Leeds 2023: Meet the 'incredibly lucky' writer helping local people to publish their stories

She first came to the city as a student and after a stint working in a theatre in London, she returned to make Leeds her home.

For Leeds 2023’s My World, My City, My Neighbourhood project, she wanted to create a moveable publishing platform and work with community groups in LS6.

They ended up delivering three very different publications that wanted to say or show something distinct to their readers.

She writes:

I’ve often walked into bookshops and thought, how do books get published? So I set about trying to discover this with a new community art project called 23PRESS.

While the commercial world of publishing is extremely competitive, the actual act of writing is something anyone can enjoy for free and get an immense amount of satisfaction and personal achievement from.

I have been incredibly lucky. I grew up in Stockport and went to a local state school where I discovered a love of books and creative writing. I came to Leeds University to study English Literature and Theatre and made my home in Headingley.

Before working full time as an artist and writer, for many years I worked behind the scenes in theatre and dance and I seemed to be the go-to person when something needed sorting. I love working with different groups or people and that was one of the things that really drew me to the My World, My City, My Neighbourhood project with Leeds 2023.

My World My City My Neighbourhood was a major, community-led series of mini projects that formed part of the preparations for Leeds 2023 and they were as diverse as the communities themselves. They explored everything from the history of the wool trade through to the city’s skateboarding communities.

My idea was to create a moving publishing platform working with community groups in or near LS6 to bring their ideas together and get them into print.

Having met with many diverse community groups, I ended up working with three groups – the Cardigan Community Centre, a group who met each week at All Hallows’ Church and the University of Leeds School of Languages. Their ideas were all unique and ultimately created two publications and an audio book due to go live this autumn.

Cardigan Community Centre created a beautiful, limited edition, book titled Seven Short Circular Walks that all start at the community centre. They vary in length and take in many local landmarks that may be familiar to many or new to someone who is visiting the area.

The second book, created by the group meeting at All Hallows’ Church, is The Book of Book Ideas. It is a collection of ideas for future books that’s designed to look like a library catalogue listing. Every idea is limited to just 150 words so it’s very accessible.

The third and final ‘book’ is actually an audiobook of poetry and expression that came out of online creative workshops with staff and students at the University’s School of Languages. It’s really unique and touches on issues of identity, exclusion and isolation associated with language.

I’m now moving on to my next ventures. I recently had a poetry collection published called The Bell Tower with The Emma Press. The Bell Tower is a very honest and funny collection with many elements inspired by Helen Fielding’s lovable character Bridget Jones, focusing on the humour and absurdities in everyday life.

I also continue to run 23PRESS as an independent publishing platform and love doing open mic nights and creative festivals to try and reach new audiences. I’m also really excited about a new collaboration in development with East Street Arts based in Leeds.

We are looking at offering open access workshops in print, creative writing and publishing at East Street Arts’ Convention House. The workshops will be open to the public to learn how to use printing and bookbinding equipment to help demystify the publishing process and generate new writing.

Convention House is already home to many different artists and so there is opportunity to benefit from all kinds of talents and equipment already there. The possibilities are very exciting.

Anyone wishing to get in touch with Pamela to discuss their creative ideas can contact her via the https://pamelacrowe.com website or send a message to @crowe_pamela on Instagram or @pamela__crowe on Twitter.

Copies of Seven Short Circular Walks’are available to buy from Cardigan Community Centre, Cardigan Road, LS6 1LJ. The Bell Tower is available from all good bookshops, Amazon and on The Emma Press website: https://theemmapress.com