words of a Feather Romania
At the time, I was an MA student in Creative Writing in Paris. It felt like a dream, but there was also a sense of pressure to enjoy and enrich myself with everything the city and its broad legacy of writers had to offer.
I had decided to sign up for the creative writing workshops offered by the writers' association Le Phare Collectif, which I heard about from Lola, a University of Kent alumna, who was also part of the collective.
In 2022, in the Zig-Zag Café close to the Pantheon, I met Amy, along with other fellow writers.
When she introduced herself, I instantly felt compelled to talk to her more about her business - a creative writing studio for kids in Melbourne. That was partly because I had experience in offering workshops (in philosophy) to kids, and I wanted to compare our approaches. The other reason I wanted to speak to her was the text Amy wrote during that workshop, in which she had to describe a laundromat without using the word itself (an exercise of showing, not telling).
She was seated on my left, and I could pick up her delicate, tiny handwriting. When she read the exercise, I felt mesmerised by her capacity to explain the laundromat so well through sounds (e.g. sneakers kicking the glass door - ba-dump, ba-dump). I remember it perfectly. I was impressed with her writing and hoped I would have a chance to talk to her after the workshop.
Well, the talk didn't happen in the near future, because that was the only workshop I ended up being able to attend. But I searched for Amy on Instagram, and that was it for the time being.
In the summer of 2023, Le Phare Collectif launched its first trilingual anthology, in which one of Amy's texts was featured. I was surprised to see her in the book and eager to read what she'd written. But I didn't expect the story to be so relatable to my experience with shared houses and apartment mates.
I contacted Amy to congratulate her on the piece. After that, we kept in contact on IG and said we would meet when she was back in Paris. And we did. In a little café not far from the one where we first met, where plants were in a frenzy and the owner, such a nice lady, felt like a character in a Ghibli movie.
We sat inside, where mice roamed around, which felt both unsettling and whimsical, like being part of a children's story.
Amy and I discussed our lives, how we ended up in Paris, what we like to write, the publishing industry, and how we could collaborate.
What prompted me to approach Amy, months after our first random shared workshop, was the hope that we could somehow connect and collaborate as writers. I was about to finish my MA and started looking for jobs in the field, but had no luck until that point. Amy told me about her experience in the UK, where she moved after graduation, how it wasn't easy for her either, but how she persevered and listened to her intuition. After moving back to Melbourne, she decided to take things into her own hands, giving up marketing or other types of jobs.
Slowly but steadily, she grew her business, and her story simply inspired me. I admired her for not giving up her passion and wondered how I could do the same.
The second time we met in 2023, at an Open Mic Night at the famous literary joint Culture Rapide, we permitted ourselves to dream about opening a branch of Amy's studio in Romania. Hope bloomed in my heart - I had Amy's support, she understood what I was going through, trying to secure a job, and she was keen to help transform the Romanian branch into reality.
She herself was in a place where she needed a change - Amy wanted to rebrand her studio, add more events to her regular schedule, and open up to an adult audience. There was a lot of work to be done, but she didn't back off. Again, she impressed me with her level of devotion to the craft of writing and her genuine wish to create a community for writers in Melbourne and worldwide.
During our third meeting, we pinned down the important aspects, because I was set to leave Paris in a week and go back to Romania. I wish I had more time to spend with her in Paris, but that wasn't the last I've seen of Amy. We had several online meetings to organise our collaboration, and she was there for me 100%, so kind and patient with me to find my rhythm with the workshops.
It was a lucky happenstance, our meet, as I had only participated in that one Le Phare Collectif workshop. Our paths crossed at the right time and the right place, and that's a memento for "nothing is coincidental".
Who knows what would've happened if I'd been able to continue going to these workshops or if Amy hadn't come to that first workshop? A palette of possibilities extends just as I think of how any little change in our decisions could have led to a different outcome.
Amy is now in Australia, and I'm in Romania, leading the branch we opened. We see each other online during workshops and keep in contact through long voice messages.
It would be hard to express the extent to which I am grateful for having met Amy and for her openness and willingness to help me pursue my passion for creative writing. I have rarely met people who embrace the unknown, the challenges in life, the serendipitous moments lying ahead of us.
May our studios keep growing to encompass as many creatives as possible! I am sure that Amy and I are fated to meet again, face to face, in a ruin pub in Paris, Romania, Australia, or who knows where.