Each July, First Story takes a group of 16 students from across England on a week-long residential trip. Hosted by Arvon at their Lumb Bank Centre in rural West Yorkshire, it’s an opportunity for students to develop their writing craft, confidence and creativity. This year, the week was tutored by experienced First Story Writers-in-Residence Testament and Maria Ferguson with Sharena Lee Satti as a guest speaker on Wednesday.
The residential had an incredible sense of community, with Arvon’s idyllic writing centre being filled with laughter and chatter as students played board games and the guitar and shared their writing. The warmhearted staff at Arvon played a major part in this, as did Maria and Testament, who encouraged students to get involved and share their work right from the first workshop.
Each day began with a creative writing workshop exploring different writing techniques, forms and styles. Maria and Testament encouraged students to build off the prompts and pursue their own interests to create bold and varied pieces of writing. By the end of the week, students had written and performed scripts, poems, stories and even pop music! On Wednesday, guest writer Sharena joined the group and captivated everyone by talking about her writing journey and creative process.
It helped improve my confidence in writing lots and let me meet lots of great new people!
Participant
In addition to the writing workshops, we explored the local area and the historic village of Heptonstall. We walked up through the valley before arriving at the village, where students visited Sylvia Plath’s grave, and explored the ruins of a 700 year-old church. In the afternoons, students took part in individual tutorials with Maria and Testament to discuss their writing and creative process. The students were also chefs for the week, working in teams each evening to cook a delicious two-course meals which included tasty dishes like veggie chilli, saag dhal and brownie with fruit compote.
The workshops taught me new writing styles and taught me to be more confident in my work and sharing it. The residential was the highlight of my summer.
Participant
On the final evening of the week, the students organised and hosted their own showcase, where they shared pieces that they had worked on throughout the week. It was amazing that a group who were strangers on Monday could perform in front of their new friends only four days later. The writing was eclectic and powerful, a true celebration of their amazing work throughout the week.
I got to learn about different ways to prompt my writing and get feedback from some very talented writers.
Participant
Participants’ work will appear in a special collection which will be published this autumn.
First Story’s Young Writers Residential 2026 was generously supported by teamArchie and the Stratton Chase Foundation.
London Voice Connect at UCL East
