About the team
Jess Moriarty is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Language,
Literature and Communication at the University of Brighton. She teaches Creative
Writing, Writing for the Screen, and Web Culture to
undergraduates and receives excellent feedback from her students. In 2007
she won a University Teaching Excellence Award for her work. Jess has an
MA in Creative Writing from the University of Sussex and three years’ experience
of facilitating writing workshops and retreats. She is currently studying
for a Doctorate in Education and is researching the use of creative writing
for staff development purposes. Jess writes and publishes in a variety of
genres and is currently writing her first novel.
Dr. Maria Antoniou is a Senior Research Fellow
in the Centre for Learning and Teaching at the University of Brighton. As
well as writing funding bids, managing research projects, and writing reports,
journal articles and book chapters, she runs a programme of writing support
for University staff. This includes teaching the module Writing for Academic
Publication and
providing one-to-one Writer’s Surgery sessions. Maria has
a PhD in Women’s Studies from the University of Manchester, which focused
on autobiographical writing. Maria teaches autobiography in educational and
community settings and mentors writers producing their autobiographies. She
is an active member of Lapidus – an organisation promoting
the use of writing for personal development. Maria has intermediate level
counselling training and also works as a life coach.
About work write live
In early 2006, Dr Maria Antoniou and Jess Moriarty began to develop writing workshops for professionals. In July 2006, they won funding from InQbate to run two writing retreats for lecturers at the Universities of Brighton and Sussex. The retreats were a huge success: participants reported that they felt more knowledgeable about the writing process, more comfortable expressing themselves through writing, and had a renewed enthusiasm and commitment to their professional writing projects. The work write live facilitators include lecturers from the University of Brighton and professional actors and writers who have run one day and bespoke writing workshops with similarly excellent feedback.
work write live was created in 2007 to extend the programme of workshops, retreats and writing support to professionals and others based in the Brighton/Sussex area or nationwide. In June 2007, the company won a University of Brighton Innovation Award for their commercial work and have continued to provide inspiring workshops in order to facilitate personal and professional development. 2009 sees the launch of the Confident Speaking programme that aims to help professionals who struggle when giving presentations, lectures and speaking in public in general.