Parlour Press: The Collaborative Publisher at Carmarthen Book Fayre

    Councillor Kevin Madge/Vice Chair of Carmarthen County Council & Mrs Catrin Madge 

This weekend, I took my independent publishing press to Carmarthen Book Fayre. It was a fantastic experience. I met lots of people and it was a great opportunity to talk indepth about Parlour Press & my new SOUL INK collection. 

As a writer, I have developed an Award Winning Collaborative Publishing Press from the parlour of my little stone cottage in West Wales. By fostering partnership working, I visit and work with people of all ages and abilities, to help them 'write themselves well' through creative writing and publishing. 

I founded Parlour Press 17 years ago and since then, have published 52 books, written in collaboration with individuals, groups and communities, including Care Homes, Secure Units, Children in Care, Young Mums Projects, Young people who Self Harm, patients during renal dialysis, those living with dementia ...

Let me explain what I mean by 'Collaborative Publishing' and how my model of working makes positive social change for those individuals taking part and for the wider community. 

In this blog, I will speak to you about 'Postcards from Louie' and how, as a body of work, it has impacted my newest collection, SOUL INK, both of which were with me at Carmarthen Book Fayre.

I met Louise Davies in a Dementia Friendly Care Home in Llanelli when she was 92. I had been invited by Artscare Gofal Celf to run storytelling workshops for people with dementia and as we were finishing, Louise, or Louie as her friends call her, turned around in her wheel chair and asked me to 'Save her story'. 

The funding for my work had run out, but I felt it was a great privilege to work with someone in this way, to help them to remember themselves, so I agreed to carry on as a volunteer. 

The family agreed for me to submit the work for my Masters Degree in Drama, where I specialised in Applied Arts at the Atrium in Cardiff, part of the University of South Wales. I was absolutely thrilled to be awarded an Outstanding Contribution Award to Drama by the University. It was the first time that someone in this department had been given the award.

Postcards from Louie took on a life of its own. I organised an Exhibition at Greenspace Gallery in Carmarthen, performing the folk rhymes to a packed audience, including Louie's family who travelled to come and celebrate her life together. 

We organised a children's trail of Louie's memories, which led to work in Carmarthen schools and regular visits to the care home from the local children, with tea parties and sing- a- longs.

Postcards from Louie Talking Book became part of the National Talking Book Service and a welsh language version was created for the People's Collection Wales.

I was then invited to join the research team at the Wales School of Social Care & Research at Swansea University, to be part of the  'A Better Life' team, funded by Joseph Rowntree Foundation. 

This enabled me to work with a number of other older people attending dementia care facilities, supporting them to create their own resources, such as 'The Memoirs of Strang the Strong' which became an anti-bullying book in primary education and 'Singing with Betty and Friends', which became a resource for table top dementia choirs.

For this body of work I was absolutely astounded to be awarded the GOLD Wales National Care Award in 2015.

At Parlour Press, my work is grounded in applied writing and publishing, it is an innovative approach that creates a supportive environment for an individual, group or community , so that they are empowered to 'write themselves well' by  accessing the story of self, and in so doing, inspire others to write themselves well, too.

Let's have a look at the key strands running through my work ...

EMPOWERMENT: By collaborating with a writer and publisher (ME), Louie was enabled to create her own memory resource rather than have me do something for or to her. She is the voice of her own narrative and empowered through this. 

ENABLE: By publishing Louie's memory resources, the books and CD's became  resources for other older people, enabling older people to help each other and be heard in a meaningful and valued way. Part of feeling better is in the giving, as well as the receiving of support.

CONTINUITY OF SELF

Louie was able to retain and connect to a sense of self, to celebrate her identity and in so doing, continue to contribute to society in the ways that she always had before having dementia. Her family were also able to celebrate what she could still remember and be a part of collating that journey.

DECONSTRUCTING STEREOTYPES

As a collaborative writer and publisher, I am enabling people with chronic illness, disability and disadvantage the platform to make social change, deconstructing negative stereotypes through positive action and making visible the person behind the label as an equal stakeholder in devising resources.

SOCIAL HISTORY

My work enables us to capture and preserve a social history that is alove and vibrant, able to heal us rather than stay on a shelf or otherwise, be lost, so that we can build a living picture of our national and  richly human, cultural heritage.

POLITICS OF CARE

Louie's story opened up possibilities for her to contribute to national research, findings of which have changed policy with regard to social care for older people across the country. 

Even though I have done all this work, it was not until I awoke one morning 2 years ago with hearing loss, that I truly understood how creative writing adn publishing can not just enable us to write ourselves well, but it can actually save you. For sure, it saved me.

SOUL INK
My new collection of books is my own story, using the same model that I had developed with so many others, finding ways to write myself well and sharing those with others, so that they might be inspired to do the same.

When I first became deaf 2 years ago, I did not remember my own story. That sounds strange doesn't it, but I was so consumed by loss, that I forgot that I had spent 17 years honing a way of empowering other people to write themselves well. 

Once I remembered my sense of self identity by intensively working from the place of my own story, I realised that everything I needed to heal, was within me. From this seed, a beautiful pathway unfolded. 

A year ago, when my hearing disabilities held me almost a prisoner in my own home, it would not have even been possible to think that I would be at Carmarthen Book Fair talking to Councillor Kevin Madge, Vice Chair of Carmarthenshire County Council and his partner, about my collaborative model of working at Parlour Press. I am proof of the Parlour Press pudding, that I have spent all these years perfecting. 

My next adventure is organising Parlour Press, Llandysul Book Fair at The Porth Hotel 29th September where you can come and meet the lovely authors and poets of West Wales, whilst overlooking the beautiful Teifi River ...