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Writing about Sarah Butler’s Word Garden

By 16/07/2010March 13th, 2016Uncategorized

Sarah Butler, the Secret Garden Project‘s writer-in-residence, is doing an intriguing project:
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Sarah Butler will create a series of short literary works that respond both to the Secret Garden Project art commissions from her own unique perspective, and to audiences’ responses to a series of debate-prompting questions relating to green issues posed by Butler as she visits the commissions and encounters people along the way. Her literary responses will be hosted on her Word Garden Blog. The blog will develop into a garden of words and visitors can contribute to it and follow Butler’s finely-crafted writing. Visit the blog to watch the garden grow.

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She is basing some of her wonderful writing on prompts provided by her audience, in answer to her questions:
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I am collecting answers to the following questions. I will use your responses to inspire new pieces of online writing which will appear on the main page of this blog. Please pick a question (or several) and email your responses to me at [email protected] or use the comments form below (please note, comments will be moderated before they appear on the site) Please be as creative as you like with your answers! Poetry, prose, haiku, riddles, or just a quick one-line thought – everything is welcome. 1. How does your garden grow? 2. When was the last time you climbed a tree? 3. When was the last time you walked barefoot? 4. If you were an insect, what would you be and why? 5. What is your favourite shade of green? 6. Where is your secret garden? 7. If you were a bird, where would you build your nest? 8. Close your eyes and think of a garden: real or imaginary, far away or round the corner. What can you see? Smell? Feel? Hear? 9. What do flowers mean to you? 10. What do the fairies at the bottom of the garden eat for breakfast? 11. What is your favourite garden smell? 12. If you found a door to a secret garden, what would you do? 13. What does the word green mean to you?—————————————————————————————————-

Sarah was wonderful as a teacher at the British Council-MPH workshops held in Kuala lumpur this year, and I’m going to follow her project blog with interest. If any of the questions grab you, send her the answer via mail or on her blog, and who knows, her next piece might be based on your answers!

Damyanti Biswas

Damyanti Biswas is the author of You Beneath Your Skin and numerous short stories that have been published in magazines and anthologies in the US, the UK, and Asia. She has been shortlisted for Best Small Fictions and Bath Novel Awards and is co-editor of the Forge Literary Magazine. Her literary crime thriller series, the Blue Mumbai, is represented by Lucienne Diver from The Knight Agency. Both The Blue Bar and The Blue Monsoon were published in 2023.

I appreciate comments, and I always visit back. If you're having trouble commenting, let me know via the contact form, or tweet me up @damyantig !

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