Creative Writing Challenge

Our Creative Writing Challenge pairs an author with young writers to encourage writing for pleasure. Our 2025 CWC was led by Guy Bass, award winning author of Stitch Head, Scrap and Skeleton Keys. 

The challenge starts in November, when the author sets titles as prompts for students alongside a video explaining the challenge. The schools then have until February to write and submit their stories. Stories are sifted and winners and runners-up from each category are chosen by the author.

We then visit the school for an awards event, where the winners and runners-up meet the author, have their stories read out and are awarded prizes. After this, our author visits schools across Northumberland to enthuse more young readers.

In 2025, 400 young people submitted stories, each one packed with personality and imagination. Our author for our 2026 CWC will be announced in the autumn.