Dr Helen Foster

I am a writer, researcher, writing for wellbeing facilitator and oral historian. I have been an Artist in Residence for the British Library’s Sharing Our Sounds initiative, taking oral history archives back to the places that inspired them as a springboard for found poetry. I am currently writer in residence for CILIP, the Chartered Institute for Librarians and Information Professionals.

After a first degree in Drama and English, I spent several decades in the heritage sector developing learning and engagement opportunities at historic houses, archives and museums for national heritage organisations in Scotland. During this time and developed an enduring fascination with oral history.

This led me back to creative narratives and I completed my practice-led PhD in Creative Writing in 2019. This comprised a social-historical novel set against the backdrop of the Nottingham machine-lace industry and a critical thesis exploring the use of oral history archives to inform and inspire creative practice. 

I came to Leicester as Acting Manager of the East Midlands Oral History Archive, currently part of the university’s archives and special collections. I designed and led the Silent Archive, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project exploring contemporary and historical narratives around menopause. 

I have an interest in the power of the creative writing process as a tool for healing and alongside my academic research, I freelance as a creative writing for wellbeing practitioner. I have been fortunate to work with a range of creative organisations and community agencies, including Writing East Midlands, Shine Lincolnshire and Old Bird Theatre Company, designing and delivering programmes for diverse audiences, including carers, people living with mental health challenges, people experiencing isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic and women living without children.

I have also worked as a research associate with the University of Nottingham’s history team on an exploration of oral testimonies about Global Lace and the Nottingham Lace Market and in 2025 was awarded the title Honorary Assistant Professor. 

My research interests cut across life stories and creative narrative practices, memory, place and wellbeing. I experiment with methods including autoethnography and research poetry. 

I am currently exploring poetry film as a medium for creatively conveying oral history. 

Pearson, M. and Foster, H. 2024. Arts for Health: Creative Writing. Emerald Press.

Pearson, M., Rennick-Egglestone, S., Foster, H. & Holloway. 2024. Surviving by Storytelling – a research through design exploration of online poetry and mental health workshops. A Journal of Poetry Therapy, 1-13.

Foster, H. 2022. Being kind to myself: developing a compassionate writing practice. Writing in Practice, 8, 88-99.

Foster, H. 2020. At the intersection of memory, history & story: an exploration of the nostalgic feelings that arose when listening to oral history archives as an inspiration for novel writing, LIRIC Journal 1.1, 86-107.

Foster, H. 2018. Finding poetry in the sound archives: creatively repurposing oral histories for re-presentation and engagement, Oral History 46.1, 111-118

A Bloody History of Menopause, a series of six articles for the Wellcome Collection website themed around menopause, 2023.

Menopause: a collage of meanings from lived experience, Index of Evidence, University of Exeter, 2021.

My short fiction has been published in Mslexia and performed at the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

I hold Qualified Teacher Status and have taught: English and Drama at Key Stage 3, 4 and post-16; English in the tertiary sector; and Creative Writing in the adult learning sector. I teach Creative Journalling at the Centre for Empathic Healthcare and am developing Creative Empathy training for healthcare professionals.

• Peer Reviewer for Writing in Practice (National Association of Writers in Education) and
• Lapidus Journal
• Co-founder of the Oral History Society’s Creative Oral History special interest group 

• Wellcome Trust ISSF funding for Sharing Stories: developing a wellbeing approach to gathering midlife narratives, a review of ways in which women at midlife share their stories, contributing an interdisciplinary perspective to academic discussions around narrative practices and the wellbeing agenda.
• ESRC IAA funding for Menopaurus: the words women use to talk about menopause Research lead. A creative index to testimonies about menopause considering its lexicon through a non-medicalised lens.
• Scottish Oral History Centre scholarship to attend an Oral History Summer School at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling, Concordia University, Montreal.
• AHRC DTP fully funded scholarship for PhD studies.  

• Summoning Ghosts: taking oral history archives back to the places that inspired them. Oral History Society Conference, University of Strathclyde, 2025.
• You just don’t talk about it: creative approaches to narrative enquiry around sensitive subject areas. Oral History Society Conference, Nottingham Trent University, 2023
• We don’t talk about that kind of thing: the benefits and challenges of writing for wellbeing around menopause. University of Nottingham Poetry and Mental Health Symposium, 2023
• A Bloody History of Menopause! public talk, Old Operating Theatre Museum, London, 2022
• Menopause – it’s a hot topic, Difficult Conversations menopause event, University of Leicester, 2022
• My relationship as a writer with an oral history archive, seminar, Newcastle University, 2018
• Overheard in the Archives, National Association of Writers in Education Conference, York, 2017
• Authenticity: lived experience & oral history, English: Shared Futures Conference, Newcastle University, 2017
• Finding A Voice: a writer’s response to oral history archives, Oral History Society Conference, Roehampton University, 2016

• PGCert Mindfulness Studies University of Aberdeen
• PhD Creative Writing University of Strathclyde
• MA Heritage & Identity – distinction University of Birmingham, 2011-13
• PGCert Creative Writing – distinction Newcastle University, 2009-11
• PGCert Film & Television Studies University of Westminster, 1993-4
• BA (Hons) Drama & English – 2:1 University of Surrey (Roehampton Institute), 1989-92