50 students from three East Midlands schools took part in our Connect event at the University of Lincoln in June 2024.
Connect events are included in our offer for Young Writers Programme cohorts. As region-specific provision, these events encourage participants to connect with each other as a community of young writers, as well as strengthening connections to local universities and cultural institutions where events take place.
This was the first time that East Midlands Connect had taken place at the University of Lincoln. Schools received a warm welcome from staff and students from the Creative Writing department. Dr. Sherezade Garcia Rangel, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, gave attendees an example Creative Writing lecture which featured a writing exercise about a train that had stopped due to a cow on the track.
First Story writers Sonya Hundal, Dan Powell and Mark Gwynne Jones delivered workshops during the day. Mark played games with metaphors, Dan ran a workshop about writing techniques and Sonya led her groups through a powerful exercise where the students imagined they had to flee their homes.
The timetable of events was great, with opportunities for the students to attend First Story writer workshops and a University of Lincoln creative writing session. As always with these events, the closing readings from the young writers was brilliant. So great to hear so many fab voices.
Dan Powell, First Story Writer
The lively day included a talk from the Creative Writing staff and undergraduates about what it’s like to study Creative Writing, tours of the campus and the chance for students to explore the life of a writer. The day concluded with a showcase, compered by Pippa Hennessy, East Midlands Programme Manager, with students reading their pieces inspired by Dr. Garcia Rangel’s exercise, all of whom had their own wonderfully unique perspective.
It was fantastic for the students to have so much freedom within the activities. It was great to see how creative they could be and how engaged they became once they put pen to paper.
Laura Telford, Teacher at Priory City of Lincoln Academy
Participant feedback
What I liked is that we learned about different types of writing and writing techniques in a fun way and that they explained to us about writing careers in university.
I liked all the activities and workshops. The prompts were cool and inspired some good writing.
I liked exploring all the different writing styles, and all of the links and themes in them.
First Story at Nottingham Poetry Festival
