Front cover of the anthology
Back in 2011, a teacher in North London came to the realisation that some of her students needed more help and support beyond what their respective schools could provide. Hence, after proposing a pilot project with the local charity ‘Bootstrap Company’, Catriona Maclay founded ‘The Hackney Pirates’, which today is proudly known as the non-profit organization, The Literacy Pirates.
The Literacy Pirates is a teachers’ community who believes every child should be successful in learning which they achieve by providing them extra support to improve their learning abilities. They work with children aged from 9-12 years and provide them guidance on reading and creative writing activities. The children’s written work is then published in books, films as well as audio projects.
After a decade of perseverance, Literacy Pirates, in collaboration with the University of Roehampton’s very own Fincham Press, decided to do an anthology which highlights the hard work of the organisation and its children.
From the MA Publishing programme, Pauline Rolland, Sarah Newman, Teodora Hociung, Zuzanna Majkowska and Isha Gadgil have put their heart and soul into this project and put together the anthology with the kindest help from Izzy Taylor, Communications Manager at the Literacy Pirates and Dr. Susan Greenberg, convener of MA Publishing at the University of Roehampton.
The anthology is called ‘A Ten-Year Voyage’. It is divided into three sections. ‘A Trip Around the World’ is based on the celebration of diversity among these children who love to celebrate various festivals in various countries around the world. ‘A Journey Through Imagination’ is the section that features stories when these young children flexed their creative and imaginary boundaries with fictional stories to tell the world. The last section is named ‘A Virtual Ship’ which focuses on how the Pirates worked when the world was hit by the pandemic storm and the United Kingdom was on lockdown.
The cover design of the anthology is designed by Sarah Newman. The sections were divided among Isha, Pauline and Zuzanna, and the developmental editing has been worked on by Teodora. All the five members of the team have worked hard on this project, and they have put together the anthology to cherish the brilliant work put up by the Literacy Pirates and their children.