AN eight-year-old boy from Derry is the youngest in Ireland to have his work published in a collection of art and writing about the experience of lockdown.
Josh Cullen's artwork was chosen to illustrate the 48-page digital book entitled Near and Far Are All The Same These Days.
It includes short stories, poems and drawings which capture people’s feelings and observations during the coronavirus lockdown and was coordinated in Northern Ireland by children’s writing centre Fighting Words NI.
The Global Writing Lockdown project was launched in May by Danish organisation Ordskaelv, which collaborated with writing centres around the world.
Eight editions of 'Near and Far' were produced to represent the eight countries that participated in the project.
A pupil at Hollybush Primary School, Josh's love of gardening inspired him to draw the image of a sunflower.
"I wanted to draw something, make a good piece of art," he said.
"I love drawing. The message I wrote was about hope for the future because flowers kept growing even when everyone was in lockdown."
An avid reader, Josh said he used his time during lockdown to read more books.
"I thought lockdown was good because I got to stay at home," he said.
"I’ve read over 70 books and I got to see my friends from book club on Zoom."
Emily DeDakis from Fighting Words NI said: ""When we launched Global Writing Lockdown in April, it was a real unknown, we didn’t know how people would respond.
"We’ve been delighted with the submissions that cover so many feelings and emotions - frustration and boredom as you might expect, but also some hilarious observations and reflections on life in a time of Covid.
"What is clear is that people crave an outlet to express their feelings about this strange new situation we find ourselves in and 'Near and Far' will serve as a record of how we coped, or not, during the first few months of living in a pandemic."
For further information see www.fightingwords.co.uk/nearandfar.
