Croydonites’ critical writing programme CroydonWrites has been running alongside their festival programme since 2017.

It’s for aspiring writers and critics who want to develop their skills. They offer an introductory workshop in reviewing, a selection of free tickets to the shows and mentoring from two experienced journalists Franscesca Peschier (The Stage, Exeunt) and Sanjoy Roy (The Guardian, Springback Magazine).

Your work gets edited and then published on the Croydonites website, so that festival artists also get a review. It’s a win-win situation…

If this is for you, then please send an example of your writing to anna@croydonites.com by 16 October 2023. It could be a review, a letter or something you wrote for an exam but please try and keep it under 250 words. Then put the date of 28 October in your diary for the workshop (in case you get selected). Up to 10 writers will be selected.