In 2000 she was awarded a grant by Yorkshire and Humberside Arts to write a pamphlet of poems based on works of art from the Saatchi Collection. The same year, one of her poems on wind turbines was used as the basis for a short film ‘Not Born of the Earth’, screened at Penistone’s Paramount cinema in Yorkshire and at international film festivals.
Her poems have appeared in a number of journals and magazines including Staple, Sepia, The Affectionate Punch, The Yellow Crane, Other Poetry, Matter, Spiked, The Neon Highway. She has read at Sheffield’s Off The Shelf literary festival for three years running, at the Hallam Literature Festival 2002 and the Bradford Book Festival 2005.
She was commended in the Yorkshire Open Poetry Competition 2003.
For three years Carolyn jointly organised live monthly poetry readings in Sheffield, attracting nationally acclaimed poets and writers such as Joolz Denby, Char March, John Sewell and Diana Syder.
Recently she decided to combine two of her passions by taking up travel writing. Articles have appeared in the Yorkshire Post magazine, Country Walking, Fortean Times and various in-train and in-flight magazines, and she is now specialising in European destinations and environmentally-friendly travel.
Carolyn teaches journalism part-time at Sheffield Hallam University and works with Sheffield Young Writers as well as leading workshops for the city’s Gifted and Talented programme.
Try Carolyn's writing exercise...
Writing a Travel Article
- Think back to the last place you went on holiday. Pull out some photos, souvenirs, guidebooks to jog your memory.
- Now think about an unusual aspect of your trip which could give you an ‘angle’ for a travel article. It needs to be something that will make your piece of writing different to all the other articles about the place you’ve visited.
- It could be how you got there – e.g by yacht, bicycle or foot – or it could be where you stayed – in a tent, barge or with a family. It could even be something about the place itself, e.g Alaska, or the Sahara desert.
- Now write a 500 word article using the angle you’ve chosen. Your opening paragraphs need to draw the reader in by setting a scene or hinting at the content of the feature. Write in the first person and make your writing colourful, detailed and descriptive.
- Remember your reader will not have visited the place, but will visit it in their minds through your article. Small detail is good – e.g descriptions of local foods you tried, what kind of things are on sale in markets and shops, strange customs. The reader is looking for your personality to shine through in the writing, so be yourself!
- Structure is important. Make sure your article has a beginning, a middle and an end, and that each paragraph is linked to the next.
- At the end include websites, addresses or phone numbers of the company you travelled with and stayed with.
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