Ashley Hickson-Lovence spent the day with Year 8 students at Acle Academy, where he spoke to the aspiring writers about his verse novel Wild East, which tells the story of a black teenager who moves from London to East Anglia and has to adjust to a dramatically different new life.

“The visit was arranged as part of our partnership with Ashley, as the English Department introduce the teaching of Wild East to Year 8,” said Amy Nethersell-Webb, English Teacher at our school, which is a member of the Wensum Trust.

“The whole year group were given the opportunity to listen to Ashley talk about his journey to writing, his motivation, and the writing process, before having time to enjoy creative writing workshops with him.

“They all had an hour’s workshop with him, being given their own creative writing notebook, and being allowed the time, space, and inspiration to produce their own writing. Many were so enthused that they carried on writing into their breaktime, lunchtime, and even the next day.”

Students also had the chance to put their questions to Mr Hickson-Lovence, who has received the Young Adult Diverse Book Award 2025, the Two Cities Book Award 2024, the Mal Peet Children’s Award 2024, and the East Anglian Book of the Year 2024, as well as a nomination for the 2025 Carnegie Medal for Writing. The former teacher was also happy to sign copies of Wild East.

Later, it was the turn of the students to share their work, when the different workshop groups came together to showcase the results of the day’s creative endeavours.

“Luckily, Ashley was with us for the whole day, meaning we could come together as a year group at the end of the day to celebrate and share the work we had produced,” continued Mrs Nethersell-Webb.

“We were all moved to see the scale of the students who wanted to share their work in front of the rest of the year group – we had anticipated maybe five or six students would be willing to do this, but the number of hands that shot up was significantly more.

“Ashley chose six students, who all performed their work with pride and enthusiasm, some even voluntarily taking to the stage. Each was awarded a signed copy of Wild East.”

The inspiration lasted beyond the workshops, with many students continuing to write – including composing poems of thanks to Mr Hickson-Lovence.

“After sessions, many students took the opportunity to wait and ask Ashley their questions, or simply ask him to sign their book, and it’s been lovely to see these writing booklets in school since then, with students clearly proud of them and keen to continue their writing or share their creations with teachers and peers,” added Mrs Nethersell-Webb.

“Afterwards, in English lessons, students even had the opportunity to use an approach to poetry they had used in the workshops to write their own poems of thanks to Ashley.

“We are so proud of all the wonderful work of our students, and are looking forward to building on this experience as we start to study Wild East in English lessons.”