Announcing our new CORE2 team

Three Squad grads have been selected to be our CORE2 team for the next 18 months. CORE2 increases the Writing Squad’s capacity to support an ever growing number of writers and it gives Kayleigh Jayshree, Lauren Vevers and Lydia Marchant longer-term opportunities to develop writer development and mentoring skills. They will work alongside the exiting Core Team iOS Emma Adams, Katie Hale, Malika Booker and Stevie Ronnie.

Kayleigh says of her appointment, “Since joining the Squad in 2020 I’ve learned so much about writing stories and poetry, been to fantastic workshops and made so many great friends. As part of CORE2 I’m looking forward to passing some of that knowledge on and reading excellent and inspiring work from the Squad.” Lauren says, “The Squad’s support played such a huge part in shaping my sense of self as a writer. I’m excited to join CORE2 and help writers across different forms find the confidence to take creative risks and build on their own instincts.” and Lydia adds “The best advice I can give to northern writers is to join the Squad. They’ve been there for me at every stage of my career and now I’m so excited to join this brilliant team, supporting the next generation of Squad writers.”

Writing Squad Director Steve Dearden says, “CORE2 is not just an opportunity for these three writers, it’s another example of how – as our writers gain more and more experience and contacts in their area of expertise – we fold that back into the shared knowledge of our community.”