Sallyanne Rock has been our 2025 Stourbridge Writer In Residence. Sallyanne is a queer, neurodivergent poet from the Black Country. Published widely in journals and anthologies, her writing explores and connects the dots between queerness, domestic abuse, Western organised religion, and all oppressions. She provides access support to creative folks, facilitates workshops and mentors poets, and is a solo parent. Sallyanne’s debut pamphlet ‘Salt & Metal’ is published by Fawn Press.
Sallyanne’s residency took place at Stourbridge Glass Museum, Ekho Collective’s Everwild Summer Festival, and in collaboration with local visual/mixed media artists.
I’d been cooking this idea up for a while, after becoming fascinated by the language of art. How each art form has its own vocabulary—the tools, techniques, colours, influential names, movements and concepts. I wanted to work with local artists, to watch them at work, listen to them talk about their process and see if I could write poetry about it. So when the opportunity for this residency came along, I was really pleased to be able to integrate these collaborations.
I worked with visual artists Stacey Smith, Shaun Loynds, and Sarah Goudie. The sessions were all revelations in their own way. Much less about watching and documenting, and more about the artists guiding me to make art with them, along with gentle insightful conversation. I came away from each session inspired and encouraged to continue to pursue new creative directions. I’m so grateful to all three for their generosity of time, materials and creative wisdoms.
At Stourbridge Glass Museum, I held workshops around watching glassmakers at work in their studio, spending time with the stunning glasswork exhibitions and writing the language of making. I also spent an afternoon there, inviting people to come and chat to me, and offering an easy writing exercise to accompany their visit. I was so happy to be able to work with the museum on this residency, after building a relationship with them over the past few years.
When some of the in-person workshop dates didn’t work out, I instead offered two sessions online. This was a tricky shift as the workshop was very much location-based, but I was relieved to find some great videos online from V&A showing glass being made, and one even featured Stourbridge-based glassmaker Elliot Walker. I’m so glad in the end that I held those online sessions, because the feedback was among the kindest and most generous I’ve ever had.
I was invited to be Poet in Residence at the Everwild Summer Festival hosted by Ekho Collective in Brierley Hill. Following the inclusion of my poem in The Zephaniah Forest Poetree Trail earlier this year, I was honoured to dedicate a pear tree in Ekho’s newly named Benjamin Zephaniah Food Forest, with a live performance of The Poet Dreams. I also documented my experience of the day, writing and performing a there-and-then poem as the day came to a close. At the time it felt like a diversion from the making language theme, but it was such a valuable way to connect with the wonderful Ekho community and the hundreds of people who attended. And on reflection, nature is always making, so maybe not that different at all.
Although I’d planned otherwise, I really struggled to find time to write throughout the residency period. Partly due to organising collaborations, designing and delivering workshops, caring responsibilities and life in general, carving out time to just write proved difficult. But right at the end of my residency, the stars aligned and I was able to take a whole week off my regular work, and summer holidays meant I had even fewer commitments than normal. I decided to spend the week in a kind of creative retreat. One of the main tenets was to be selective about my inputs – which meant limiting phone/social media use and being more mindful about what I watched and listened to, so I could curate a purely creative space. I set myself a four-part goal for each day: Draw; Write; Inquire; Rest.
I made artistic inquires of myself, using and prompts by artist and author Yumi Sakugawa, e.g. ‘What relationship do I want with my artistic practice?’ I made observation drawings in charcoal, heeding Maggi Hambling’s advice, “When drawing from life, it has to be as if you’ve never seen a knee before, or a foot.” I had a nap nearly every day that week, even when I wasn’t tired. I was reading Rest is Resistance by Tricia Hersey, and so I had both permission and reason to indulge in this revolutionary practice! And, significantly, I wrote. Every day. Free-writes, lists of words, the beginnings of poems, prose, I even started writing a song about Grantium (IYKYK). I drew on my collaborations with the artists, reflecting back on each session and making notes about how they felt, what we created together, what I learned and the words and phrases that came up in the conversation or that were sparked in my mind later on.
At the end of this unusual week, a poem started to form. I worked it over in my head for a bit while in the garden with my cat Nyla, and once back inside I wrote it down. It was one of those beautiful and rare moments where the poem presented itself in one go. After some valuable feedback from poet friends and a couple of edits later, I was happy with it. It will appear in the 2025 Creative Future Writers’ Award anthology.
Some things went to plan, other things had to change, and I learned from it. I learned that people really value the creative spaces I design and hold for them—an important reminder for me. I learned a lot about myself; most significantly that I don’t just want to write about art, I want to MAKE THE ART. Since the residency finished I’ve been making moves towards bringing this idea into being. If you want to see what comes of it all when reality comes to fight me, follow me on Instagram.
