“When we looked out our bedroom window, there was Pearce rag stores, with all the rabbit skins hanging in the window.  If I had a stick I could have poked them!” The People of the Quarter lived cheek by jowl with the industries of the river and Quay. JoJo Spinks dives into their testimony in…

An interactive performance/installation piece created by Sally Crabtree This counter of conceptual confectionary will offer each member of the public a small gold coin which you can spend on just one thing. The Sweetshop of Words explores the notion of choice in our lives. “Choose well. Your choice is brief, and yet endless” as Goethe…

Get ready for Commotion on the Ocean! Stories from the seven seas to be taken with a pinch of salt told by Globetrotting Storyteller Clive PiG. Clive will be telling tales over three slots, the event is free, and no booking is needed, just turn up! This free event is part of a season of…

Join us and Quay Words writer-in-residence Davina Quinlivan at Exeter Custom House for an unique literary salon event with Noreen Masud and William Henry Searle on stories of place and finding profound narrative ‘threads’ through objects, puppetry and the everyday. During our Threads season this March and April we’ll be delving into text and the textile, pulling…

You’re invited to bring along a piece of fabric or clothing that has personal significance to you for this workshop. Davina will then use this as a jumping-off point to inspire participants to try out creative writing techniques, and then lead the group to create a long form piece of poetry written in collaboration. We…

Part of the Health and Resilience Project Join us for a workshop focused on creativity and wellbeing with poet and performer Harula Ladd. Harula will lead you through creative exercises, and support you to write poetry during this 3-hour workshop. We’ll be thinking about themes of health, wellbeing and resilience in our writing as well…

A collaboration between Quay Words and the Wellcome Centre for Cultures and Environments of Health In the first of our public events from The Health & Resilience Project, we welcome poets Fiona Benson and Kat Lyons to Exeter Custom House where they will treat us to readings from their recent works, followed by a Q&A…

Join our summer writer-in-residence in a guided outdoor exploration of Exeter Quay. Sophie invites you to come and create a deeply personal, sensory map of the quayside to add to this space’s wealth of cartographical history.Ditch the compass, the signposts, the landmarks and instead map that mint choc chip ice cream and the nostalgia it…

Experience a new site-specific performance by poet and musician Belinda Zhawi. In Transit will share stories and histories from the River Exe, probing themes of colonialism, migration, industry and the environment. Tracing the movement of tides, and the movement of people, animals and goods, this mesmerising spoken word performance by Zimbabwean-born, London-based Zhawi will blend…

Join our summer writer-in-residence Sophie Dumont in a guided outdoor workshop.  Seek out words and phrases hidden along the Quayside, and use them to create your own poetry. More information to follow. ****** Sophie Dumont is a poet, copywriter and ex-canoe coach living in Bristol. She is an alumna of Exeter University and her poetry has…