Rugby Literary Festival 2025 took place this past weekend in the Warwickshire town of Rugby.
Incy’s poetry reading
Incy performed her newest poem at the festival, (the only child under 18 to read poetry at the three day festival). See more about that here
Rugby Literary Festival 2025
Poetry Workshop with Young Poet Laureate for Warwickshire
There were two poetry workshops held at the festival this year. One was run by Ananditha Venkatramanan, who is the current Young Poet Laureate for Warwickshire.
It was a pleasure to be in Ananditha’s workshop, who held a mixture of activities, including a group poetry writing session and individual writing. Incy began working on another poem during this session, and learned about haiku and limericks.
Poetry Workshop by the Dreadlock Alien
The second poetry workshop was run by Richard Grant, a Birmingham based poet who is known as the Dreadlock Alien. Read more about it here
Incy met several authors at the book fair, many of whom she already knew, and new ones such as Jojo Stewart who created the character of Tigby (star of “Tigby Tried” and “Mud is Good”). Tom Philips was the travelling storyteller telling folk stories as part of a literary trail, which ended with a free goody bag including books and bookmarks.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Incy also took part in two workshops run by artist Jessica Hartshorn.
One workshop was to create characters, influenced by their appearance and vice-versa. Incy created a fox character, as she had her face painted earlier to look like a fox kit! The workshops were fun and creative and Incy met other children at the workshops who also like to draw.
Be sure to catch the festival next year, Incy may perform again. In the meantime, keep checking back here for news on Incy’s appearances.