The School of Health & Social Care

BU lecturer is Portsmouth Libraries' 2012 Writer in Residence

Page published 7 February 2012

BU Midwifery lecturer and author Denyse King announced as Portsmouth Libraries' 2012 Writer in Residence.

Author, Denyse King will be spending one day a week in 2012 working as the Portsmouth Libraries' Writer in Residence. The role involves working with the local community on writing projects and activities to improve literacy skills.

The majority of Denyse's time will be spent carrying out literacy related work with children and young adults in their schools, the elderly, disabled and household residents. The remainder of her time will be used to develop her own work by drawing inspiration from the residency setting.

The ethos of Denyse's work is 'We Love Literacy- WeLL' which is focussed on the link between literacy and health outcomes.

As a result of her writer in residency role, two distinct pieces of work will be collected; the first is based around encouraging younger residents to contribute to an anthology of creating writing from workshops held throughout the community and in local schools.

There will also be a WeLL writing challenge for school teams at the Guildhall which will include a presentation of awards. Denyse also hopes to develop Literacy Champions, school-age volunteers who will provide literacy support for other children in their school.

The second piece of work will be focussed on engaging older Portsmouth residents to produce an account of local culture and history from their own perspective and memories through WeLL writing sessions at local venues.

Denyse comments “my residency is not just about working face-to-face with people, I will also be providing online projects and discussion groups in order to help overcome the barriers to participation posed by disability and isolation.”

Denyse qualified as a midwife in 1997, started working in public health in 2008 and lectures in midwifery at the School of Health and Social Care, Bournemouth University. As well as her expertise around pregnancy and newborns, Denyse has an interest in health protection work streams such as obesity and communicable diseases such as TB, and viral hepatitis.

For further information on Denyse who writes under the name, DJ Kirkby, please see her website which features a dedicated Writer in Residence tab.