In spring 2020, I embarked on a project with Simon Fletcher of Offa's Press, to run a series of workshops around the West Midlands, resulting in an anthology of countryside poetry. COVID lockdowns quickly forced us to change our plans. Over the next 15 months, we moved our workshop materials online, ran virtual workshops with local rural writing groups, and spent hours on Zoom sifting through submissions. In summer 2021, we finally launched the product of all our hard work: In The Sticks.