TRAINING WORKSHOP: NARRATIVE AGENCY READING GROUP MODEL

OPEN CALL

10–11 September 2026, University of Turku, Finland

Target group: Reading group facilitators

Form: On-site training

Time & place: 10–11 September 2026, University of Turku, Finland

Duration: Two-day workshop, both days from 10 am to 5 pm

Number of participants: max. 20

Participation: Call is open until 30 April. Please provide a letter of motivation (max. 300 words to paivi.kosonen@utu.fi), explaining your interest in the training workshop, your background and key merits, including your experience with reading or writing groups. You can also briefly mention your wishes concerning the workshop. Letters of acceptance will be sent by 8 May.

Other: The training is free of charge. Lunch and coffee will be provided. The participants organise their own travel and accommodation.

The aim of the training workshop is to strengthen the narrative facilitating competencies of facilitators of creative and therapeutic reading groups. The training offers for the participants a creative reading method that can be flexibly integrated to their own work in libraries, schools, health care, social work, biblio/poetry therapy and psychotherapy work.

In the workshop, the Narrative Agency Reading Group (NARG) model is introduced in theory and in practice, by means of experiential learning. The workshop introduces participants to narrative-oriented work and demonstrates how narrative interventions, materials and reading methods can be used in creative and/or therapeutic reading group work. The programme includes experiential reading groups, training in NARG facilitating, reflection and creative writing exercises.

After the workshop, the participants will understand more clearly the potential of reading groups to enhance the narrative agency of different types of readers and to strengthen their creative and reflective skills in relation to literature and reading as well as to the changing narratives around them. Narrative agency is inextricably linked to a sense of social agency and inclusion.

Participants will receive from the training workshop an evidence-based reading group method, which they can adopt in or integrate to their own work. The training will strengthen their narrative and reflective skills in facilitating reading groups. To support their work, they can use The NARG Facilitator’s Manual, which includes useful tools for various forms of creative and bibliotherapeutic NARG facilitating.

The workshop takes place in English. The principal trainers are PhD, associate professor and bibliotherapist Päivi Kosonen, MA, doctoral researcher and bibliotherapy facilitator Eevastiina Kinnunen, PhD, Hanna Meretoja, professor of comparative literature, MA, doctoral researcher and bibliotherapy facilitator Petra Partanen, and PhD Astrid Joutseno, postdoctoral researcher.

The workshop is organised by the NARG research project. It utilises the NARG model, which has been developed by Hanna Meretoja, Päivi Kosonen & Eevastiina Kinnunen in the research projects (2018–2027) funded by The Research Council of Finland.