The National Centre for Writing, home of Norwich UNESCO City of Literature, is delighted to announce funding from the Garfield Weston Foundation towards creative writing, reading and heritage activities throughout 2026, the National Year of Reading.
The Foundation’s generous support will enable children, young people, older residents and people with lived experience of migration to ‘Go All In’ through a wide range of creative writing, reading and storytelling activities. These will take place both at National Centre for Writing’s historic literature house, Dragon Hall, and at venues across the city.
3,000+ drop-in visitors and 4,100+ young people connected with the National Centre for Writing in 2024/25. The award helps to extend valued and established programmes at Dragon Hall and beyond.
We look forward to seeing faces new and old at activities including Drop In & Write, the Lit From The Inside youth collective, Family Activity Days and one-off workshops for young minds. We will be welcoming school groups and drop-in visitors to Dragon Hall, alongside taking the NCW team and our collaborators out to schools, libraries, community and residential settings.
‘At NCW, we’re creating the blueprint for what a 21st-century centre for writing can do, on our doorstep and far beyond. We are delighted to receive this generous grant, which will help keep the doors of Norwich’s literature house widely open at Dragon Hall and extend valuable partnerships with schools and charities in this exciting year!’
The National Year of Reading
The National Year of Reading 2026 is a UK-wide campaign designed to inspire more people to make reading a regular part of their lives.
Inspired by the Year of Reading, National Centre for Writing is partnering with Newsquest — publisher of the Eastern Daily Press, Norwich Evening News, Ipswich Star and many other newspapers across Norfolk and Suffolk — to launch Born & Read, a campaign to ignite a renewed passion for reading and writing across the East of England.
This partnership will help to spread the word about NCW’s community activities and broader opportunities to engage in reading and writing throughout Norwich in 2026.
We are deeply grateful to the Garfield Weston Foundation for their vital support at this exciting time for everyone connected with books and stories.
Together, we aim to create a more connected and inclusive city, where residents are empowered through a love of reading, creative writing and storytelling – with a stronger sense of place, creative skills, confidence and wellbeing across generations of participants and visitors.
The Garfield Weston Foundation is a family founded grant-maker supporting charities operating in a wide variety of sectors across the UK that make a positive difference within their communities.
Established by W. Garfield Weston in 1958 through an endowment of shares in the family business – now known as Associated British Foods plc – the Foundation continues to be guided by the Weston Family. The Trustees, each of whom are direct descendants of the founder, play an active, informed role in its work.
This successful model has ensured that our charitable donations have grown as the businesses have grown, enabling the Foundation to award grants totalling nearly £1.7 billion since its establishment. The most recent financial year 2024-2025 saw the Foundation give away almost £130 million to 2,967 charities. Website
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