We are now recruiting for our next Squad. The two year programme will run from April 2020.To be eligible you must be aged between 16 and 21 and live, work or study in the North of England.If you are wondering whether the current situation will affect your application the answer is no, we enjoy meeting up but we are also a virtual organisation – so we are well equipped and looking forward to working with you.The Writing Squad is a group of motivated writers. We exist to help you develop your writing. Being part of the Squad is FREE and we...

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My new comic book, On Sanity: One day in two lives,  is a rather special one. Not only because it has given me a chance to improve on a zine I made in 2008 but because, well… how many artists get to make a work with their mum?  When I got interested in drawing cartoons about life, one of the first drawings I made was a sequence about being stuck in a tunnel with both ends blocked and deciding to escape through the ceiling. This was based on a description I'd read of what it was like to develop a psychosis. At...

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Rebecca is a part of the team from Leeds Young Authors (LYA) that is preparing to represent Leeds in July at the Brave New Voices (BNV) International Youth Poetry Festival in Washington DC.“I write to live another lifeTo express the passion my heart holds dearTo give ‘the voices’ in my head a voice for others to hearI write to abuse the freedom of the classic pen and paper comboI write because every page and chapter in my book means something"My name is Rebecca Mbuyi and I am 17 years old. Personally, I have always struggled with articulating my thoughts and...

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This week we hear from the captain of the team from Leeds Young Authors (LYA) that will be representing us at the Brave New Voices (BNV) International Youth Poetry Festival in Washington DC in July. These young poets are looking for donations and sponsorship so let’s get behind them! “My name is Aoife O'Connor. I'm 18 years old and I’m the team captain for the 2016 BNV team from Leeds. I like to write because there are so many important things to say and writing gives me a voice for expressing issues that are meaningful to me. Everyone needs a form of...

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Did you know that a group of young poets from Leeds’ own Leeds Young Authors were placed second in the world at the 2009 Brave New Voices (BNV) International Youth Poetry Festival? That was an incredible achievement for a grassroots, non-profit organisation like LYA and put Leeds on the world youth spoken work poetry map once and for all. You can hear all about the artistic and personal journeys of those young poets in the award-winning documentary, ‘We Are Poets’. In July 2016, Leeds Young Authors are determined to take on the world yet again, and...

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Seeing how never win anything, ever, we were very giddy to find out we'd been randomly selected from a twitter prize draw to receive a signed copy of Jung Chang's book ‘Empress Dowager Cixi’. The prize came from Business Confucius Institute at the University of Leeds through their series of Meet The Author events.  We like to share our good fortune here at Leeds Inspired so the signed book now resides in Central Library for everyone to enjoy. Ellen Wang, Operations Manager from the Confucius Institute tells us more."Last week saw the arrival of bestselling author Jung Chang in Leeds to give a...

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