Our Annual Skills Share Day is a chance for our writers to come together, undertake peer to peer training and hear our plans for the year ahead. On Tuesday 5th September, we welcomed First Story writers from East Midlands, London, the North West and Yorkshire to our 2024 event at our office in London. Writers who are new to First Story, who we hope to place in residencies, attended along with our more experienced writers.
Our CEO Antonia Byatt gave a keynote outlining new initiatives, where we are now, and the importance of our work. Head of Programmes (Maternity Cover) Claire Boulton presented a review of the previous academic year 2023/24, highlighting success and challenges.
Morning workshops were run by writers Paul Lyalls, who explored the anthology production process, and Rachel Seiffert, who explored what goes into a good First Story workshop. In the afternoon, writers Paula Rawsthorne and Sonya Hundal led a session on best practice to ensure a safe space for our young people in workshops and Claire Boulton and North West Programme Manager Rachael Bamber led a skills sharing session.
Alistair Town from Nottingham Trent University, led an informative and timely session on AI; discussing the uses and limitations when using AI creatively.
First Story’s writers are an essential part of our programme, acting as both ambassadors for First Story within their assigned school, and for creative writing within their region. We look forward to supporting our writers through the year ahead and creating access to further writer development and learning opportunities.
Feedback on the day
Great to meet others in a lovely, supportive space.
Full of new ideas and connections , fresh workshop material and angles on the core issues we face.
Got an ideas boost and added strings to the bow.
First Story Summer Residential 2024