author | scriptwriter | creative writer facilitator
From my earliest years I made up stories. My imagination was my safe space where I felt powerful. It was my comfort, survival and escape. Later on my imagination was fuelled by reading. I devoured books, two or three a day. A product of public libraries I grew determined to become a writer.
I got into professional journalism through a backdoor after working for the alternative press and travelled across Europe and the Balkans as a freelance journalist. I was lucky and wrote for everything from International Freighting Weekly to La Repubblica's D Donna. When late motherhood arrived, I returned to the UK and fulfilled a long-held ambition to go to university. I was a single mother, a mature student and the first generation of my family to go into higher education. I finished my BA in Creative Writing in my forties, and then did an MA in Scriptwriting at the University of East Anglia.
Since then, I have written prose and plays, and have spent a great deal of time working as a creative facilitator in the community, firing children's imagination and supporting women to tell their stories.
Today I am working on a new book - working title writing class and memory, about growing up in a large, working class family and my relationship with words, stories, and writing. It is something I wish to share with others from a similar background. Take a look at my blog and join the conversation.
photo Simon M Smith
Belona is an author, scriptwriter and creative facilitator living in the East of England.
She writes prose and plays. She is a freelance scriptwriter and associate playwright at Concentric Circles Theatre Company as well as co-director of Script 6, a regional script development company.
Belona runs arts projects in schools and the community, and recently has published her book The Flying Shop of Imagination: Adventures in Creative Writing, produced in collaboration with artist Kate Munro.
She is part of Collaboration Place Change 2021 cohort of emerging cultural leaders in Norfolk and Suffolk.
As founder and co-organiser of Words and Women she was twice runner up in Women in Publishing’s Pioneering Venture Award and received the Norfolk Arts Award for ‘Outstanding Contribution to the Arts.’
writing class and memory
This year, I'm writing a memoir about growing up in a large, working class family, and my relationship with writing.
To inspire other women with similar life experiences, I am sharing the creative process in the writing of this book.
Please read my creative journal, leave a comment, write back to me and share your life experiences. I look forward to hearing from you.
A big thank you to Arts Council England for their support !