Taran Spalding-Jenkin is a Member of the Sword Forge Collective 2022 – 2023.
BIOGRAPHY
Taran Spalding-Jenkin is a Cornish poet and storyteller, writing in both English and his mother tongue: Kernewek. His work explores identity, health and hireth – the yearning for a home that no longer exists. While seeking to show Cornishness is who you are, and not simply where you reside, he travels back and forth between experience and myth.
Along with performing his own work, Taran co-runs and hosts the music and poetry party Tonic, a night which puts inclusivity and inspiration at its heart. Tonic offers writing prompts and performance opportunities to people of all backgrounds and skill levels as well as free writing workshops.
Having struggled with anxiety throughout much of his life, Taran has found his voice on the stage. With a name that means ‘thunder’, he has had enough of silence.
NOTEWORTHY
- Currently working on a folkloric audio series funded as part of his Developing Your Creative Practice Grant from Arts Council England.
- Produced A Shanty for Cornish Youth, a poetic exploration of Cornish identity and emigration, for BBC Arts in 2020. It then won a certificate of creativity in the Gorsedh Kernow awards in 2021. [ listen here ]
- Co-organiser and host of Tonic.
- Contributed to 26 Voices for Change, an anthology of Cornish writers.
- Produced workshops and commissions in partnership with a number of fantastic organisations including KEAP, Ealaín na Gaeltachta, Calling The Shots, The Writer’s Block, Cheap Date Dance Theatre, and a number of schools.
- Longlisted for Best Spoken Word Event (for Tonic) in the Saboteur Awards 2022.
AN EXAMPLE
TESTIMONIALS
A warm and inviting poet who touches on sensitive topics with gentle grace.
KATHRYN O’DRISCOLL, UK SLAM CHAMPION 2021
BOOKINGS / CONTACT TARAN
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thecornishwriter/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/KernowFiction
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thecornishwriter/
Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/thecornishwriter
BandCamp: https://thecornishwriter.bandcamp.com/releases