Elspeth Murray
Home address:
40/1 Woodhall Road, Edinburgh, EH13 0DUTelephone:
0131 441 9693Email:
elspeth@elspethmurray.comWebsite:
www.elspethmurray.comBRAW network:
noLL funded:
yesBiography:
I call myself ‘Poet and Wordsmith’ because for me it’s not just about writing poems, it’s enjoying the art and craft of playing with words. Wordsmith is bit of an old-fashioned word but I like it.
As well as reveling in poetry projects, I also work with my husband Richard Medrington as touring Stage Manager for his wonderful puppetry and storytelling show The Man Who Planted Trees.
I grew up in rural Cumbria and Blairgowrie, Perthshire and have lived in Edinburgh since I began studying Social Anthropology in 1989.
About writer's work:
So, I am a poet and wordsmith and have done a lot of collaborative work in education, theatre, film, business and health. The first ‘poet in residence’ job I did was in 2003, along with Donny O’Rourke at the PR company Great Circle and I was very pleased that it won an Arts & Business award. Since then I’ve worked as poet in residence at Scottish Widows, Glasgow Fort shopping park and for mental health and carers projects. I had the chance to talk about some of these projects in a Radio 4 programme on 9th October 2008, National Poetry Day, which that year had the theme of ‘work’.
I have taken part in several Arts Across the Curriculum projects and have led poetry workshops in schools in Edinburgh, Glasgow, East Renfrewshire and Argyll and Bute.
With the Scottish Poetry Library I have been Poet in Residence at librarian training events, their ‘Reading Poetry Aloud’ workshop as well as projects with Sciennes Primary and Trinity High School.
Flip Flotsam is one of my favourite poems and it has a great story attached to it. It helped to inspire a flip-flop recycling scheme in Kenya and is featured in the multi-award-winning documentary of the same name about the life cycle of flip-flops. The poem is featured in The Thing That Mattered Most.
I am interested in frog conservation, health information, environmental issues, peace-building, mild but enthusiastic internet geekery, beaches, golf, fashion and chocolate.
In 2009 I took part as a mentor in the Scottish Book Trusts three-way mentoring scheme and learnt a great deal about teaching poetry through the Scotland Chicago Teaching Artists Exchange Opportunity with the Scottish Arts Council. I was inspired to set up a poetry teaching blog at the end of that exchange and am using it to track the different projects I'm involved with and to share online poetry resources that I find useful.
About writer's events and projects:
No two audiences, no two groups or classes are the same. I’m willing to hear from you about ideas you have for events and projects and look forward to discussing how our combined brilliant ideas can make for a memorable and creative happening.
We might make things, write things, listen to poetry, become better readers of poetry, match words with pictures, hear new music, upload a whirl of words, discover things we already knew, become inspired …
Links to other websites:
http://www.elspethmurray.com/gigs.htm
http://www.elspethmurray.com/poems.htm
http://elspethmurray.wordpress.com/
Language:
Scots, EnglishAge groups:
5-8, 9-12, Teens, AdultsBooks written
Atoms of Delight is an anthology of Scottish haiku and other short poetic forms, including epigrams, proverbs, couplets, spaces, one-line poems, and one-word poems.
What is the thing that matters most? Is it a sly kiss? An abandoned flip flop? A pebble? A rainbow in a puddle? The wolf in the park? A dreaming house? Saying sorry? Asking why? Is it in the water, ...
