Swindon Youth Festival of Literature celebrates its 14th Year

18th November 2021

Simon Smith, Managing Partner of Bower Bailey Solicitors said “We welcome the opportunity to be one of the sponsors of the 2021 Swindon Youth Festival of Literature. We have been supporting SYFL for eight years now and it has been an absolute pleasure.”

“It’s great to sponsor a few of the festival activities, the Inter-school book quiz, Library Ambassadors Awards and the Creative Writing Competitions.”

“The festival runs from 15^th – 19^th November 2021.The atmosphere in the participating schools is electric. There is a real buzz created by this event which is coordinated by the Librarians from across Swindon Secondary Schools. It’s a real credit to the librarians and participating authors that they spark such enthusiasm.”

Inevitably COVID-19 issues have restricted some of the Swindon Youth Festival of Literature events this year however, the majority have been able to go ahead as planned.

There are thirteen participating secondary schools from across Swindon:

Abbey Park School
The Commonweal School
The Deanery
The Dorcan Academy
Great Western Academy
Highworth Warneford School
Kingsdown School
Lawn Manor Academy
Lydiard Park Academy
Nova Hreod Academy
The Ridgeway School
St Joseph’s Catholic College
Swindon Academy

Festival Activities include:

Creative Writing Competition
Illustration Competition
Inter-School Book Quiz
Library Ambassador Award
Poetry Competition

Whilst the headline event at the Wyvern theatre with best-selling author Onjali Q Rauf  has been cancelled due to COVID-19 concerns there are still a number of fantastic authors and poets making the festival a true celebration.

The 2021 line up of authors, illustrators and poets include

Steve Antony
Helen Dennis
Ash Dickinson
Phil Earle
Ele Fountain
Knife and Packer
Mark Lowery
Anthony McGowan
Kita Mitchell
Tom Mitchell
Sarah Mussi
Tom Palmer
Onjali Q Rauf
Alexander Gordon Smith
Ali Sparkes
Julian Sayerer
Jenny Valentine
Joffre White