Inspired by Thomas Hardy - An Anthology of Students’ Works 2020

The latest anthology of work inspired by Hardy - edited by Dr Faysal Mikdadi

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This latest anthology contains almost one hundred creative pieces. School visits to run the Thomas Hardy Creative Workshops this year were unfortunately stopped by Covid-19 in March, although many students continued to interact and contribute online. All creative responses to Hardy and his works are presented as they were submitted by the young writers who were promised that their voices would be respected.

Responses from the workshops run by THS Academic Director Dr Faysal Mikdadi include:

'I have never been able to find inspiration. Now I feel confident writing a poem'.

'It was a lot of fun. More interesting than a normal lesson because we were being creqative and felt in control'.

'More learning through understanding of poetry which heped us get into writing without being judged'.

'Most literature that we normally do is irrelevant. This is us. This is real'.

'Amazing. Love it. I was never a great fan of poetry...but I am now'.

'I was always scared of writing poetry. A lot of today's poems are tacky and embarrassing. I did not want to write like that. Hardy and the others show me that I can be a serious writer. Now I have the courage to write'.

The credit for this collection of students' creative responses goes to the students and their teachers at Bryanston School, Dorchester Middle School, Dorset Studio School, Greenwood Academy, St Osmund's Church of England Middle School, Southlands School, The Taunton Academy, The Thomas Hardye School, and submissions from Max Gate workshops and various other schools around the country.

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