For curious creatives aged 14 – 17
Our Lit From the Inside programme offers you the opportunity to look deep into the literary world and gain the skills to embark on a creative or cultural career.
You will learn about how all of the different parts of the literary ecosystem – publishers to illustrators, script-writers to events organisers, producers to poets – fit together.
Activities include workshops and discussions led by professionals at different career stages working in literature and more, as well as two trips to cultural events and organisations in Norwich and beyond.
Lit From the Inside will help you to think beyond simply your future as a writer or publisher, events organiser or PR, to what sort of creative professional you will be, what skills you already have and what tools you might need to help you to flourish, personally and professionally.
During the course of your time with us, you will gain skills and insights such as:
- How to survive as a freelancer.
- What it’s like being a publisher.
- Books are more than words: Design, typesetting, illustrations and more.
- How to pitch your ideas to broadcasters and publishers.
- Behind the scenes of organising a literary or cultural festival.
- What it means to be a writer-in-residence.
There will be a focus on resilience and maintaining your own wellbeing throughout your career, on personal development and goal-setting but also on giving back, and the ways in which you might use your skills to benefit your community, whether through teaching, mentoring or volunteering.
Each week you will have the opportunity to think about what you’ve learned, to reflect on your progress and to set goals for yourself and with the wider group. You will become part of our wider Lit From the Inside community, building links with other young creatives and forming a network of peers to help and support each other on your creative journey.
You will have the opportunity to contribute to a group project, drawing on the skills and knowledge you’ve accumulated during your time with us and we will also be visiting two literary events, so that you can see how they run and what it takes to put them together.
Timing
Sessions will take place fortnightly on Wednesday evenings 5pm-6.30pm.
Sessions will alternate between online and face-to-face at Dragon Hall, starting in July 2024 and concluding summer 2025.
Applications & Taking Part
To be a Lit Insider, you need to live or go to school in Norwich.
Applications are now open! To apply click here →
If you have any questions, contact Communications & Participation Assistant Ruby Pinner at [email protected]
Applications open until 12pm, Mon 3 June 2024
Project Lead
Lit from the Inside will be led by Dr Katherine Cooper, a writer, academic and broadcaster who has lectured in English at universities across the UK for almost 15 years. Her freelance work has appeared in publications including The Times ‘Literary Supplement’ and the Bookseller.
Kindly supported by Anguish’s Educational Foundation.
My confidence has really increased. I have come out of my year at Lit From the Inside with many new life skills, which I will always be grateful for.
Explore work from previous Lit from the Inside projects:
These zines are a small sample of creative work that our 2021 and 2022 cohorts produced during their time together — both responses to prompts from the workshops they’ve attended, and work written alongside their participation in the scheme.
The 2021 cohort created Observe/d, and each brilliant piece highlights the power of seeing and being seen at a time – during lockdown – when having your camera on or off was a deeply purposeful choice.
Download the full version of ‘All the things you are’ by Efe →
2022’s cohort produced Life Lines, a collection of stories and poetry linked by the theme of time – exploring a fictionalised past, this tumultuous present and dreaming of imagined futures.
Zine illustrations and design by Kristyna Baczynski.
