Young Writers' Academy for aspiring sixth formers enjoys a second successful year

• Monday, April 25, 2022

The Young Writers' Academy 2022 came to a successful conclusion on 19 April with a final on-campus workshop led by senior lecturer Dr Tim Atkins and MA Creative Writing student Andie Davies. The scheme is a free creative writing course for secondary students in years 11-13, run in partnership with the Wimbledon BookFest. 

Comprising four workshops, the Young Writers' Academy aims to motivate young writers to improve and broaden their skills, while helping them enter the Wimbledon Bookfest Young Writers’ Competition, which this year has as its theme The Tree. It's also hoped that the academy experience will strengthen their university applications by adding to their extra curricular experiences in the field of creative writing.

Dr Tim Atkins commented: "The second year of the Young Writers’ Academy was even more successful than the first. There is no minimum age at which you can call yourself a writer, and — from the evidence of the keen, creative young people who attended the classes — there's every reason to believe that the future of writing is safe in their hands.

Over the four week course we talked about all kinds of writing. We had guest writers come along to share their experiences, we did in-class games and writing exercises, and had lively and interesting conversations. The last class, on a gloriously sunny afternoon at Roehampton, was a great chance for participants to meet, swap emails, and enjoy the experience of being part of the great global community of young writers."