Cranford Review 2020

Young Writers Festival 2019
at Cambridge University
In
early December 2019 a group of year 10, 11 and 12 students travelled to
Cambridge University in order to take part in the second annual Young Writers
Festival. Open to all schools who partner with the First Story programme, the annual
festival welcomes up to 450 students and teachers for an inspiring day-long event
including keynote speakers, book signings, workshops and readings.
John Berkavitch, the internationally acclaimed storyteller and poet, compered the day,
welcoming the young writers from across the UK to the event. He explained its unique
nature stating that ”it is a festival focussed on the “writing of its audience rather than
the writers on the stage”. Dr Phil Knox from the University of Cambridge urged all
the young writers to consider Cambridge as their study destination in the future.
Guest speakers at the event included Jessica Willmott and Blessed Olowolagba, both
former Cambridge students, who completed First Story programmes in 2018–19. Also
present was Lewis Buxton another former First Story writer, now an established poet,
who led the mass writing exercise about names titled ‘What does your name sound
like, what does it taste like?’ Ioney Smallhorne ended the introductory session by
reading her poetry and talking to the audience about how dyslexia would not stop
her from writing.
We then broke out into groups to attend writing workshops led by a selection
of First Story’s acclaimed poets, novelists and playwrights, including Melvin
Burgess, Stephanie Cross, Nik Perring, Bridget Minamore, Sonya Hundal, Khadijah
Ibrahiim, Rachel Seiffert and Paula Rawsthorne. The teachers also took part in
training and development sessions led by Anthony Cartwright.
Juno Dawson headlined the 2019 Festival. She read from her latest novel ‘Meat
Market’ and spoke of her journey as a writer. She shared that writing something only
she could have written and finding her own true voice led to her big break. She spoke
about how the ‘First Story’ programme had a major influence on both her writing
and who she is today.
All the writing produced during the festival culminated in the students showcasing
their talents where we finally got to hear some of the brilliant writers’ voices in the
crowd.
Aisling McConville (First Story Lead Teacher)
“The Cambridge trip was inspirational and allowed me to
gain a further insight into authors’ perspectives and how
their life events influenced their writing style. By visiting
a prestigious university like Cambridge, I was also able to
interact with students from across England and share my
creative writing skills with them”.
Syed Jaffery (year 12)
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