WHAT DOES A WORD TINKER DO?
I love my job! It doesn’t have a tidy title, though, like "engineer", or “astronaut". I call myself a word tinker, because a tinker is someone who can do lots of things.
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What on earth does a word tinker do?
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Well, I work with words every day. Sometimes I work in an office – my own one, at home. Before the pandemic, I was often in schools, or community spaces, or in a field.
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I wear a lot of “hats”, because that way I get to use many skills, and I don't get bored! I am an editor, which means I help people make their story better. I am a teacher – I use poetry and stories to help kids get excited about reading and writing, and show them that how we use words can make a big difference. I’m also a graphic designer. I figure out how to tell a story through art.
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But mostly, I'm a poet.
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I write my own poetry, and perform it. It's called spoken word, and it's meant to be performed out loud! People pay to hear it, sometimes at festivals, and other times at a ‘gig’, which is a bit like a concert, but with people talking instead.
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I tell stories about what I love, and what I’m scared of, and what makes me happy or sad. I use stories to show when things are unfair, and why we should care. They work much better than a boring lecture at changing our minds about something.
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My work also gets published in journals and magazines, and sometimes even wins competitions!
