PEOPLE in Craven Arms and surrounding area are able to enjoy their very own ‘reader in residence’, funded by West Midlands Readers Network (WMRN), as part of a regional programme that links artists with libraries.

Deborah Alma, Emergency Poet, led an array of exciting activities and events revolving around readers and reading. The aim was to develop new ways to enjoy reading experiences, and Deborah worked with the local community, the existing groups within the community centre and schools in the area from October 2015 to February 2016.

Deborah Alma and Alan Shears come together tonight (Thursday, February 11) from 7pm at Craven Arms Library to celebrate the end of Reader in Residence residency.

“Craven Arms is one of the first libraries in the county to be run by a partner organisation within the community and this great project demonstrated what can be achieved with this arrangement,” said Stuart West, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for leisure and culture.

Deborah Alma said that the experience had left a legacy of interest in poetry and writing.

“Everybody involved was very supportive, from the local primary school, to staff at CasCa and even the Knit and Natter group,” she said.

“I’m delighted that the continuing writing group, which is the most obvious legacy of the residency, has already agreed to meet every two weeks, and at the last meeting there were 15 excellent writers in attendance.”

She said that a children’s writing event has been arranged for April.

Deborah Alma is a poet with an MA in Creative Writing, who specialises in working with poetry and people with dementia and other vulnerable groups. She is also Emergency Poet in her 1970s ambulance and performs at literary, music and arts festivals, schools, hospitals and libraries all over the country.

She is editor of Emergency Poet – an anti-stress poetry anthology, and her True Tales of the Countryside is published by The Emma Press.