skip to content

Institute of Continuing Education (ICE)

 

We are delighted to announce the appointment of Daisy Johnson, a librarian, children’s writer and blogger from York, as the new A14 Writer in Residence. This unique new post has been created by the University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education (ICE), and is funded by the government’s A14 Community Fund.

Daisy will use her role to encourage communities affected by the Cambridge to Huntingdon improvement scheme to reflect on roads and the nature of travel. 

Submit your A14 story

Do you use the A14? Perhaps you live nearby, use it to get to work, or are part of the construction team working on the A14 improvement scheme? Then why not submit your story to our Facebook group, at www.facebook.com/groups/A14stories or email them to A14stories@ice.cam.ac.uk.

Attend a free creative writing course

As part of the scheme, ICE will run a series of free creative writing courses for people living near the A14 development area, or for people who use the area regularly.

Book your place online

Other A14 activities

Daisy will choose thought-provoking extracts from books and poems to encourage local people to re-discover their love of stories. She will hold pop-up sessions to encourage road users – from shoppers and commuters to truck drivers and construction workers – to explore words and stories connected with travel. Volunteers will visit retirement homes to collect stories linked to the region and schools will be encouraged to contribute to an anthology of writing. 

Daisy will also judge writing competitions based on topics such as “What does the A14 mean to you?”, “What’s the most surprising thing you’ve seen from a car window?”, “The worst journey”, or “Ghosts on the A14”. She will offer regular writing prompts via social media to encourage road users to post their writing and tweets about aspects of the road and travel. Other initiatives will include a “pass the writing baton” in which drivers are given the first line of a story and encouraged to continue the tale before passing it on to the next person.

A14 anthology

Daisy will produce a new piece of writing inspired by her time as A14 Writer in Residence. This, together with the best writing from road users, will form part of an anthology produced to celebrate the scheme. This will be launched at a free event held at Madingley Hall.

Further information

For further information contact: Midge Gillies, Academic Director for Creative Writing, at: Midge.Gillies@tutor.ice.cam.ac.uk