An ex-Grange student came to visit the First Story cohort on Tuesday 2nd July. Ash was part of First Story for 3 years, and during their time visited Chapel FM radio station, was part of the small group who published the ‘ Zine, became a First Story Young Ambassador and was invited to be part of the Q&A panel who interviewed the author Patrice Lawrence at Cambridge University.
First Story has linked in with the publishers prestigious Folio, who offer a year-long mentorship programme where ex First Story students are offered a mentorship with an author in order for them to continue their creative writing in years 12 and 13. Ash, who is now in 6th form, applied last year and was one of the 6 students chosen to partake in the programme. Ash was paired with the writer Sunjeev Sahota (author of The Year of the Runaways and Ours Are the Streets) and, over the course of the year, Sunjeev guided Ash whilst they wrote a short story named The Solution of Water.
Ash came in to read part of The Solution of Water to the First Story group and talk about the experience of working with Folio and Sunjeev, and took time to answer questions from the group. The short story is an exciting ‘who-dunnit’ and addresses mental health issues.