Chrissie is a prize winning poet, spoken word artist and creative writing practitioner based in East Durham (UK). Since graduating from Teesside University with a Masters Degree in Creative Writing she has gone on to inspire and educate people of all ages, from all backgrounds, encouraging them to write and perform their own words. She is experienced in 1:1 mentoring, developing and delivering group workshops, setting up and running writing groups and organising, managing and compèring events. Her own work has been performed, displayed and printed in a vast array of settings and publications worldwide.

Writing is her passion and, combining this with her love of travel, in 2015 she took to the seas for the first time, to run writing workshops as part of a cruise ship enrichment programme. Since then she has gone on to run workshops on over 20 cruises, clocked up more than 100 thousand nautical miles and received excellent feedback from workshop attendees. Her workshops are designed to be educational, inspirational, fun, interactive, relevant to the ports of call for each cruise and accessible to writers of all abilities.

My creative writing workshops are bespoke. I develop them specifically for each cruise. Examples of workshops I can deliver are as follows:

Longer cruises:
For longer cruises I can provide full, in-depth creative writing courses. These are usually split into poetry and prose and include step-by-step development. These sessions include poetic devices and the 5 elements of short story writing (character, plot, setting, theme and conflict).

Shorter cruises:
Workshops for shorter cruises are usually individually planned sessions that take in elements of poetry or prose writing and take inspiration from the ports the ship will visit. They can also include non-fiction writing such as travel journaling and memoirs. For example here are sessions I previously prepared for a Baltic cruise:

1. Travel Journal Writing
A session in which we explore the various ways of recording and sharing journeys whether it be for own personal pleasure or for the enjoyment of others.

2. Once Upon a Cruise
Taking inspiration from Baltic fairy tales, we will explore the elements of short story writing and learn how to write a short story, part by part.

3. Poetry in Motion
This session gives a brief introduction to poetry and poetic devices using inspiration from the Kalevala and Norse Eddas.

4. Exploring Ekphrasis
In this session we will use artworks inspired by Scandinavian mythology and folklore to create poetry and stories of our own.

5. Tove Jansson and Moominland
In this creative writing class I will introduce the genre of children’s fiction with examples of the works of Tove Jansson, Finnish writer, illustrator and creator of The Moomins.

I have been delivering creative writing (prose and poetry) workshops on board CMV cruise ships since 2015.

The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.