Schoolchildren to celebrate creative writing at two UEA events
By: News Archive
FLY Festival
A Horrible Histories consultant and a Norfolk-born playwright who writes LGBTQ stories are just two of the performers helping local schoolchildren to let their imaginations fly high at the University of East Anglia (UEA) next week.
UEA’s Festival of Literature for Young People (FLY) is an annual event being run by the University’s Outreach team from Monday 24 June to Friday 28 June, in partnership with the School of Literature, Drama and Creative Writing (LDC).
FLY Festival, now in it’s seventh year having begun in 2013, and is part of UEA’s commitment to widening participation to higher education.
Around 900 Year 7 to 11 students from over 30 schools across Norfolk and Suffolk will be attending the festival which features poetry readings, author signings, writing workshops and more to inspire young people to enter the wonderful world of words.
The Outreach team support children from underrepresented backgrounds in Norfolk and North Suffolk, because of low proportions of progression into higher education or high numbers of pupils receiving pupil premium and free school meals.
Each day during the week has a theme to help students explore different forms of writing, such as Writing from Historyon Tuesday 25 June which introduces the students to historical fiction, and Poetry Day on Wednesday 26 June where students can discover written and spoken poetry methods. A full list of these themes and the events taking place on each day can be found below.
Greg Jenner (a bestselling writer of funny historical books for children and best known as a historical consultant on BBC Horrible Histories), Melvin Burgess (author of the famous children’s novel Junk which won a Carnegie Medal in 1997) and Catherine Johnson (a screenwriter who co-wrote the screenplay for Bullet Boy in 2004), are some of the wordsmiths who will be in attendance.
Playwright and UEA graduate James McDermott will be giving the Mal Peet Memorial Lecture on Monday morning. James was raised in Norfolk and many of his plays have the theme of growing up as LGBTQ in a rural environment. He teaches playwriting at theatres across East Anglia and his plays include the critically acclaimed Fast Food, which starred Jude Law.
Students also got the opportunity to produce their own creative writing by entering poems into the national FLY Writing Competition.
The winner from Norfolk schools was Maud Webster, a year 13 student from City of Norwich School, for her poem ‘Afterwards’. Maud’s prize is to travel to London to see her poem turned into an animated film and she will also receive £50 of book vouchers.
Zoe Mitchell, UEA Outreach Events Officer, said: “FLY Festival is all about giving an opportunity to children in Norfolk to explore the world of creative writing outside the classroom and to come and meet novelists, screenwriters and playwrights who have entertained thousands of young people with their work.
“We’re thrilled to have such a stellar list of performers at the festival this year and equally delighted that such a huge number of local schoolchildren will be here to savour the opportunity to listen to them, ask them questions and try and emulate them in the workshops.”
Full list of FLY events:
MONDAY 24 JUNE: Creating Our World
10.30am – Mal Peet Memorial Lecture: James McDermott
12.30pm – Creative writing workshops
1.45pm – In Conversation: Sufiya Ahmed and Jo Cotterill. Claire Hynes as chair.
TUESDAY 25 JUNE: Writing From History
10.30am – Author talk: Greg Jenner
12.30pm – Writing from history workshops
1.45pm - In Conversation: Sally Nicholls and Catherine Johnson
WEDNESDAY 26 JUNE: Poetry Day
10.30am – All Stars Poetry Reading
11.30am – Announcement of the 2019 Poetry Competition winners
12.30pm – Workshop with Joseph Coelho (poetry Joe)
1.45pm – Joseph Coelho performance
THURSDAY 27 JUNE: Write On
10.30am – Author talk: Piers Torday
12.30pm – Creative writing workshops
1.45pm In Conversation: Emma Carroll and SF Said. Piers Torday as chair
FRIDAY 28 JUNE: Nothing New
10.30am – Author talk: Melvin Burgess
12.30pm – Nothing New workshops
1.45pm – In Conversation: Vanessa Harbour and Alexander Gordon Smith. Antoinette Moses as chair
Undercover Readers celebration
From diseases that turn you into a gherkin, an army of jelly babies and talking ducks on a quest known as ‘The Lord of the Springs’, around 300 local Year 9 students are set to celebrate the wonderful world of creative writing at the Undercover Readers celebration event on Thursday 27 June, hosted by the University of East Anglia (UEA).
The Undercover Readers series was created by Andrew Underwood and CT Furlong for the Network for East Anglia Collaborative Outreach’s (NEACO’s) Take Your Place scheme, in which UEA is a major partner, with the aim of inspiring pupils from schools across Norfolk who might be interested in pursuing a career in the creative industries.
The celebration event is the culmination of a programme of workshops, masterclasses and author performances which students from seven schools across the county have taken part in during the last academic year.
The schools coming to UEA for Undercover Readers are: The Open Academy, Ormiston Victory Academy, Hewett Academy and City Academy in Norwich, Ormiston Venture Academy and Ormiston Cliff Park Academy in Greater Yarmouth and Dereham Neatherd High School.
Undercover Readers workshops inspire students to write short stories, which have been brought together to create a 60,000-word anthology being presented to students at the celebration event.
Their stories will be brought to life in readings at the event by local author Alex Scarrow (best known for his young adult science fiction series TimeRiders) and Norwich based performance poet, Cai Draper.
They will get to take home an original piece of artwork based on their stories, created by Norwich University of the Arts (NUA) students.
Harry & Chris, a unique ‘comedy-rap-jazz’ duo, who have performed on The Russell Howard Hour, will also be providing entertainment on the day.
The event runs alongside the UEA’s Festival of Literature for Young People (FLY) which aims to encourage young people to develop a love of reading and discover the joy of creative writing.
Andrew Underwood, event organiser and NEACO Higher Education Champion, said: “I am immensely proud of the work of all our undercover authors. These young people have demonstrated huge potential as creatives and we want them all to realise that they have shown the talent and dedication required to pursue career pathways into the creative industries.”
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