Ink and Archive: Reading and Writing the Library
Darlington Library, Darlington, DL1 1ND
Saturday 4th July 2026
Most of what this library holds, you'll never just stumble across.
Behind the shelves and the catalogue, the Centre for Local Studies holds texts, documents and archive material that most visitors never see. For this session, the library staff have been going in ahead of us — pulling out hidden gems, unexpected finds, language that has been sitting quietly in the archive waiting for the right reader to come along. On Saturday 4 July, from 11am to 2pm, we're going to use that language. As the starting point for our own reading and writing. As prompts, provocations, raw material. Creativity doesn't require a blank page! Sometimes the right sentence, from the right unexpected place, can unlock something in a reader or a writer that they didn't know was there. You'll leave with writing you made in the session, a reading journal you've already started, and the chance to have your work included in a display here at the library afterwards.
No reading or writing experience needed. Just an interest in language, and a curiosity about what the library is really holding!
With Darlington Library's Reader-in-Residence Louise Logan-Smith
Behind the shelves and the catalogue, the Centre for Local Studies holds texts, documents and archive material that most visitors never see. For this session, the library staff have been going in ahead of us — pulling out hidden gems, unexpected finds, language that has been sitting quietly in the archive waiting for the right reader to come along. On Saturday 4 July, from 11am to 2pm, we're going to use that language. As the starting point for our own reading and writing. As prompts, provocations, raw material. Creativity doesn't require a blank page! Sometimes the right sentence, from the right unexpected place, can unlock something in a reader or a writer that they didn't know was there. You'll leave with writing you made in the session, a reading journal you've already started, and the chance to have your work included in a display here at the library afterwards.
No reading or writing experience needed. Just an interest in language, and a curiosity about what the library is really holding!
With Darlington Library's Reader-in-Residence Louise Logan-Smith
