This is part of our Connected Woman Summit feature series highlighting our amazing participants.
Soulla Christodoulou
Owner of Writing For Life, Author, Editor and Writing Mentor
Born in London to Greek Cypriot parents Soulla Christodoulou was the first in her family to go to university and studied BA Hotel & Catering Management at Portsmouth University. Years later, after having a family of her own, she studied at Middlesex University gaining a PGCE in Business Studies and an MA in Education.
Her novels, Broken Pieces of Tomorrow, The Summer Will Come, Alexander and Maria which received an RSL Ondaatje Prize nomination in 2021 and The Village House are available worldwide on Amazon and across all good online bookstores as well as in many hight street bookshops.
The Summer Will Come was selected by Barnet Libraries, London as a book club read in the Year of Learning Festival 2019. Her poetry has won various competitions and has been featured in e-magazines and on literary websites. The Summer Will Come is currently under contract for Greek translation and also marked as a Book to Movie project. Her novel, Alexander and Maria, is a Page to Stage project.
She is a compassionate and empathetic supporter of young people. Her passion for teaching continues, long after she left her ten-year career at a secondary school, through private tuition of English Language, Business Studies and Children’s Creative Writing Classes. She offers professional book editing, writing support and mentoring for authors through her business, Writing For Life, and has supported an impressive number of new authors since its inception in 2016.
She supports two cancer charities – Girls Love Mail based in California and MacMillan Cancer Support in the UK – and has handwritten over 300 letters to support women diagnosed with breast cancer and raised almost £3000 by hosting coffee and cake events at her home in North London respectively.
When asked, she will tell you she has always, somewhere on a subconscious level, wanted to write and her life’s experiences, both personal and professional, have played a huge part in bringing her to where she was always meant to be; writing, supporting others to realise their dreams, and drinking lots of cinnamon and clove tea!V
Visit soulla-author.com for more information.
Empowerment to me means being able to speak our truth the way we want. It’s about being visible, making a difference, contributing, and achieving while at the same time being compassionate, understanding each other’s stories, celebrating our successes while accepting we are all flawed. This doesn’t make us any less capable, for there is strength in vulnerability. It is about standing up for what is right as a woman, and accepting that what is right for me, as a mother, a daughter, a lover, a friend, an educator, a storyteller, may not look or feel like someone else’s right, and that’s okay. We should celebrate our differences and use these to make a better world. There is power in love and energy, women can do anything. We are creating stories that matter.