Pen to Print

Hello! I’m Jaclyn Rajsic, a medievalist based at Queen Mary University of London and a scholar of medieval legendary histories of England and Britain. I love exploring how medieval legends develop over time and shape understandings of places and histories. This is my first Showcase, and I’m thrilled to introduce our new theme of ‘Fractured.’ So much comes to mind when I think about this theme: fractured identities, histories, relationships, memories and politics,  to name but a few.

Black History Month From Writer to Published Author with Silvano Griffith-Francis When: 8, 15 & 29 October, 5-7pm Where: Dagenham Library FREE Book Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/pen-to-print-from-writer-to-published-author-with-silvano-griffith-francis-tickets-2000255705661 Writing For Performance Class with Kelly Jones When: 10 October, 10-11.30am Where: Barking Learning Centre & Online FREE Book Tickets:...

Introduced By Amber Hall Welcome, readers! This month marks the start of our new theme: ‘Fractured’. The word ‘fractured’ can bring up a sense that something is broken, fragmented, or even incomplete. But, for me, ‘fractured’ is the whole that’s created from the parts we’ve been given. For my page this month, I wanted to explore identity in these terms.

Write On! interviews Ruthvika Rao Ruthvika Rao is from Hyderabad, India. Her debut novel, The Fertile Earth, was the winner of the Wilbur Smith Adventure Writing prize 2026, and was a finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize, the Chautauqua Prize, the Crossword Book Award, and longlisted for the Dylan Thomas Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and has taught creative writing at the University of Iowa and the University of Toronto.

Landscape, Language And The Ghosts We Carry Hello and welcome to week five of my rummage through the drawers of memory and nostalgia. In the previous weeks I’ve been reflecting on the marks that we leave behind: Barrows on hillsides. Photographs in boxes. Words in books. Trees planted along verges. The things that remain when the people who made them have gone. There are landscapes that seem to accumulate memory. A road becomes more than a road because of the journeys we have made along it.

Marsh Green Primary School Pupils Prepare to Take Centre Stage – 23 June 2026 Pupils at Marsh Green Primary School are entering the final stages of their creative journey as they prepare to perform at the Barking and Dagenham Carnival and their Annual Awards and Performance Ceremony this July. This week marked the sixth dance session, bringing together movement, creativity and carnival traditions in an inspiring celebration of culture, confidence and self expression.

Write On!’s Mirabel Lavelle interviews author Gilliam McAllister Gillian McAllister writes ordinary people into extraordinary situations – then forces them to make the kinds of choices that keep readers turning pages long into the night. These twisty moral dilemmas have propelled her psychological crime fiction to the top of The Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller lists. When she pops up on my screen, her warmth immediately puts me at ease.

By Claire Buss, Deputy Editor, Write On! At Write On! and Pen to Print, we want to help connect authors and readers, playwrights and audiences, so we’ve created a Spotlight page on the last Saturday of the month, showcasing some of the exciting new reads and plays available. The curated list is based on books and plays that you send us, so if you’re an author or a playwright and you’d like your book or play in the spotlight, reach out to us at pentoprint@lbbd.gov.uk.

By Mirabel Lavelle Welcome. We’re coming to the end of the theme of ‘Nostalgia’ and I find myself spoilt for choice with each captivating submission. Thank you. Your voice is unique, your writing matters and we want to connect with it! This month is back to school month and this year is The National Year Of Reading.

Walking The Line Last week, I was thinking about the messages that follow on from us: barrows on hillsides, photographs in boxes, trees planted beside roads, poems in books and the spaces we leave behind. Sometimes, though, the messages from our own past arrive in much less deliberate ways. Recently, my mother found an old programme from a Johnny Cash concert in Manchester. Interesting enough in itself – but inside it my father had written something in pencil, which triggered a world of memories.