The First Story Residential Anthology 2016 has arrived! And it’s crammed full of the thoughts and voices of forty-seven students inspired by five glorious days of writing. For each student, the …
The Young Writers’ Festival 2016 Headliners Announced!
We are hugely excited to announce that award-winning writers Naomi Alderman, Laura Dockrill, Anthony McGowan and Dave Rudden will be joining First Story at this year’s …
Become a Cheltenham Festivals Writer-in-Residence
Cheltenham Festivals is a charitable organisation that champions up-and-coming talent, celebrates established artists and commissions unique performances. As a part of their inspirational educational …
First Story is now a member of The Fair Education Alliance
The Fair Education Alliance is a progressive coalition of organisations from across charities, businesses and education, all working together to fight educational inequality. The FEA is committed to …
The Bookseller reports on the ‘substantial impact’ of First Story
‘In the late Barry Hines’ novel Kes — so memorably adapted for the big screen in 1969 by Ken Loach — there is a scene in which the young hero, Billy Casper, stands at the front of the class …
The winner of our Letters Live Six-Word Story Competition
A big thank you to all those who entered the Six-Word Story Competition that First Story ran at Letters Live – there was a delightful array of funny, moving and clever entries that we hugely enjoyed …
A 5 minute interview with William Fiennes
The London Book Fair caught up with our co-founder, William Fiennes, for a short interview to mark First Story being selected as The London Book Fair’s charity of the year. We've reproduced the …
First Story Young Writers in a Ted Hughes Prize shorlisted poem
A huge congratulations to former First Story Writer-in-Residence Kate Clanchy, who has been shortlisted for the Ted Hughes Prize for New Work in Poetry 2015. Kate has been …
First Story is London Book Fair’s Charity of the Year
We are so pleased to announce that First Story has been chosen as London Book Fair’s Charity of the year. We’re really looking forward to being part of one of the most exciting events in the …
Our 100-Word Story Competition Winners are in The Bookseller
The winners of this year's First Story’s 100-Word Story Competition, judged by Vintage Books, have been featured in The Bookseller. This is just one more way to give them a huge …
100-Word Story 2015 Winners
The judges at Vintage Publishing were hugely impressed with the inventiveness and creativity of all entries, and after a long deliberation process we are excited to announce the overall winner and the …
First Story in the RSL Review
In the spring edition of the RSL Review, our Interim Executive Director, Emily Webb, talked about our enriching partnership with the Royal Society of Literature, and explains why First …
The First Story Residential Anthology 2015
The First Story Residential Anthology 2015 has finally arrived. It is bursting with the voices of the amazing 78 students who spent a week writing on the First Story Summer Residential Course at …
First Story awarded major Arts Council England grant
We're delighted to announce we have been awarded a Creative Writing in Schools grant for £600,000 by Arts Council England, to expand our current national creative writing programme in the …
What’s it like at the Residential?
During our 2015 summer residential programme, at the Arvon centre in Shropshire, we interviewed First Story students about their experience of participating in the programme. They talked about the …
Patrick Ness and Sally Green to headline Young Writers’ Festival 2015
We are very excited to announce that award-winning authors Patrick Ness and Sally Green will feature as guest speakers at the First Story Young Writers’ Festival, on Wednesday 16th and Thursday …
The Sunday Times publishes our young writers’ work
The overall winning poem in our First Story National Writing Competition has been published in The Sunday Times paper and online, celebrating the achievements of the winner Mukahang Limbu from Oxford …
‘Writing can be a source not just of pleasure but of power’
The following article originally appeared on The Sunday Times online. The biscuit girl’s tale makes us all crumble A charity is using writing classes to help children find their voice, says the …
First Story National Writing Competition prize giving ceremony
First Story’s National Writing Competition public talk and prize giving ceremony will be held as part of LSE’s Literary Festival Date: Monday 9 March 2015Time: 6-7.30pmVenue: Sheikh Zayed …
First Story National Writing Competition longlist announced
We had a record number of entries from state secondary schools across the country all responding to the theme of ‘Home’. We feel truly privileged to have received and read so many entries of …
The First Story Residential Anthology 2014
We are very proud to present the First Story Residential Anthology 2014. It has been carefully compiled from all the pieces our First Story students wrote and read out loud with such aplomb at …
Young Writers’ Festival 2014
What an exciting month for First Story. Last week we launched the 2014-2015 programme with our Young Writers’ Festival 2014 – two days of inspirational talks and creative-writing …
First Story and Cheltenham Festivals
First Story is very excited to announce that for the first time we are entering into a partnership with Cheltenham Festivals to run First Story residencies in three schools in Gloucestershire. We will …
First Story young writers are finalists in the John Betjeman poetry competition
We are so incredibly proud to announce that two of our First Story students are among the three finalists in the 2014 John Betjeman Poetry Competition for Young People! The competition, open to …
