Lexis stories

Since 2015 Derby Book Festival’s Community programme has worked with students learning English on Derby College’s Lexis programme. These students are aged 16 to 19 and have only recently arrived in the UK. Many of them are refugees and asylum seekers. Each year, the Festival publishes a book of their stories, ably illustrated by art and design students from the College.

Every year we organise an inspirational speaker for the students and editing workshops for their writing. The stories they write for the books are about their journeys to the UK, which are often traumatic, or talk about their experiences once they arrive in Derby and start to study at Derby College. The students meet their art student illustrators to talk about their writing and agree an illustrative approach.

Of the six books so far published of Lexis student stories, three are currently available to either read or purchase on the Festival website. These are ‘Our Past Present and Future’, published in 2019, ‘Our Global Family’, published in 2020 and ‘Life on Hold’ published in 2021. Our 2018 book, ‘Small City, Big Heart’ can be read on the website, or you can listen to the stories being read by the students on individual videos.