News Archive

Make Hay (and the sun did shine)

The 2010 Guardian Hay Festival came to a sunny end on Sunday 6 June. This year saw Academi once again sharing a stand at the Festival with its partners the Welsh Assembly Government, the Arts Council of Wales, the Welsh Books Council and the National Library of Wales.

The Culture Cymru stand offered a varied programme of events and activities. Some of Academi’s highlights included a day of events with Book of the Year long-listed writers, a blogger-in-residence project with writer Tom Anderson, an activity day for members of the Young People’s Writing Squads with Francesca Kay and Media Education Wales, as well as the launch of the Wales Book of the Year shortlist.

A special event also took place off-site on Friday 4 June in conjunction with the Brecon Beacon National Park Authority. Poet Ric Hool was joined by participants as well as National Park staff Nick Jones, Howard Morgan and Patricia Doree on a 5.5 mile walk around Hay Bluff, focusing on the connection of walking and writing. Ric read from his poetry during the walk, discussed walking as an inroad to writing and also gave a post-walk talk at the Culture Cymru stand in the afternoon. To view images taken on the walk click here.

Blogger-in-residence Tom Anderson spent four days in Hay during which he visited Hay Festival events, joined numerous activities in and around Hay and hosted a daily blogging surgery at the Culture Cymru stand. To read all about Tom’s experience at Hay click here to visit his Blog.