In March, alongside Wind&Bones co-director Will Buckingham, I led a workshop for a group of lecturers at Southern Taiwan University of Science and Technology.

During the workshop we explored how storytelling can be used to more effectively communicate academic research. I’ve worked with a lot of academics in the past, both in groups and also through one-on-one mentoring.

As in all of my work the main question for me is always: what do you want to say? Writing is, first and foremost, about communication. And for researchers who want to get the word out about the important work they’re doing, communication is key. So in this workshop, the writers and scholars from the university dove more deeply into the things that obsess them and the things they care about. Next up we focussed on how to communicate these important obsessions as directly, effectively, and humanly as possible.

As a writer, and someone generally curious about people and the world, it’s always exciting to work with writers and scholars, helping them more effectively communicate the things that matter to them — and that matter to us all.