'A conversation made this'

the formation of a feminist peer mentorship model

Abstract

In this paper, four creative writing PhD candidates (a digital journalist, a playwright, a novelist, a socially engaged theatre maker) explore how finding and connecting with each other during their first year of research (which coincided with COVID-19) helped shore up and galvanise their individual practice(s) and initiated a collective approach that has included regular online meetings and an emerging peer mentorship model. The four discuss how a collaborative writing project sparked into life and changed form, as well as the theoretical and creative practice frameworks they drew on to develop the work. They show how a collegial communications practice emerged and evolved into a long term, ongoing peer support model. This model created a mode of documentation; a useful and reusable trace of vital experience gained during their candidatures.