Women writers at St James Cavalier

Inizjamed, in collaboration with the British Council and the Foundation that runs the St James Cavalier Centre for Creativity, will present several new literary works by women writers at St James Cavalier Centre, Valletta, tomorrow at 7 p.m.

These works, by Clare Azzopardi, Maria Grech Ganado, Simone Inguanez, and Karen Vella, among others, were inspired by the self-portraits of controversial British photographer Sarah Lucas, which are on show at St James Cavalier.

The literary works emerged from a series of writing workshops that were held in May and June and were co-ordinated by young writers Karen Vella and Clare Azzopardi. The main aim of these writing and discussion sessions was to offer space to women who are interested in creative writing and who would like to explore the creative process with other women.

Two of the themes that were dealt with in the sessions were the woman as artist and the concepts of womanhood today. Photographer Alexandra Pace was invited to discuss the photographic side of the pictures while Lana Turner led a discussion on the ideological implications of Lucas' work.

Six of the literary works that were written by the women who attended the workshops were read by actress Marcelle Teuma at the opening of the exhibition of photographs by Sarah Lucas and Mark Quinn at St James Cavalier last Friday.

This creative writing process will continue during July with a series of four workshops led by Menna Elfyn, a leading Welsh female writer.

To attend her workshops, two of which will be specifically for women, e-mail inizjamed@maltaforum.org or phone 2138-8995 or 7970 4058, or send a fax to Inizjamed on 2137-3272.

Entrance for the presentation of literary works by women writers tomorrow is free of charge.