John Rice is a poet, storyteller and photographer who has published 13 collections of poetry for both children and adults. He is a regular visitor to infant, primary, junior and secondary schools as well as libraries, festivals and arts centres. In 2015 he was Writer-in-Residence in College du Leman, an international school in Geneva and from 2008 – 2010 he was Scottish Arts Council’s Poet-in-Residence in Glasgow for the 250th Robert Burns celebrations. His poetry books for children include ‘Bears Don’t Like Bananas’ and ‘Dreaming of Dinosaurs’ both illustrated by Charles Fuge. He edited ‘Scottish Poems’ (Macmillan) for secondary schools and his collection of poems & photographs of the Hebridean Islands ‘The Dream of Night Fishers’ was published by Scottish Cultural Press. For libraries he presents ‘The Night of Words’ featuring entertaining poetry, humorous storytelling and song.

http://www.poetjohnrice.com/

Poetry and Storytelling

John has visited over 3,000 schools, festivals, arts centres, libraries and other venues and events over the past 35 years.

John provides workshops in writing poetry or devising and telling stories: ‘The Write Idea’ and ‘And So the Story Goes’ for either adults or children. He works with all age-ranges from infants to senior citizens.

Many thanks for being such a wonderful guest author and storyteller for us all today on your visit to Teesside High School. How can you gauge your effectiveness during the day? Well, children aged 9 ? 11 are a demanding audience at the best of times and if you can hold their rapt attention for two and a half hours in the morning and then another two hours in the afternoon, you can?t do better than that! You brought home what a tremendous ?art? storytelling is at its very best. Your own stories were wonderfully enchanting and perfectly modelled how a story should be told. The children had tremendous fun with every activity . . . even if their own creations drifted towards the bizarre! I saw many children grow in confidence as the day progressed and you can be certain you have touched the lives of some young people who will never forget the day they met John Rice.? ~ Graham Twist, Headmaster, Teesside High Prep School, Stockton-on-Tees ?Great to work with you again this morning, we all loved your workshop, thanks. I particularly liked the way you responded to our students and worked with their ideas/interests. They learned some valuable skills for presenting their ideas and were clearly engaged.? ~Alison Brown, Settlebeck Secondary School, Sedbergh “If you want to inspire your children to write and perform poetry, then I would highly recommend a day’s workshop with John Rice! He was just the right person to kickstart our poetry week. All of his ideas and activities encourage the children to explore language but have fun at the same time! My staff loved his poetry reading assembly- a real tonic” ~ Michelle Banks, Leading Literacy Teacher & Deputy Head, South Walney Junior School, Cumbria

I prefer to work with 30-35 children or up to 20 adults in a workshop. For performances, any number!

Any age-range.

English

I have visited schools from Barra in the Hebrides to Brighton! No limit on travel. And of course any library/school/festival in the north of England/south of Scotland.

John Rice is currently Chair of Authors North, the regional branch of Society of Authors.