First Story is a literacy charity. It was founded in 2007 by Katie Waldegrave and the writer William Fiennes to improve literacy and foster creativity in young people through creative writing. The organisation works with state secondary schools serving low-income communities.
First Story supports and inspires creativity, literacy and confidence in UK secondary schools and their communities. They arrange and pay for acclaimed authors to run weekly creative-writing workshops for groups of up to twenty-one students attending ‘challenging’ secondary schools across the country. At the end of the year-long programme, First Story publishes a professional anthology of the students' work, and each school hosts a book launch event where the students read their work aloud to family, friends and teachers.
Roland Chambers
Kate Clanchy
Laura Dockrill
Ben Faccini
Kevin Fegan
Salena Godden
Peter Hobbs (novelist)
Courttia Newland
Ross Raisin
Shauna O'Briain (MC Angel)
Lou Kuenzler
Anthony Anaxagorou
Frances Wilson (writer)
Anthony Cartwright
David Reynolds
James Dawson
Alice Albinia
Francesca Beard
Leo Benedictus
Philip Womack
Diana Evans
Caroline Bird
Edward Platt (author)
Kate Kingsley
Julie Bolitho-Lee
Tim Pears
Alan Buckley
John Berkavitch
Graham Lester George
Anthony Cropper
Nicola Valentine
Cathy Grindrod
Irfan Master
Matt Black
Richard MacSween
Andrew McMillan
Kate Fox
John Siddique
Executive Director: Katie Waldegrave
Founding Director: William Fiennes
National Director: Mónica Parle
Ed Baden-Powell – Partner, Michael Simkins LLP
Beth Colocci – Curator
Sophie Dalling – Head of English, George Green’s School
Charlotte Hogg – Chief Operating Officer, Bank of England
Sue Horner – Educational Consultant
Rob Ind – Head of English, Cranford Community College
Andrea Minton Beddoes (Chair) – Consultant
Mayowa Sofekun – Student
David Stephens
Betsy Tobin – Writer
Lord Adonis - Director of The Institute for Government
Julian Barnes - Writer
Jamie Byng - Publisher, Canongate Books
Alex Clark - Editor, Granta
Julia Cleverdon - CEO, Business in the Community
Andrew Cowan - Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing, UEA
Jonathan Dimbleby - Writer and Broadcaster
Mark Haddon - Writer
Josephine Hart - Writer and Presenter
Simon Jenkins - Writer
Derek Johns - Literary Consultant
Andrew Kidd - Literary Agent, Aitken Alexander Associates
Rona Kiley - CEO Academy Sponsors Trust
Chris Patten - Chancellor, University of Oxford
Kevin Prunty - Headteacher
Deborah Rogers - Literary Agent
Zadie Smith - Writer
Alicia Stubbersfield - Writer and Teacher
William Waldegrave - Chairman, Science Museum
Brett Wigdortz - CEO, Teach First
Director William Fiennes, and First Story writers Salena Godden, Kate Clanchy and Jon McGregor talk about First Story in The Independent
Tim Pears writes about his experiences as First Story Writer-in-Residence in The Guardian
Frances Wilson writes about First Story in the Sunday Times
Irena Barker writes about First Story in the TES
John Humphreys hears about First Story on the Today Programme
Alex Clark writes about First Story in the Daily Telegraph
Sean Dodson writes about First Story in The Guardian
