August 31st
Join us for drinks and stories at our First Story schools this autumn. We’ll be celebrating another anthology of our students’ work, and bringing together our writers, supporters and schools in our annual celebration event.
On Tuesday 14th September, First Story school Highbury Grove will be holding their Launch Event with Writer-in-Residence Courttia Newland. Students will be reading from their newly published anthology By the End [...]
We are thrilled to welcome fourteen new writers to First Story for the academic year 2010-2011. Diran Adebayo, Clare Brown, Roland Chambers, Laura Dockrill, Ben Faccini, Kevin Fegan, Julie Hearn, Hisham Matar, Jean McNeil, Jon McGregor, Niki Monaghan, Ross Raisin, Nii Parkes and Matt Thorne will be working in schools in London, Oxford and Nottingham. You can read more about our current First Story writers, and their publications, here.
Twenty-six First Story students joined us for five glorious days of writing at the Peak Centre in the Peak District. The writers leading workshops were Nii Parkes, Salena Godden and Laura Dockrill. Special guest visits by writers Berlie Doherty and William Fiennes were a highlight for everyone (especially William’s pastiche poem composed on the spot!).
We’ve posted photos from the First Story Summer Residential on Facebook, and you can see the anthology produced during the week by clicking here.
Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make this a special week, especially our writers, special guests, the Peak Centre staff, Nikki Rossner and Jo’s Pantry.
First Story Writer Salena Godden, host of ‘London’s hippest literary salon’ the Book Club Boutique, was featured in an article about a new breed of literary events now thriving in the UK. First Story receives a mention as a charity that collaborates with the Book Club Boutique via Salena’s residencies in our First Story schools.
Read the article here.
We’ve just finished a season of in-house events and book launches at twelve of our schools. Each event was a huge success, with First Story students reading from their anthologies to family and friends, as well as journalists, guest writers, headteachers and visiting members of the community who came to hear their work.
Burlington Danes Academy set the bar high with the first of the events. The reading began with a lively group performance of their compilation story from Untold Truths composed around Halloween, with each student reading their contribution in turn. The thrills and chills continued throughout the evening.
At Oxford School, we heard powerful pieces from the Inclusion Project, which works with students who would otherwise be excluded from mainstream education. A few of the students were well-seasoned readers, having read their work to the crowds at Oxford Literary Festival a few months previously. Their anthology, Some Kids, was a sell-out, featuring Jack’s poem which had been published in the Royal Society of Literature Review, and Aaron’s prize-winning postcard poem.
Holland Park School students read from their anthology Heart Full of Stories to an attentive crowd of family and friends in a candle-lit hall. Claims to fame in this group included certificates awarded for being ‘most coolly moody’ and ‘most talkative and energetic’. It also boasted First Story’s youngest-ever writer at age 10.
Larkmead School, Oxford, had the verve and flair to host an entire literary festival. After a busy day of workshops involving the whole school, the First Story group gave the headlining performance to an audience of over a hundred. Philip Pullman introduced the students – and said how thrilled he was to see such a groundbreaking festival in action. You can read more about the day here.
Quintin Kynaston School’s library was festooned with brightly coloured flags carrying excerpts from Ricochet Like a Discus. The students read to a jam-packed audience that included agents from RCW and Orange First Book Prize winner Naomi Alderman.
At Highgate Wood School, a small and intimate event, Antonia Byatt, Director of literature strategy at Arts Council England, handed out certificates of merit to the students, while First Story student Kareem Wilson compèred the evening with style.
The baked goods were out in force at the Cheney School launch event with lots of mouth-watering treats laid out to complement the veritable feast of students’ work in Aloft. Teachers Liz Watkins and Jamie Kirkaldy wowed the audience by stepping up to the mike to read work written alongside the students.
The launch at Charles Edward Brooke School was a purple extravaganza in a packed marquee to match the colour of their anthology’s cover, And So It Begins. Guest poet Laura Dockrill brought new life to an old Roald Dahl favourite, but CEB students kept pace, giving a polished and powerful performance of their jointly composed poem Randomisation.
Another bumper audience of special guests – including editors from Granta, journalists, and writer Peter Hobbs – attended the Harris Academy Bermondsey launch event, where several students battled stage fright and won. The girls gave a pitch-perfect reading of their pieces from Scribbles thanks to the help of guest stage-presence coach and writer Robert Hudson.
At Islington Arts and Media School we had balloons, cakes and a spectacular singing performance from one student to warm up the crowds. The acclaimed short-story writer Helen Simpson was one of the many applauding, and writer-in-residence Betsy Tobin rounded off the night with her memories about each student’s part in the First Story programme.
Cranford Community College turned the school grounds into the perfect garden party. Family, friends, and special guests, including author and broadcaster Daisy Goodwin, ate sponge cake and strawberries while listening to students read from their anthology, The Buzzer.
Checked tablecloths, candlelight and anthems characterised Queens Park Community School’s launch event. Students took the stage to the strains of ‘Paperback Writer’ and ‘Heroes’, and read their stories from Sweet & Sour to an enthusiastic crowd.
Extracts from the anthologies can be read here, and the full publication list can be viewed here.
It’s official. First Story has arrived in Nottingham. We will be running four residencies in three schools, and working with the writers Jon McGregor, Nicola Monaghan, Clare Brown and Kevin Fegan. Read about our arrival in Nottingham Post.
In the article, our Director William Fiennes said about students taking the First Story programme: ‘I think they gain a sense that their lives and their stories are really valuable. They get a real excitement about storytelling, voices, language and how powerful writing can be.’
Barry Day, chief executive of Nottingham Academy, said, ‘One of our specialist subjects is literacy so we are always looking for ways to improve. First Story is a great way for them to extend their vocabulary and range of literacy.’
’Went to shops. Won lottery. Sorted.’
This is the winning entry of our annual Six-Word Story Competition by Jordan Joseph Wildman at Quintin Kynaston. We were thrilled to receive dozens of witty, thoughtful, wicked, and poetic entries.
William Fiennes, our judge, said of the winning entry, ‘There’s something formally so satisfying about the three sentences: three words, two words, one word…’
The two runners up were Ivanilza da Mata (Kissed me. Kissed another. Pulled trigger.) and Chloe Collins (Did the right thing. Was wrong.).
Thank you to everyone who entered, and for keeping us amused with so many snappily-penned lines.
We’re thrilled to announce the two pieces by First Story students chosen for publication on Granta.com. Islam Mohammed’s powerful poem ‘My Name’ and Jenny Narramore’s evocative and haunting story ‘The Whale’ were selected from a First Story short-list by Granta’s editors.
Islam is a student at Cheney School in Oxford, where she’s been working with the writer Helen Cross. Jenny has been part of the First Story programme at Larkmead School, Abingdon, led by the writer Tim Pears.
Our director, William Fiennes, introduces the two young writers, and shares his experiences teaching on the First Story programme. Their stories can be read here.
Congratulations to Islam and Jenny, and thank you to everyone who made this opportunity for these two talented young writers possible.
First Story Writer and Director William Fiennes has been short-listed for the Ondaatje Prize with his latest book, The Music Room. Not shy of stopping there, The Music Room has also been short-listed for the Costa Book Awards, the Duff Cooper Prize, the PEN/Ackerley Award, and the Independent Booksellers’ Book of the Year Award. We wish William the best of luck with all of them!
Information about William Fiennes and The Music Room can be found here.
First Story writer William Sutcliffe has been short-listed for the Le Prince Maurice Prize. An extract of his short-listed novel, Whatever Makes You Happy, can be read here. Congratulations, William!
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