Women Writing Lockdown

1/ In celebration of International Women’s Day (8 March 2022), we announce the launch of an exciting new project investigating the stories women tell of their experience of lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. 🧵

Fantastic closing speech from Baronesses Gillian Merron for the Women Writing Lockdown launch event today.

Great speech from @SarahPedersen2 on women's lives and writing during lockdown today at the House of Commons.

Fantastic talk from the team at the House of Commons today!

Publication day! Thank you @SerenBooks and all who made it possible!

For this week’s @TopTweetTuesday challenge and the wonderful @folkheartpress here’s my 24 word imagist poem: Thirst. Enjoy your day of poems, Karen! ❤️

12 SLAMMERS WANTED! Enter the Hip Yak Poetry Slam @Frome_Festival Sat 8 July @ArchangelFrome, a quick-fire, incredibly cuddly, knock-out, poetry slam - 12 poets compete for a slot on the HYP stage at WOMAD 2023 Hosts @Chris_Redmond_ Jonny Fluffypunk @LivTorc Details on poster

'Crocus & Daffodils' by UK contemporary painter Susan Entwistle #WomensArt #Spring

A snowfall of wood anemones 🤍 They are also known as windflowers - the Greek gods of the winds were the Anemoi. Wood anemones spread only six feet in a hundred years - a woodland like this one has been thousands of years in the making.

There's still time to send in your lockdown pictures and writing for our photo competition! You could feature in our upcoming exhibition. Enter here: womenwritinglockdown.co.uk/your-lockdown-…

A wonderful contribution to our photo competition! "During lockdown I wanted to help out people [...] I found out that the local hospital were looking for people to knit or crochet hearts for patients and loved ones who couldn’t see one another due to the restrictions..."

I’m taking part and it is very little effort! Please sign up to help Long Covid research.

Virginia Woolf took her own life 82 years ago on this day. Here is the beautiful final letter she left for her husband, my great-uncle Leonard Woolf 💜

Collaborative project highlights women’s differing experiences of lockdown. @WomenLockdown #Lockdown #Covid19 @SarahPedersen2 @RobertGordonUni @unilincoln @uniofleicester gscene.com/news/general-n…

@SarahPedersen2 @LivTorc @sarahlovescrime

3 years ago today Britain went into the first lockdown. Our project is capturing the experience of women who lived through this experience. We're inviting written and photographic responses from women across the UK to share their lockdown stories. rgu.ac.uk/news/news-2023…

As the 3rd anniversary of lockdown looms, we are asking women for your lockdown photos. Your chance to be featured in our online exhibition, to be launched at the House of Commons in June. womenwritinglockdown.co.uk/your-lockdown-…

So, I just found out that Spousal, or Marital, rape wasn't outlawed in the UK until 2003. Domestic Violence against women increased by 500,000 between 2017-2022. This is 6.9% of all women in E&W. During lockdown, there was a 65% increase in calls for help.

Almost 220,00 people in the UK alone have died with Covid on their death certificate. That’s more than the entire population of Aberdeen or Northampton. Countless families with loss. And that’s before we talk about the ongoing debilitation of Long Covid. And we’ve what? Moved on?

I find it incredible that we are approaching the third anniversary of the UK lockdown and there is barely a peep about it or what we collectively experienced. I don’t understand why or how we have just moved on from the biggest global crisis since WW2 like it didn’t happen. /1

Women in the UK! Please consider submitting a photo of your experience of lockdown for potential inclusion in our exhibition.