MyVoice

MyVoice - write or wrong? awards bursaries to nine young people aged between 13 and 19 to support them to explore the issues of our time, such as contemporary life through the eyes of young people; freedom of expression; preventing violent extremism and young people in the media.

The project aims to create conversations and dialogues across languages, cultural perceptions and narrative disciplines.

Working in partnership with writers, local library services and publishers, MyVoice will give young people the opportunity to:

  • Be mentored by a professional writer to support and develop their writing
  • Be mentored by a librarian to support and develop their reading
  • Help librarians to select books for their local library
  • Be part of and help organise a writer's event
  • Receive a £100 book token to choose their own books to own
  • Share their writing/reading experiences with other young people involved in the project at groupthing.org

MyVoice write or wrong? is being run in Birmingham, Blackburn (Darwen and Pendle), Bradford, Leicester, Luton, Manchester and Oldham, Slough and Waltham Forest. It is a partnership project between Creativity, Culture and Education and The Reading Agency; funded by Communities and Local Government.

Bursary winners and their writer mentors

Maryam (18) from Birmingham is interested in journalism, poetry and short stories. She will be mentored by performance poet Akala.

Saida (15) from Blackburn is interested in poetry. She will be mentored by poet Daljit Nagra.

Kerry (17) from Bradford is interested in fiction, journalism and short stories. She will be mentored by short story writer/novelist Qaisra Shahraz.

O'Neall (16) from Leicester is interested in poetry. He will be mentored by children's author Bali Rai.

Entela (17) from Luton is interested in short stories. She will be mentored by published author Preethi Nair.

Ahlyah (14) from Luton is interested in fiction and poetry. She will be mentored by broadcaster and journalist Hardeep Singh Kohli.

Afshan (17) from Manchester is interested in fiction, plays and poetry. She will be mentored by journalist Robin Yassin-Kassab.

Grace (18) from Slough is interested in fiction, journalism, poetry and short stories. She will be mentored by broadcaster and journalist Hardeep Singh Kohli.

Saima (14) from Waltham Forest is interested in plays. She will be mentored by producer and memoirist Yasmin Hai.

To find out more about MyVoice - write or wrong? watch the videos. The links are in the Resources column on the right of this page.