Plymouth’s young writing talent celebrated in anthology

Budding young writers in Plymouth will see their work showcased in a special anthology being launched by award-winning author Babs Horton on Friday 1 November.

The anthology features diverse and inspiring pieces produced by members of the Young Writers Squad Plymouth, set up by the Council’s library service just over a year ago.

Babs, a former Royal Literary Fund Writing Fellow at Plymouth University who has taught in many Plymouth secondary schools, is the project’s writer in residence and led a series of creative writing sessions with the group. By Spring 2013 members of the squad, aged 12 to 15, had produced an array of poems, short stories and plays, a selection of which are being published in this collection.

The Western Morning News will soon be featuring excerpts from the anthology and Hospital Radio will be broadcasting poems and short stories on the airwaves in December.

Deputy Council Leader Peter Smith said: “The Young Writers Squad shows young people that writing doesn’t have to be work and inspires them to find creative and original ways of expressing their ideas in words. The group has had a really successful first year and I’d like to congratulate everyone on producing some brilliant work.”

The anthology is being launched during this year’s Plymouth International Book Festival, which runs from Thursday 31 October to Saturday 9 November. Visit www.literatureworks.org.uk for further details.

The Young Writers Squad network is a project of Literature Works, the South West literature development agency and part of the Read/Write project funded by the Big Lottery.

The Plymouth Squad meets every other Saturday at Plymstock Library from 11am to 1pm. For more information call 01752 305900 or email library@plymouth.gov.uk.