Hay Festival Scribblers Cymraeg is back across Wales this autumn with three additional days, 6–10 November, inviting Year 7–9 pupils to get creative in Welsh at Swansea University and Aberystwyth University, plus – new for this year – Cardiff University, Bangor University and Wrexham University.
Free for local state schools to attend in-person, Scribblers Cymraeg events tie in with the Welsh Government ambition to have one million Welsh speakers living in Wales by 2050.
Poet Aneirin Karadog will host the five days of workshops featuring Bardd Plant Cymru 2023-25 writer Nia Morais and singer-songwriter Casi Wyn, offering creative and interactive events celebrating the Welsh language, while staff from the Welsh departments at each university will also deliver creative writing sessions and campus tours.
Scribblers Cymraeg and the English-language Scribblers Tour both aim to engage and encourage the next generation in storytelling and conversation, inspiring empathy and creativity. Now in their twelfth year, the tours give pupils a chance to engage with their nearest universities and experience a taste of life on campus too.
Hay Festival is one of the world’s leading literary charities, running Festivals to inspire, examine and entertain globally, featuring Nobel Prizewinners and novelists, scientists and politicians, historians, environmentalists and musicians. Over the past year, the Festival earned 1.5 million web visits and passed one million event views online, while its social media following climbed to 328,000, making it one of the most impactful literary events in the world.
Julie Finch, Hay Festival CEO, said: “We believe that ideas can change the world. By coming together to offer different perspectives through literature, art, ideas and creative expression we can find truth and hope. This autumn, the Hay Festival experience will be available to double the number of young people across Wales, as they get creative in Cymraeg. Our free Scribblers Cymraeg days bring together partner universities, Hay Festival’s creative network and young people to embark on an imaginative journey. Through taking part in these events, pupils will find opportunities to explore their creativity, engage in fresh conversations, and discover new ways to express themselves and inspire their creative identities.”
Hay Festival Scribblers Cymraeg and Scribblers Tour are funded by the Welsh Government and are part of Hay Festival’s wider outreach and education work that includes the free Programme for Schools and Hay Academy in the UK, and Hay Joven, Hay Communitario and Hay Festivalito internationally.
The Minister for Education and Welsh Language, Jeremy Miles, said: “I’m pleased Scribblers Cymraeg is expanding this year thanks to over £20,000 of Welsh Government support, giving more young people the chance to discover a passion for reading, writing and storytelling. Scribblers Cymraeg is a fantastic opportunity to use Welsh creatively and these sessions will inspire the next generation, helping us to reach our target of a million Welsh speakers by 2050.”
About the speakers:
Aneirin Karadog was Bardd Plant Cymru 2013-2015 (Welsh-language Children’s Laureate) and writes poetry mainly in Cymraeg. He speaks five languages and has been known to rap in a previous life.
Casi Wyn is a familiar face in Wales and beyond as a singer and songwriter. Bardd Plant Cymru 2021–23, she was one of the founders of Codi Pais, a magazine and independent publisher that platforms new and diverse voices. In 2021 she published two musical books for children, Tonnan Cariad and Dawns y Ceirw. Her short animation, Dawns y Ceirw, was broadcast on S4C on Christmas Eve 2020.
Nia Morais is a writer and playwright from Cardiff, and Bardd Plant Cymru 2023–2025. In 2020, she released her first audio play, Crafangau, as part of the Sherman Theatre’s Heart of Cardiff project. Nia is currently Writer in Residence at the Sherman Theatre and her first full play, Imrie, co-produced by Frân Wen and Sherman Theatre, toured Wales in May and June this year. Nia was a member of the Tir na n-Og Awards judging panel in 2021, and also part of the Literature Wales’ Representing Wales writers development programme the same year.
Find out more here.