PETER SYMONDS CELEBRATES HUMAN CONNECTION AT THIRD ANNUAL WRITING FESTIVAL
Peter Symonds College is celebrating the power of human creativity through its third annual Writing Festival, which explores the importance of storytelling, authenticity and the written and spoken word in an increasingly technology-driven world. Themed Humanity Matters, this year’s festival brings more than 35 speakers from a diverse range of fields to the College to share with students their personal journeys, discuss what inspires their work and reflect on the role writing plays in their lives.
Organised by the English Department, the Festival provides students with the opportunity to discover how literacy, oracy, critical thinking, imagination and an understanding of what it means to be human, can become invaluable assets across a wide variety of careers, throughout their lives and way beyond the classroom.
Isobel Sallon-Simons, Head of English Language and Literature, said: “In an increasingly technology-driven world, there are understandable questions about the future of writing and the growing role of AI. However, technology can never fully replicate the depth of human emotion, the subtle nuances of lived experience or the power of an authentic human voice. Storytelling enables us to connect, empathise, challenge perspectives and make sense of the world around us.
“Through our Writing Festival, we want to inspire young people to find their own voices, embrace their creativity and recognise that the written word remains one of our most powerful tools for understanding what it means to be human. We are absolutely thrilled to offer our students access to so many professionals with such successful and varied careers. Our Humanity Matters theme aims to explore and celebrate how the creative subjects and more traditional humanities subjects can equip our students with the essential skills, values and qualities they need to thrive beyond Symonds.”
Professor Alice Hunt, Academic, Historian and Festival speaker, said: “In a world drowned out by the possibilities and the limitations of artificial intelligence and all that is non-human, it is increasingly important to be comforted by the expansiveness, inimitability and creativity of the human mind. Studying the past and encountering the experiences, imaginations and feelings of others help us understand who we are, challenge the ways in which we think about things, and can show us who we might want to be.”
Susanna Hamnett, Actor, Writer, Clown and Festival speaker said: “Through story we get to try on other people's lives, to explore the world in our imaginations, and expand our understanding, our compassion, our shared humanity. We get to know ourselves better and become more able to articulate our own important feelings about life and how we relate to it. And the more we can articulate what we feel and what matters, the more agency we have in our lives and the life of the world we all share.”
James Daunt, CBE, CEO of Waterstones and Barnes and Noble, and the Festival’s keynote speaker, said: “Kudos to the PSC Writing Festival. To understand and, better still, celebrate the value of the humanities is so necessary at this time of change.”
The Peter Symonds English Department, which offers three specialist A Level courses in English Literature, English Language, and English Language and Literature, is bringing the Festival to life for the third consecutive year, led by Susannah Putigny and Ben Farndon and Isobel Sallon-Simons, the respective subject leads.
This year’s festival will reach an even wider audience through livestreams for college students and to local secondary schools. The college library will also encourage a love of reading through its popular ‘Blind Date with a Book’ scheme. The Festival is supported by independent bookseller P&G Wells, the University of Winchester and Hampshire Libraries.
Find out more about the Festival through the following link: https://psc.ac.uk/writing-festival
This year’s visiting speakers include:
- academics and writers
- children's book writers and illustrators
- filmmakers
- journalists
- librarians
- local writers
- memoir writers
- novelists
- playwrights
- poets
- radio presenters
- screenwriters
- short story writers
- teachers
- theatre directors
- travel writers
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Posted: 12 November 2026
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