Pedagogical benefits for creative writing students of running a literary festival, a practitioner-teacher’s observations

In 2012, a group of UK University Creative Writing students were given the option of running a literary festival, the 2013 North London Literary Festival (NLLF), with staff supervision and a budget that facilitated the booking of authors of national and international profile. In this article, the author - who supervised the ten undergraduate students who chose this pedagogical option - applies a practitioner-teacher stance to evaluate the outcomes of the event, considering the benefits of staging the 2013 NLLF, in particular paying attention to how working on the event both contributed to the students’ employability and developed their Creative Writing skills.