Sophie Buchaillard is a practice-based educator and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy who believes in the power of writing to heal and bring communities together. Sophie has collaborated with a broad spectrum of partners to deliver inclusive workshops on the themes of community building, inclusion, creative growth, well-being, trauma-recovery and sustainable living.
@growriter: nurturing well-being through a creative practice.
A trained counsellor, I used to coach and mentor women returning from maternity leave and individuals looking to make a career change, and was shortlisted for a Womenspire Award in 2017 for my campaigning work on gender parity in business and education in Wales.
I am passionate about empowering others to nurture their own creative practice, through writing workshops and bespoke mentoring sessions.
I also love to collaborate with artists and organisations, to develop creative responses centred around the role creative writing can play in reframing perspectives, exploring memory and identity, healing trauma, and bringing communities together.
A few examples:
In 2025, I will be partnering with Literature Wales and Tŷ Newydd to deliver a series of digital workshops (more on this soon).
In 2024, I partnered with the MakerSpace and Penarth Library to deliver writing workshops inviting women to explore their experience of the menopause in an inclusive space; with Creative Cardiff to deliver a Travel Writing Masterclass looking at reinventing the genre for the 21st century; with Reclaim the Frame and Chapter Arts Centre to explore the impact of climate change on small communities, through shared conversations and writing prompts, in response to a viewing of the film Banel & Adama by director Ramata-Toulaye Sy.
In 2023, I partnered with Literature Wales and Penarth Library Makerspace to deliver a series of workshops on Writing Parenthood, and give new parents the tools to co-produce a collection of zines (DIY magazines) in which participants collated their individual and collective responses in images and words (Based on an original idea by Harriet Bradshaw); with Reclaim the Frame and Chapter Arts Centre to explore cultural identity/ dual heritage / multi-identities / language and what happens when we reconnect to a past heritage, through shared conversations and writing prompts, in response to a viewing of the film Past Lives by Celine Song; and with the National Museum Wales (Cardiff) and Cardiff University’s research group Image Works, to deliver a workshop on imagined and introspective travels, in response to the exhibition Sea Horizon/Môrwelion by the artist Gary Fabian Miller.
I am keen to work with organisations and charities to deliver inclusive writing workshops and talks. I am interested in well-being and mental health, identity and migration, community & belonging, and the environment.
Get in touch and look at Literature Wales Inspiring Communities Fund if you need help with funding your idea.
Writers on Reading - The Podcast
A heartfelt and thoughtful account of a fresh and deep encounter with poetry now – by reading, by conversations with and by passing it on through broadcasting – becoming, in fact, part of the living world of poetry.” Philip Gross
During the lockdown Sophie set up the literary podcast Writers on Reading with author Jonathan Macho to give a platform to local authors and independent publishers to promote new releases, and to foster a virtual community of authors and poets in Wales during what was a particularly challenging time.
For two years, they brought listeners reviews about offbeat books they had loved and interviews with local authors and independent publishers. The show is now taking a break but you can access the back catalogue of 50 + episodes on Mixcloud.
The Podcast
Sophie used to co-host Writers on Reading with Jonathan Macho. You can play a sample of the podcasts by clicking on the links below.
You can also find and listen to the back catalogue on this platform.