The Creative Writing Breakfast at Poetry Pharmacy

The Creative Writing Breakfast is back at Poetry Pharmacy on Friday 20 November, running from 10:00 to 11:30. It's a 90-minute free-flow writing workshop led by the pharmacy's founder, London-based writer Laurie Bolger. No experience is needed and newbies are welcome, so you don't need to have a portfolio or even a regular writing habit to turn up.

If you've never come across it, Poetry Pharmacy bills itself as the world's first walk-in Poetry Pharmacy. It's been dispensing poetry since 2011, starting from the back of a vintage ambulance. Bolger has worked as the 'Emergency Poet' at festivals, hospitals, libraries and schools, handing out poems-in-pills under an awning to reach people who don't usually encounter the form, with a mission to make poetry inviting and to support mental health. The breakfast club is part of that same ethos: a low-pressure space to get words down on paper.

Bolger herself is a London writer who was shortlisted for Young Poet Laureate for London and won The Moth Poetry Prize. She's published Makeover, Spin and Lady, and her work has appeared at Glastonbury, the Roundhouse, the Tate, Sky Arts and the BBC. The club has also been featured in Time Out. The session is a free-flow workshop, which means it's more about the process of writing than the finished product, and the stationery and tea are provided on the day.

It's held at Poetry Pharmacy, First Floor, 175-179 Oxford Street, London W1D 2JS — upstairs inside the shop. The session runs from 10:00 to 11:30 on Friday 20 November.