Emergency Poet was conceived by poet and writer Deborah Alma as a fun way of bringing poetry to people. She is assisted in this by creative partner and poet James Sheard.

Deborah is an experienced workshop facilitator and has delivered a range of poetry and creative writing workshops. She works using poetry to help communicate with people with dementia, both for The Courtyard Theatre in Hereford and for Ledbury Poetry Festival. She has been lead writer for Writing West Midlands Writing Squads in Shrewsbury & Ludlow, teaching creative writing to young people and wrote and taught the Writing Poetry module at The University of Worcester. She was writer in residence for the NHS conference in 2013 on Mental Health and Wellbeing and Poet in Residence at The Hurst, for the Arvon Foundation in 2014.

She is a highly skilled practitioner with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Birmingham (First Class) and an MA in Creative Writing (with Distinction) from Keele University.

As well as the strong, fun visual appeal of the Emergency Poet concept, Deborah believes strongly in its ability to engage all audiences in the relevance and therapeutic nature of poetry, through one to one consultations, the poetry pharmacy and workshops and delivers this experience in festival settings, libraries, schools, city centres and at various other events.

Schools: Deborah is a qualified Higher Level Teaching Assistant (HLTA), is trained as an Arts Award advisor for Bronze and Silver awards and is CRB checked. Emergency Poet carries Public Liability Insurance and is familiar with H&S  issues.