Latest News | 4 February 2021
Festival's new books written by students now available
Derby Book Festival has announced that the 2020 books of students’ writings and illustrations are now available for sale on its website.
Despite the challenges of last year, the festival’s Shared Writing Community Programme continued to work with 150 students from Derby secondary schools, Derby College Group and the University of Derby to produce two books.
The first, ‘The World and Me’, contains poems by Year 8 pupils from Bemrose School, St Benedict Voluntary Catholic Academy and Murray Park Community School, alongside a selection of short prose and poetry pieces written and illustrated by students from the college and the university.
The second book, ‘Our Global Family: Lexis Stories’, is based on a series of writings by Derby College Group Lexis students about their journeys from their home countries to Derby and their new lives and studies as Lexis students (young people only recently arrived in the UK, many of them refugees and asylum seekers).
Both books have been produced with the support of local design agency BurntheBook.
Kate Martin, vice principal at Derby College Group, said: “We have worked with Derby Book Festival now for five years and feel that their projects add real value to the students.
“We are delighted by the quality and range of the work that the students contribute to the books.
“Luckily, this year, much of the writing was completed before lockdown in March, but the art students had to finish their illustrations at home often under difficult circumstances.
“All the pieces are a response to the students’ thoughts and feeling about their place in the world, both now and in the future.”
This year, the sixth Derby Book Festival is due to take place from 27 May to 5 June 2021.
It will feature internationally-acclaimed authors and celebrate local writing talent.
To find out more about the event, and the two new books written by the students, please click here.
