Each month we feature a literary guest and their work in progress and then we invite you to share yours in our open mic and slam challenge

Words in Progress is our rebranded live literature event in place of Sounds About Write.

The focus of our November event is Writing for the Stage and we're delighted to be featuring local writer, Eleanor May Blackburn

Join our founder, Beverley Ward, each month when she'll be chatting to a guest from the literary world and asking them about their writing journey and specifically about their current work in progress in a particular genre. This month, our focus is writing for stage and performance.

After the guest interview, we'll invite members of the audience to take part in our improv writing slam in which we challenge them to write on a specific theme in the genre of our guest and to include a variety of random prompts selected on the night.

Finally, we invite you to share your own new work in our open mic.

Each event will be themed around a different genre of writing and this even it Writing for the Stage. (You may share any genre of writing in the open mic but we particulalry welcome writing in the genre of the event. Bring us your monolgues and performance pieces!)

About Eleanor

Eleanor May Blackburn is a disabled writer/actor/theatre-maker/facilitator from Sheffield. She has created 3 solo shows to date that have toured all over the country and to the Edinburgh Fringe. Eleanor had her first full collection of poetry Sleeve Heart published in 2025 by Stairwell Books and a chapbook published previously. She has just received an ACE grant to tour her Leeds Playhouse script window shortlisted play Virtuous to the Lowry. Other notable projects include: Pidge the narrator for the Royal Ballet and Opera’s: Tales Untapped, playing lead roles in JW Theatre’s The Witching Hour and The Devil’s Game, Robin Hood in Same Difference Art’s Robin Hood, starring in Apartness alongside Sylvester McCoy and Linda Marlowe, playing the lead in Kevin Short’s Bonnie & Clive. She likes to make work about mental health, disability and feminist narratives.

To secure an open-mic slot, get an 'Open Mic' ticket (you might have to scroll down on the ticket page). If the Open Mic tickets have sold out, email beverleywardwriter@gmail.com to be added to the reserve list (in case we have no-shows or more time on the night). Slots are 5 minutes each.

This is a pay what you can event, so please make a donation when you book your ticket to help us to continue to put on this event for you.

Description supplied by the event organiser.