Hay Festival Scribblers Tour Ignites Cardiff School Children’s Storytelling Passion

The Hay Festival Scribblers Tour has returned to Cardiff Metropolitan University, bringing together young minds from seven Cardiff schools and celebrated children’s authors for two full days of literary inspiration.

The event, aimed at students in Years 7 to 10, featured Guardian children's fiction prize winning author, Jenny Valentine; CILIP Carnegie medal nominee, Steven Camden (also known as Polarbear; and winner of the 2024 Nero Book Awards prize for children's fiction, Liz Hyder. Also leading the workshops were author of Princess Evie's Ponies, Sarah Kilbride and Ashley Hickson-Lovence, who was shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards.

The workshops formed part of an annual tour designed to ignite creativity and storytelling passion in university settings across Wales. Delivered in partnership with the Medr-funded Reaching Wider Programme, the tour sought to raise aspirations amongst young people from areas of multiple deprivation.

The workshops, split over two weeks, featured engaging sessions with award-winning authors designed to develop students’ writing skills and creative confidence.

Week one saw host, Jenny Valentine encourage Year 7 and 8 pupils express their ideas and creativity. The event included an interactive session with Steven Camden, also known as Polarbear, who guided students to develop their own stories or poems, drawing inspiration from his award-winning collection Everything All At Once. Liz Hyder also led a fast-paced workshop where students wrote short stories, encouraging them to tap into their imagination, engage their senses, and create immersive atmospheres in their writing.

The second week – hosted by Sarah KilBride - saw Year 9 and 10 pupils guided through the art of list-making as a storytelling technique by Jenny Valentine, while poet-novelist, Ashley Hickson-Lovence introduced pupils to spoken-word sonnets, blending rhythm and poetry in a dynamic workshop. As a memento of the day, all students received a free book signed by the author.

The Scribbler Tour schedule also included a university experience session led by Cardiff Met’s Reaching Wider team, providing students with a glimpse into higher education and potential future academic opportunities. This immersive experience helped students envision their potential futures in a university setting, broadening their aspirations beyond secondary school.

Reflecting on the successful event, Reaching Wider Manager, Caroline Ryan said: “The Scribblers Tour has been an incredible opportunity for young people to engage with the power of storytelling, creativity, and self-expression. Through interactive workshops and inspiring sessions with published authors, students have developed confidence in their writing skills and gained a greater appreciation for literature. This experience has not only sparked their imagination but has also helped to raise aspirations, showing them the many possibilities that higher education and creative careers can offer."

Find out more about Reaching Wider’s work to improve social mobility by widening access to all forms of higher education: Widening Access Reaching Wider.