Achievements of the programme

Achievements so far:

English PEN's Readers & Writers programme was launched by English PEN members Rachel Billington and Siobhan Dowd in 2000.  Since than it has reached thousands of readers from diverse backgrounds and established itself as a programme of quality and reliability in the field of literacy and reading development.

Writers from the programme's pool have visited children and adults across England through a wide variety of partnerships. These partner organisations include schools with limited resources, education projects for young people in public care, centres for adults returning to education and various other literacy or reading projects in under-served communities. 

It has attracted support from writers, publishers, teachers, literacy workers and others, and brought the joys of reading to communities that other similar initiatives have not reached.

To read more about the fundamental principles of the programme, please click here.

To read about the aims of the Readers and Writers Programme, please click here.

To find out more about how the programme works, please click here.