Saturday 5th April 2025
Stories in the Wilds with Emma Bettridge
10:00 – 11:30
Come to a fun, story-generating workshop with Somerset children’s author Emma Bettridge (The Ranch at the End of the World, Goodbye Hobbs, Red is Home) and her dog Nell.
During the workshop, we’ll take Nell for a little walk and then gather to write, draw and use dictaphones to record our stories and ideas. This will be a relaxed, interesting and inspiring workshop.
Please note that the workshop involves Nell the dog – a very friendly and lovely Labrador x Golden Retriever. Please don’t bring any animals of your own with you.
Signed copies of Emma’s books will be available after the session.
Emma is a children’s author, theatre producer and early years facilitator from Exmoor. She has worked for several major theatres and festivals including Bristol Old Vic, Pulse festival at the New Wolsey Theatre, Caravan2014 (Farnham Maltings/Brighton Festival) and the Pleasance London & Edinburgh Theatres. Emma has always worked with children and animals, through training young horses and dogs, to PGL residential camps, and as a riding school teacher for many year. She now practices equine assisted learning at EAQ Manor Farm as well as taking her workshops – ‘Stories in the Wilds’ – out across alternative education provision.
Age range: 5+ Years
Tickets are £3 plus booking fee. Click here to book (link opens in new tab)
Catherine Fisher: Culhwch and Olwen; Magic, Myth and Mayhem
11:45 – 12:45pm
Talk, reading and Q&A with Catherine Fisher.
A re-telling of a popular story from The Mabinogion written by a New York Times bestselling author, Catherine Fisher.
A mythical adventure of love and heroism. Culhwch falls madly in love with Olwen, the daughter of the malevolent giant Yspaddaden Penkawr. But Olwen’s father isn’t happy about the pairing and sets Cuhlwch a test – he must complete several perilous feats and bring him the treasures he desires.
Catherine Fisher is a New York Times bestselling author. Her novel Incarceron was the Times Book of the Year. She has twice won the Tir na n’Og prize, and has been shortlisted for the Blue Peter, Carnegie, Costa and WHSmith prizes. She has published over 35 novels, been translated into in more than 40 languages and is also a prize-winning poet. Catherine is based in Newport, South Wales.
Recommended for age guide: 9-11
Tickets are £3 plus booking fee. Click here to book (link opens in new tab)
PLAY WRITE! With DUKE AL
13:30 – 14:30
Sport and poetry are not as far apart as you might think! Just as an athlete makes creative split-second decisions in the heat of the game, a writer crafts their vision through the power of words. Creativity is the bridge between them. Join spoken word poet DUKE AL for an exciting workshop exploring the connection between sport and poetry. Through dynamic exercises and inspiring performances, he’ll guide you in blending movement and verse, sharing some of his commissioned pieces for Wales sports teams along the way.
DUKE AL is an award-winning spoken word artist, published poet, hip hop artist and creative practitioner. Writing rhymes is his therapy. From a young age, he would scribble raps and poems in his old lyric book. It was his way of expressing himself; an escapism to challenge his OCD. A passion of words, flow and rhyme flared. After being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at 23, the pen became even more vital, helping him process and articulate his emotions.
Now, DUKE AL uses his craft to create impactful change, one rhyme at a time. His highly anticipated poetry collection, IMAGINE WE TRADE BODIES WITH SHEEP, releases on March 20th. His work has been featured in Go.Compare Six Nations 2025, FAW, Cardiff Rugby, Creative Cardiff, TNT Sports (Sport in Words for Black History Month on Sir Lewis Hamilton), BBC Wales, FujiFilm UK, Cardiff Metropolitan University, and BBC Scrum V for The Six Nations 2022.
Follow him on Instagram: @dukealdurham
Recommended age rage: 12 +
Tickets are £3 plus booking fee. Click here to book (link opens in new tab)
Stories in Food with Gail Sequeira
14:45 – 15:45
The food we love across the world holds stories within it. Tales of great adventure and simple pleasures. Food connects people separated by time and place and technology in a way that nothing else can. We will all hopefully leave this workshop thinking about the food we eat, whether we like it or not, in a slightly different way.
Gail was born in India and moved to Brecon in 2017. She began writing seriously during lockdown. Her writing reflects her feminist identity, interest in cross-cultural relations, solidarity with lost causes and the universal search for belonging. She won the 2019 Rhondda Pride poetry competition for her poem PRIDE and her first novel ‘Pen Morgan for the win’ was shortlisted for the Firefly press 2022 award.
Her first picture book of recipes for children titled ‘The Street Food Festival’ was published by Atebol on the 18th of February 2025.
Two of her short stories have been published in an anthology titled ‘We Are Wales’ by Atebol in March 2024.
Recommended age range for participants: 7-9 years.
Please note this is a guide only, all are welcome.
Tickets are £3 plus booking fee. Click here to book (link opens in new tab)
Red Sky in the morning : Poet’s Warning with Alex Wharton
16:00 – 17:00
This 60 minute session includes a performance and poetry workshop from the wonderful Children’s Laureate for Wales Alex Wharton. There will lively audience participation, laughter and some rapping to suit everyone from the young to young at heart! The workshop will include a poetry draw along and creative writing workshop with an opportunity to ask your burning questions to one of Wales’s most exciting children’s poets. You’re sure to come out of the workshop fizzing with creativity and passion!
“I need fizzy-dizzy-disco words
that bounce along a beat.”
ALEX WHARTON is an award-winning poet, writer, author and performer and the CHILDREN’S LAUREATE WALES 2023 – 2025. His first collection of poetry, Daydreams and Jellybeans (Firefly Press, 2020), was shortlisted for the Lollies laugh-out-loud poetry Award and the Wales Children’s Book of the Year. His second collection, Doughnuts, Thieves and Chimpanzees (Firefly Press, 2023), a lively ‘how to’ of poetry, rap, haiku and more, is nominated for the Yoto Carnegie Medal 2025. His third collection Red Sky at Night, Poet’s Delight was followed up exactly a year later in the mysterious, humorous, philosophical and charming companion volume Red Sky in the morning, Poets’ Warning both illustrated by Ian Morris. In 2024 Alex’s books were adapted by Ballet Cymru for a stage adaptation of Daydreams and Jellybeans.
Age range: 5+ Years
Tickets are £3 plus booking fee. Click here to book (link opens in new tab)