Write for Life Academy?

What’s it for?

Are you a creative with a passion for pro-life issues?

Have you ever felt that you have a creative project in you that would bring forth a pro-life story that needs telling, but you felt overwhelmed by the opposition you might face?
Have you written a play or some poems that defended unborn life in a compelling way but you just needed a bit more support or mentoring to get them performed?
Are you a creative who cares about issues of abortion, euthanasia, surrogacy and related issues of human value and dignity, but you felt that your defence of the vulnerable meant that you’d never get any funding?

Write for Life Academy and Activation Day

Well, this is the reason for the creation of the Write for Life Academy, dedicated to equipping a community of pro-life creatives who support each other to reach their creative goals and reach the culture.

Write for Life Academy is a joint initiative of the Society for the Protection of the Unborn Child (SPUC) and the BardSchool.

So, if you are a creative looking for support and inspiration to get your project off the ground, this could be the day you’re looking for – Activation Day!

Come to Activation Day

What will happen on Activation Day?

At Activation Day, you’ll:

Meet creatives like yourself with a passion for pro-life values and know you aren’t alone
Be encouraged by seeing examples of cultural projects from varied formats from comedy, to poetry to film that will surprise and entertain you
Gain an understanding of how messaging has been used by Hollywood, the media and campaigning organisations to manipulate the culture into normalising the unthinkable
Learn well-researched messaging strategies that could help your work have a greater impact for life
Be motivated by meeting people with important stories to tell, who need a creative to help them share them with the world
Have some fun at the workshops as you put some of your ideas to the test
Hear about potential funders who are looking for great projects to fund
Time to share projects on your heart with others and buddy up with fellow creatives, while establishing great contacts
Have the opportunity to sign up for courses and mentoring that will help give you a clearer path ahead

Be filled with hope and inspiration so that you can give hope and inspiration to our culture

Write for Life Activation Day:

Choose the option that works best for you:

London

14th September 2024

£25

Glasgow

21st September 2024

£25

Online

19th October 2024

£25

In Glasgow and London, Activation Day will be held in central and accessible locations.

The Online Activation Day will consist of 2 sessions: 3-6pm UK and 7-9pm UK to allow more of our friends in other time zones to participate. (Visit Time Zone Converte r to convert to your local times.)

To secure your place, simply fill in and submit this form, so that we get to learn a bit more about who you are, and where you are with your project or aspirations.

When your application has been accepted, we’ll send you a payment link. On receipt of payment, we will send details of the venue.

Apply for Activation Day

Meet your Activation Day facilitators:

Tom Rogers

Society for the Protection of Unborn Children

Tom Rogers PhD FHEA is Cultural Outreach and Project Manager for the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children.

He is a writer, producer, academic, educationist, activist, and campaigner. He is a former university lecturer of English literature, with many years’ experience in providing teaching and training to a variety of clients.

He is co-ordinator of SPUC’s Life Voice programme, which provides live theatre and drama-based RSE workshops and resources for UK schools.

He recently collaborated with Sarah de Nordwall on a production of her play, The LifeSpan Tour, which premiered at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Sarah De Nordwall

The Bardschool

The bards of old were the storytellers and poets of 8th Century Ireland who were tasked with speaking truth to the King without fear and enticing them with works of imagination and beauty into letting go of their fears of confronting the dangers and possibilities of reality.

Sarah de Nordwall has been enjoying being a modern Bard with a Bardschool for more than 20 years – writing and performing poetry and plays from Transylvania to Saskatoon with which to entertain audiences from the House of Lords to the Edinburgh Festival and provoke some frontier conversations. She trained at Central School of Speech and Drama, London University and Berkley, California. She is an award-winning poet and her audio books Lipstick is a Spiritual Experience and A Beginner’s Guide to Opening the World with Words are available on Audible and Bandcamp.

She’s been a Catholic voice on TV and Radio, debating with Ann Furedi, the former head of BPAS and also discussing the ethics of abortion on BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour with Merle Hoffman – the founder of abortion facilities across America. She was the performance poet at Bishop Barron’s UK conference Sharing the Church’s story in 2023 and is now a regular broadcaster on Radio Maria. Her regular interactive Bardcast is available on Spotify and Apple and is gleaning a loyal listenership and inspiring some fresh writing from the listeners.

She has worked with Action Aid in Pakistan and India, learning about the role of the arts in social change. She teaches Write in the Light courses that can be accessed online and are open to all who seek to recover their creativity in the light of grace. She set up a Bardschool to encourage and equip other Catholic and Christian creatives to find their voice and step out into the culture with faith and confidence.

Last year she collaborated with SPUC and Parley Ensemble to bring her sci fi play The Lifespan Tour, to the Edinburgh Festival – it fused dialogue and poetry to reveal the mystical dimension of life before birth, broach the subject of the abolition of woman and the enticements of feminised AI and touched upon the possibility of the experience of Grace being revealed in virtual reality. – all of which illustrated that catholic works both comic and philosophical can find fresh audiences in the most unlikely of spaces.

What others say about working with Sarah:

Tell a friend

Is there a talented pro-life creative who you think would get a lot out of this day or a potential Artangel who might financially support a specific project? Do forward this page on to them as it could be the opportunity they’ve been waiting for.

Pray for us

We are also looking for prayer support and if you know people who would support specific projects and this Activation Day with their prayers then we’d be very grateful if you could ask them to get in touch. We want to build circles of support for all our creatives and producers that will enable them to sustain the work that lies ahead!