Authors including local talent Tracey Corderoy and Eloise Williams bring storytelling to life for second Pop Up Festival
Next week, 80 children’s authors and illustrators will take part in the second annual Pop Up Festival next month – a national schools literature festival that sees books brought to life from 11-22 June.
Over the course of the festival, authors and illustrators will visit 15,000 children in classrooms, libraries, museums and galleries across England and Wales. Interactive workshops led by visiting authors and illustrators will kick-start pupils’ creative writing and illustration, with thousands of books supplied to participating primary, secondary and SEND schools in the process.
The authors visiting Swansea for the festival include local talent, Tracey Corderoy and Eloise Williams, as well as Emily Rand, Holly Sterling, Helen Docherty, Chitra Soundar, Gareth P. Jones, Rachel Rooney, Jay Hulme, Petr Horacek, Katie Harnett, Joseph Coelho, Guy Bass, Mehrdokht Amini, Thomas Docherty, Emily Hughes, Ellie Sandall, Chloe Inkpen and Atinuke.
The schools participating in this year’s festival are Coedffranc Primary School, Trallwn Primary School, Gwyrosydd Primary School and Awel y Mor Primary School
The author visits and workshops are the culmination of a term’s work which has seen each school’s pupils participate in a tailored reading programme, which immerses them in the authors’ books.
Literature Wales, Pop Up’s partner in Wales, said:
Literature Wales welcomes and supports the Pop Up Festival. It is the Festival’s second year with schools in Wales and the pupils’ reactions to meeting the authors is magical. The Pop Up Festival creates real excitement and enthusiasm and promotes engagement with reading.
Pop Up Festival is funded by the Paul Hamlyn Foundation and delivered in Swansea in partnership with Literature Wales. The initiative ‘takes over’ literacy and English for six weeks over the summer term across whole schools from nursery to year ten – providing brilliant new books, replenishing libraries, engaging authors as writer-role models, and empowering teachers to teach more creatively.
Saul Argent, education manager Pop Up Projects, said:
In each of its festival hubs in England and Wales, Pop Up Projects works collaboratively with educational, literary and cultural organisations to enable children, empower teachers, and engage families from all walks of life to read more widely, write more creatively, and develop visual storytelling skills.
Launched in 2017, Pop Up Festival forms part of a wider children’s literature programme from Pop Up Projects, including teacher CPD, an education conference, a magazine and an international illustrator’s exchange.
