Bath Children's Literature Festival 2025
News
Bath Spa University represented at two events at Bath Children’s Literature Festival
Wednesday, 1 October, 2025The Bath Children's Literature Festival is well underway, with events taking place throughout the city to celebrate the best of children's literature.
For the 18th year, the festival is taking place throughout the city centre, across ten days, and has featured talks with actress and now children’s author Rose Ayling-Ellis, Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce, and Cressida Cowell.
The festivities will continue through to 5 October, but 2 October is a key date for Bath Spa University. There will be two events in conjunction with BSU, including a Writing For Young People Masterclass with two lecturers at the University, Lucy Cuthew and Annalie Grainger, taking place at the Guildhall at 11am.
Speaking with Lucy on the University’s partnership with the Bath Children’s Literature Festival:
“The MA in Writing for Young People and the Bath Children’s Literature Festival have been in partnership since the first children’s festival in 2007, which was sponsored by the university. We are delighted to continue this relationship as our MA enters its 25th year. We are proud to have so many published graduates whose books and careers have been supported by the festival through events, workshops and book sales. The festival has an enormous reach, and we hope this partnership will continue to flourish long into the future.”
The second event in partnership with BSU will be taking place at 6.30pm, at Waterstones, and will feature an appearance from Lucy again. However, this time she will be joined by three BSU graduates who have since gone on to have children’s novels published, and they will be discussing their time on BSU’s Writing for Young People MA and Creative Writing MA courses.
Speaking with author and BSU graduate Kathryn Clark about their time on the course, and the pathway to publication:
“I studied part time 2014-2016, so my journey to publication has taken a while. I signed with an agent in 2017 for the manuscript I wrote on the MA, but we didn’t get any interest from publishers. We parted ways amicably late in 2019, and the following year I began entering my next novel – Things I Learned While I Was Dead - into writing contests, while I wrote novel number 3. In early 2023 I received a call from Leah Thaxton, children’s publisher at Faber. My novel had come second in their Imagined Futures Prize and I’d won a publishing contract. The book was published in July 2025.”
She continued:
“I totally credit the course with giving me the skills and knowledge to persevere. The MA is very practical and the Publishing module is so helpful in understanding how the business side of things work. Since graduation, I’ve worked with other writers - mentoring, editing and teaching, using what I learned on the course.”
To hear more from Kathryn, the other graduate authors, or BSU’s lecturers, tickets are available through the Bath Box Office website.
If you would like to explore further about the wide range of literature courses available at BSU, then more information can be found on our website.