Our director Emily Pedder also heads up the short writing courses over at City, University of London. We’re delighted to announce a new partnership she's set up with inspirational author and youth worker Ciaran Thapar and The Access Project.

Ciaran is a former student on City’s Narrative Non-Fiction course taught by the brilliant Peter Forbes. Inspired by the course, Ciaran went on to write and then publish a book about youth violence, Cut Short, with Penguin in 2021. When Ciaran approached Emily about running his own course at City, she jumped at the chance. Writing for Social Impact will launch at City next May 20 and 21st and is aimed at anyone who wants to learn strategic and creative ways of achieving real-world social impact with their writing.

Not content with initiating this course, Ciaran was also keen to be able to offer a free place on the course to a talented writer from a disadvantaged background. The result: City have now set up a scholarship for just such a student. Applications will be read and assessed by Ciaran who will choose the winning student by the beginning of May. Good luck to all the applicants!