Writing West Midlands are currently looking for 25 young people aged between 12 and 16 who have a passion for creative writing to join the Page Talk Collective.

Working with the Paul Hamlyn Foundation, Writing West Midlands will be running three creative writing festivals called Page Talk in 2014 to further engage and develop young people's writing skills.

The first, Page Talk: Life as We Know It, is hosted by the Royal Shakespeare Company.

The young people involved will work with established writers from the UK to engage with a collection of weekly half-day writing workshops to produce creative literature responding to the theme of 'Happiness'.

Some of the writers leading these workshops include the likes of Elisabeth Charis; a poet and novelist who was shortlisted for Birmingham Poet Laureate in 2013, Nick Walker; a Perrier-nominated writer who works extensively in theatre and radio with two top-notch novels under his belt, Lorna Meehan; a professional theatre practitioner whose dialogue and poetry has seen her perform at many literature festivals and events throughout the West Midlands, Cat Weatherill; a compelling storyteller who has featured at many literature festivals and has written for BBC Radio 4 and a local practitioner from youth theatre company, Playbox Theatre.

The culmination of the workshops will be a one-day festival, showcasing new literature from a variety of genres, on Sunday 8th June which will see the RSC come alive with events including Spoken Word performances, flash mob theatre pieces and storytelling that will be written by the young writers.

A panel will also feature at the event including a professional writer, publisher, dramaturg and the West Midlands rep for the leading performance poetry organisation of the UK, Apples and Snakes, to answer questions and discuss their roles with the audience.

Participation in this project is completely free so if you have or know somebody who has a passion for creative writing from poetry to short stories and journalism, we want to hear from you!

Young writers must be free to take part in the workshops from 11am - 3pm each Saturday in May and free for the day of the festival on Sunday 8th June, 11am - 6pm.

If you would like to take part in Life As We Know It, or know somebody who will please send an email via parent or guardian to hayley@writingwestmidlands.org.

Deadline to apply is Monday 21 April, 5pm.