As Read Manchester’s new Take 10 initiative launched on Wednesday 10 October, the Lord Mayor joined an event at Manchester Central Library with young people from The Writing Squad.
Writers from the group were tasked with penning Take 10-inspired writing as part of the prestigious Manchester Literature Festival. At the event, three talented young writers – Annie Dobson, Jack Mann and Elizabeth Gibson - shared their brilliant pieces with local schoolchildren from Manchester Communications Academy, Trinity C.E. High School and St Paul's Catholic High School. Members of the Writing Squad had previously visited the schools to deliver workshops with pupils.
Here are some of our favourite extracts…
“And now, particularly when I read for leisure, there’s a distinct voice in my head – perhaps a mix of my own and my father’s – that pronounces the words on the page and it conjures up scenes and shows me around and, for a second or two or maybe longer, I disappear from the world and find myself… not elevated, elevated isn’t the right word - sometimes I’m submerged - maybe it’s consumed… I find myself in a parallel realm experiencing time alongside a hybridisation of the narrative in my hands and my own sometimes beautiful, sometimes dark, sometimes twisted fantasies.”
Read Jack Mann’s full piece.
“Words turn into images. If I wanted to give you the image of an angel who looked like an angel in a school play, I would write to you and say here is an image: an angel who looks like an angel in a school play. Or I could ring you & tell you because storytelling is a talking tradition. I could say an angel who looks like an angel in a school play to ten people around a campfire & if I were magic I could walk around the campfire & screenshot every angel-image in the ten brains & I could give you ten different angels.
Read Annie Dobson’s full piece.
“I am no longer ashamed to call myself a loner, or a reader. Creating things makes me feel proud and fulfilled, and documenting them through photography or the occasional Tweet can be fun. But I also let myself enjoy what others have created, from gorgeous graphic novels to hard-hitting poetry, just as I let myself bask in a sunset or run in the sea. There are scary things happening, all the time. It is important to feel strong, and what makes us stronger than somebody listening to us? We write and others read. Others write and we read.”
Read Elizabeth Gibson’s full piece.
Find out more about the Writing Squad.
Find out more about Take 10.