Hay Festival Scribblers Tour 2025
Hay Festival Scribblers Tour brings authors, poets and performers to lead interactive events with students in Years 7–10 from schools across Wales. The events take place in Welsh universities annually in January/February, thanks to Welsh Government funding.
Our next Scribblers Tour takes place 3–14 February 2025. Pupils will build stories, ask questions and express themselves through the power of writing. Authors and compères will spend time with pupils, on and off the stage, to encourage creative conversations throughout the workshop series.
You can apply for a travel bursary from the Arts Council of Wales through the Go and See Fund. Applications must be received before Christmas 2024, to allow the Arts Council of Wales time to process your application.
Book Your School – Week 1 – Years 7 & 8
Book Your School – Week 2 – Years 9 & 10
Week 1 Host – Jenny Valentine
Award-winning YA author and teen champion Jenny Valentine will be compèring Week 1 of the Scribblers Tour and encouraging pupils to find their own words to express ideas and creativity throughout the tour.
Week 1 / Event 1: Steven Camden
Join Polarbear, AKA Steven Camden, as he leads students through his process for creating a story world and crafting a beginning for narrative writing or poetry. In this interactive session students will collaborate with Steven as well as building their own story or poem. Drawing from his award-winning collection Everything All At Once, Steven will touch on how to use elements of place, rhythm and voice to bring writing to life.
Week 1 / Event 2: Liz Hyder
This fun and fast-paced workshop will see everyone write a short story inspired only by a hagstone – a pebble with a hole all the way through it. Harness your imagination, use your senses to create atmosphere, and make your writing feel immersive throughout. A great confidence-building workshop, it will inspire students to realise that, if they can make up a story using only a rock as a starting point, there’s no limit to what else they might achieve. Liz Hyder is the award-winning writer of two critically acclaimed books for young people - Bearmouth and The Twelve.
Week 2 Host – Sarah KilBride
Sarah KilBride is the author of the successful series Princess Evie's Ponies, selling over a million copies worldwide. Her latest book, A Cuddle and a Cwtch, is available in English and Welsh. Sarah has been working with Hay Festival Education since 2023.
Week 2 / Event 1: Jenny Valentine
Jenny Valentine has been thinking about lists. Long lists, short lists, shopping lists, wish lists, missing lists, to-do lists. Everybody writes them, one way or another. Our lists say more about us than we realise. And they can be very helpful when you are writing a story! Come and make some lists with Jenny about everyday things or life and death things. Jenny will introduce you to her latest YA novel, Us in the Before and After, a tear-jerking, heartbreakingly beautiful read about the fallout of a sudden death and the lifelong consequences of a single tragic act.
Week 2 / Event 2: Ashley Hickson-Lovence
Ashley Hickson-Lovence, author of Wild East, will lead you through spoken word sonnet writing. This interactive creative writing workshop combines music and poetry to help students find their lyrical voice. Ashley will incorporate instrumental UK hip hop and live performance to help budding writers craft compelling spoken-word-style sonnets. Ashley is a novelist, poet, literary critic, Lecturer of Creative Writing and a football referee.
Day at a glance
| 10am | Schools arrive |
| 10.15am–10.30am | Introduction |
| 10.30am–11.15am | Event 1 – Steven Camden (week 1) / Jenny Valentine (week 2) |
| 11.15am–11.30am | Break |
| 11.30am–12.15pm | Event 2 – Liz Hyder (week 1) / Ashley Hickson-Lovence (week 2) |
| 12.15pm–1pm | Lunch and book signing |
| 1pm–1.45pm | Event 3 – University session |
| 1.45pm–2pm | Pupil and teacher evaluation |
| 2pm | End |
