I have been writing poetry since I was a teenager but only seriously for about ten years and very seriously for the last five. I started to write again after many years of not doing, whilst I was a mature student on my first degree in English and Writing here at Leeds Trinity. Unviersity The creative writing modules helped me realise how much I had loved writing and helped me to see that poetry was where my interests and talent lie. But it was the MA in Creative Writing at Leeds Trinity which really gave me the confidence to send my work out to be published.

The support and encouragement from the tutors on the course was second to none and after the course I sent the collection of poems that was my dissertation to Indigo Dreams and they agreed to publish my pamphlet ‘Uninvited Guests’. Last year my full collection ‘Tadaima’ was published with Yaffle, a small publishing company that I am now involved with as an editor.

I did a teaching degree in 2015/16 and I now facilitate writing workshops in lots of different locations with a range of groups of people from all walks of life. Two years ago I was amazed to be asked to run a workshop at the Writers’ Festival at Leeds Trinity and this year will be the third one I have been part of as a workshop facilitator.

My workshop this year is called ‘Ready, Steady, Write’ and will be based on the fact that sometimes we need a bit of randomness as a springboard for our writing. It will be a bit like the T.V. programme ‘Ready Steady, Cook!’ but instead of a bag of cooking items, there will be a bag of words and perhaps some other prompts to pick out randomly. Then there’ll be a series of timed exercises to write using the raw ingredients that have been chosen. I love to write like this; to not really know where your writing will take you.

The best part of my life is helping others to find their way where their writing is concerned. The workshops I run are, I hope, very organic and not prescriptive, so that the participants find something to write about rather than be told how to write. My work with Yaffle is very fulfilling in that it allows me to help other poets publish their work and I know from experience what a wonderful feeling that is.

Gill Lambert is a widely published poet and teacher based in Yorkshire who graduated from Leeds Trinity in 2016 with an MA in Creative Writing. Her work has appeared in The Interpreter’s House, Strix and Prole and online on Clear Poetry, Algebra of Owls and Runcible Spoon and in anthologies published by Beautiful Dragons Press, Half Moon Books, Paper Swans Press, Indigo Dreams and Fair Acre Press. Gill's published work and upcoming writing workshops can be found on her website.