Since 2016, a number of writers from Wales have been given a golden opportunity to learn, network and develop their artistic practice as participants of the Hay Festival’s Writers at Work Programme. The project receives funding from the Arts Council of Wales’ lottery fund, Create, and is supported by Literature Wales.
Having attended the week-long Programme which comprises of Festival events, as well as masterclasses and workshops with publishers, agents and established international artists, numerous previous participants have gone on to achieve great success in Wales and beyond.
One member of the 2019 cohort was none other than the current National Poet of Wales, Hanan Issa.
“The Writers at Work programme supported me in my work as a writer in so many ways,” says Hanan, who was also this year’s Hay Festival International Fellow. “Being able to sit in a room and ask experienced writers intricate questions about the process of writing, about the process of getting published, it really demystified and broke down a lot of barriers for me.”
It was during the 2019 course that Hanan met writers Grug Muse and Darren Chetty, and together, along with Welsh writer Iestyn Tyne, they went on to publish the critically acclaimed book, Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales (Repeater, 2022).
For Darren, the highlight of the Writers at Work Programme was this opportunity to meet and get to know other authors. He says: “I got more out of the programme than I even expected to. I was hoping to meet people and get some conversations and to meet writers whose work I really valued, and I did that, but those lasting connections and relationships that led to us putting the book Welsh (Plural) together, that was more than I could have imagined.”
Each year a new cohort is selected and immersed in a week of activities at the Hay Festival, and following the covid-induced pause the Programme is now back in full swing. Emerging writers Francesca Reece and Brennig Davies certainly felt the buzz.
“I really want to sustain this inspiration!” says Francesca, who published her debut novel, Voyeur (Tinder Press) in 2021. “It’s been so energising and exciting, I’m really hoping that I’m going to go home and still feel that energy and feel galvanised to write and to write better.”
The opportunity to share work with other writers is something all participants say they valued. Brennig, who won the Crown at the Urdd Eisteddfod in 2019 explains: “We had seminars where we read our work to each other and then offered feedback and shared experiences, and that has been just as valuable as talking to some of the more established writers, just developing those relationships with people who are as passionate as each other about writing and books.”
The Programme has received funding from the Arts Council of Wales since its launch in 2016.
“As a body that strives to ensure that the future creative talents of Wales are nurtured and supported, funding artist development programmes such as the Hay Festival Writers at Work Programme is an important element of our work,” says Lleucu Siencyn, Director of Arts Development at the Arts Council of Wales.
“It’s been exciting to see how initiatives such as this allow artists to go on to win accolades and international acclaim, helping to put the artistic talents of Wales on the map.”