Talented Young Poets Embark on Yearlong Mentoring Initiative

ArtfulScribe, alongside Winchester Poetry Festival and University of Southampton, are pleased to announce the Poetry Ambassadors Mentoring Scheme is well underway. 

The introduction of mentors and mentees lays the foundation for the three selected mentees and their allocated mentors to collaborate and work towards the publication of their work in a group chapbook.

After reading through many worthy entries and applications, the judging panel selected April Egan, Kaycee Hill and Eve Wright as participants on the yearlong mentoring initiative and to work alongside experienced mentors, Romalyn Ante, Aviva Dautch and Caleb Parkin.

ArtfulScribe director, Matthew West, said: ‘It’s great to get this mentorship programme underway. We’re really looking forward to holding the space for, and following our mentors and mentees on, a co-learning opportunity for everyone involved. We are grateful to our funders and partners for enabling this important journey, which has potential to impact on writer relationships beyond the initial scope of this project, by increasing our understanding of mentorship in an organisational capacity as well as at an individual level.’

Poetry Ambassadors is part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council project Invisible Mentors, led by Dr Will May, Associate Professor in English at University of Southampton. As part of the project, participants in the mentoring scheme will have the opportunity to contribute to new research on mentoring in the creative industries, including a policy report and national symposium.

About the project, Dr Will May said: ‘The university has a long-standing commitment to local mentoring, from an alumni programme to an English module which supports undergraduate teaching creative writing in schools, but it's only in collaborating with ArtfulScribe and the Winchester Poetry Festival that we've been able to set up this new scheme’

Chair of Winchester Poetry Festival, Stephen Boyce said: "Supporting and developing the next generation of poets, especially poets with a local connection, is a key interest for Winchester Poetry Festival. Poetry Ambassadors is a fabulous opportunity for these emerging writers and an important part of the festival’s contribution to the poetry ecology of the region. We're grateful to all our partners and supporters for making this possible.”

Details of the mentorship programme can be accessed via a blog here on the ArtfulScribe website.

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Poetry Ambassadors is supported by funds from The Foyle Foundation, Arts and Humanities Research Council, Arts Council England and Winchester Poetry Festival. It forms part of ArtfulScribe’s SO:Write project, a multi-strand two-year literature development programme based in Southampton, and Winchester Poetry Festival’s Education and Outreach offer.