Children and Young Adults at the Heart of Book Festival

Wigtown Puts Children and Young Adults at the Heart of Book Festival

17 September, 2024

• Youth Engagement Officer is welcomed to the team.
• New Delegates Day is packed with interactive free events
• Line-up for younger audiences includes Frank Cottrell-Boyce
  

Wigtown Festival Company has announced the appointment of a new Young People’s Engagement Officer.

There will also be a special full day of free events for young people at this year’s Wigtown Book Festival – in addition to a great young adults’ programme, and the Big Wig children’s events.

The first ever Delegates Day, on Saturday 28 September, is a truly exciting mix of interactive workshops, talks, and activities for those aged 14+ including:

• Dare to Dream, with Sarah P Corbett: What are your dreams for the future? Join craftivist (crafter + activist) Sarah P Corbett in this hands-on dream-making workshop.
• Roll for Story, with Annaliese Avery: A Dungeons & Dragon-inspired writing workshop, using dice and imagination.
• Telling your Story, with Nadine Aisha Jassat: Join poet and performer Nadine for this friendly workshop in which you’ll discover how to tell your story through the superpower of poetry.
• (Un)Seen, (Un)Heard: A creative writing session where people can explore their own personal histories, with options for both guided and self-led storytelling.
• Scotland’s Young Makars: Meet the next generation of Scotland’s poets, the Young Makars, and find out how you can become one of them.
• How To Turn Real Life Into Fiction (Without Upsetting Parents, Friends or Lawyers!), with Keith Gray: Lots of things happen to us which would make great stories - falling in love, keeping secrets, even dealing with death. But real life rarely comes with a plot. Keith shows you how to take all those big emotions and turn them into stories everyone will want to read.

The new Young People’s Engagement Officer Morgan Love will join WFC at the start of the festival (which runs from 27 September to 6 October) and will work year-round to increase the opportunities for younger readers and writers.

She previously worked for Lift D&G in Dumfries where she promoted community pride and a sense of belonging and used art to address social issues.

In her new role she will be working with children and young people who aren’t normally involved with the festival to make sure it’s something they can enjoy being part of.

She says:

“We want to break down some of the preconceptions about who the festival is for and what it offers.

“Reading is hugely important an enjoyable and makes a big difference to young people’s life chances. Books are also where we learn all sorts of things like empathy for others and patience.

“It’s all the more important to encourage young people nowadays as many are veering away from reading and not developing the skills that come with it.”

Anne Barclay, WFC Operations Director, said:

“It’s hard to imagine a more important role than engaging with children and young people. Morgan’s work will be pivotal to WFC’s aims in catching their interest at the earliest possible age and getting them involved not just with reading, but with every aspect of storytelling.

“As the Delegates Day and the festival line-up shows, there is an immense amount on offer to fire the imaginations of children and young readers and writers, introduce them to wonderful stories, introduce them to poetry and help them to discover how to create stories of their own.”

Among the YA events at the festival will be:

• Margaret McDonald: Glasgow Boys. A heartbreaking but hopeful coming-of-age story about leaving care and navigating first love.
• Mollie Ray: Giant. The graphic artist on her remarkable story of one family’s experience of cancer, told purely through images.
• Sarah P Corbett: Heart on My Sleeve. The Craftivist (craft/activist) invites you to stitch a badge as a catalyst for change.
• Denise Brown: It All Started with a Lie. A teenager’s discovery of a family secret leads to murder and mayhem. Perfect for fans of Holly Jackson.
• Annaliese Avery: Journal Your Way to You. How journaling can help you get where you want to go and be who you want to be.

This year’s Big Wig children’s programme features creative comics workshops, a free Family Fun Day, Family Rhyme Time with Renita Boyle and a Scribble and Scrawl Crawl where children can tour Book Town making drawings along the way.

Among the authors telling their stories will be Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce, with his hilarious new book The Wonder Brothers, Mairi Kidd with Scottish Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends and Susi Briggs with Yum – a tale in Scots all about sharing. And Vivian French will invite children to Tell the Time with Anna.

There will also be Sensory Story events for children with profound and multiple learning disabilities on Sunday, 29 September which are run in partnership with PAMIS.

And there’s much more as well – whether it’s Louisa MacDougall with Rory and the Snack Dragons, or Chae Strathie with Scotland: The People, The Places, The Stories.

About the Delegates Day

• Delegates Day participants will receive their passes, information about the day and a small goodie bag.
• Lunch is provided and WFC can even help with transport if necessary.
• If you’re accompanying a young person to the festival, please ask about free and reduced tickets to main programme events.
  

WFC can run it for free thanks to generous sponsorship by the Holywood Trust.

For full details see www.wigtownbookfestival.com.

-Ends-

Notes

This year’s Wigtown Book Festival has more than 250 events and takes place from 27 September to 6 October. See

Donations to support the work of WFC are welcome.

For more about Wigtown Book Festival see www.wigtownbookfestival.com

About EventScotland

EventScotland is working to make Scotland the perfect stage for events by securing and supporting an exciting portfolio of sporting and cultural events. It provides funding opportunities and access to resources and information to develop the industry.

EventScotland is a team within VisitScotland’s Events Directorate, the national tourism organisation, alongside Business Events and Development teams. For further information about EventScotland, its funding programmes and latest event news visit www.eventscotland.org or follow Twitter @EventScotNews and follow us on LinkedIn.

About Creative Scotland

Creative Scotland is the public body that supports the arts, screen and creative industries across all parts of Scotland on behalf of everyone who lives, works or visits here. It enables people and organisations to work in and experience the arts, screen and creative industries in Scotland by helping others to develop great ideas and bring them to life. Creative Scotland distributes funding provided by the Scottish Government and the National Lottery. For further information about Creative Scotland please visit www.creativescotland.com. Follow us @creativescots and www.facebook.com/CreativeScotland. 

For media information: Matthew Shelley at Matthew@ScottishfestivalsPR.org or 07786 704299.