Over three days, the Corsham community was invited to come together and celebrate the art of writing at the inaugural StoryTown Festival. The culmination of two years of collaboration between Corsham Town Council and Paper Nations, StoryTown featured a busy schedule of readings, exhibitions and writing workshops.
Many of the writers who have co-produced writing projects with Paper Nations over the past two years were invited to run sessions at StoryTown. Children from Corsham schools celebrated their writing achievements over the past term in sessions with Peahen Publishing and Marnie Eldridge (Prime Theatre, Swindon). Local author Chris Vicks continued his fantastic writing club.
To further the children’s creative journeys, Paper Nations armed them with their very own notebooks.
StoryTown concluded with a celebration of the new partnership between Corsham Town Council and Dare to Write? –an initiative run by Paper Nations. Attendees were addressed by Paper Nations’ Creative Director, Bambo Soyinka, Chris Vick, and Town Councillor, Neville Farmer.
‘To have created over 30 events over one week, involving everyone from toddlers to our eldest residents has been a real achievement, but Corsham aims high and we have even greater plans for the future.’ Neville Farmer, Town Councillor
‘The culmination of weeks of hard work, and the Dare to Write? launch, showed that this is just the start – so many local people expressed their excitement and enthusiasm regarding the weekend’s events and want to see more.’ Matthew Tett, StoryTown Coordinator
The Paper Nations team meanwhile launched the Dare to Write? Platform, a sourcebook aiming to bring the writing community together and support emerging writers of all ages.
Thank you to everyone who made this event possible, including all the writers, experts, parents, artists, and organisations who helped Paper Nations trial Dare to Write?.