About
Founded in 2016, Hive Young Writers Network is a not-for-profit, open-access hub for sparking and developing young writers to reach their creative potential.
Our mission is to deliver high-quality writing opportunities to diverse young people aged 14-30 in South Yorkshire and the nearby north, drawing on the transformative power of creative writing to support a wide range of needs, interests and outcomes across creative, therapeutic, wellbeing and developmental areas, from igniting new voices and sparking hobbyist writers, to providing encouragement to enter the top young writers’ awards and pursue further writing development pathways and careers. We support young people through access to skill-building, outreach projects, groups, commissions, publication, live literature events, digital audiences, professional guidance, mentoring and a vibrant young writers’ community. We are user-led with alumni writers as key members of our advisory board.
Our advisory & steering board
Hive is supported by a wonderfully knowledgeable board of creative and community leaders, including Hive alumni writers, all passionate about supporting younger writers to reach their creative potential.
Toby Rhodes – Chair
Passionate about climbing, the outdoors and all things creative, particularly when it comes to supporting young people, Toby is a business consultant and organisational development professional. In addition to his commercial career, over the past 20 years, he’s founded, led and supported multiple creative, charitable and social enterprises to thrive, including Open Up Sheffield, Challenge Cancer Through Adventure and Tech for Good. He has been an adviser for the Chrysalis offender development programme and WalkTalk – Global Promise initiative to promote peace and understanding across different communities.
Justine Gaubert is a social entrepreneur, producer and award-winning marketing consultant who’s worked with clients from the BBC to Sheffield’s homeless charity Roundabout. As the founder of Silent Cities, a social enterprise aimed at platforming and humanising lesser-heard voices in society, Justine ran community journalist programmes before there was even a name for them! She has over 30 years’ experience in community arts engagement, starting as co-founder of Words Aloud, Sheffield’s first inclusive spoken word event. Justine is an advocate for seeking an autism/ADHD diagnosis for women in midlife (watch her TED X talk here). She currently runs www.croneclub.org to challenge negative stereotypes of female ageing.
Gavin Hudson is a poet, tabletop gamer, restorative justice trainer and safeguarding lead from Sheffield. While he’ll play most games, as a writer he’s a sucker for anything that allows him to tell or become immersed in a world or story. His love of modern gaming was sparked by Twilight Struggle and his impressive collection has grown to fill pretty much every wall of his flat like a Kallax shaped demon from the Upside Down.
Warda Yassin is a Somali poet and secondary school teacher from Sheffield. She was Sheffield Poet Laureate 2020-22 and is a long-time member and supporter of Hive and our South Yorkshire young writers’ network. Warda founded Hive sub-project, Mixing Roots, for young women writers of colour in 2019. She is widely published and commissions include the BBC and Off the Shelf Festival. Warda was a winner of the 2018 New Poets Prize for her debut pamphlet Tea with Cardamom (2019), and, along with alumnus Hive writers, Danae Wellington and Sile Sibanda, she collaborated on the poetry anthology Spit Out the Myth (smith|doorstep 2023).
Lauren Hollingsworth-Smith is a writer, artist and educator based in Rotherham and Oxford. An alumnus of Rotherham Young Writers and member of Hive poetry collective, Lauren’s debut pamphlet Ugly Bird won the 2020 New Poets Prize at the age of 18. Her first full-length collection, complete with her own illustrations, Look How Alive, was published by WriteBloody UK in 2022. Lauren won the Foyle Young Poets of the Year award in 2019 and was highly commended in the Young Northern Writers’ Award in the same year. She has headlined various literature festivals, including Ledbury Poetry Festival, Kendal Poetry Festival, Off the Shelf Festival of Words, and The National Youth Poetry Showcase. Lauren is a TESOL certified ESL teacher, and has taught English as a second language in France, Indonesia and India.
Sile Sibanda is a British Zimbabwean spoken word performer, creative facilitator and BBC radio presenter. She is also Participation Producer at Site Gallery, Sheffield. Sile has been an active part of the Hive community for many years, and cut her teeth hosting Hive live literature events which stood her in good stead for winning BBC Radio Sheffield’s ‘This is Me’ presenting competition in 2019. She subsequently became the host of several BBC Radio shows broadcasting across the region. Sile is loved by everyone for her warmth and encouragement of young voices. She moved to Rotherham from Zimbabwe at the age of 12.
Luke Worthy is a queer fiction writer and poet from Sheffield. He is an alumnus of Sheffield Young Writers and a member of Hive Poetry Collective. His work has appeared widely include Queer Responses to Dante’s Inferno (Carrion Press) and Broken Sleep’s Masculinity: an anthology of modern voices. He was a digital poet-in-residence for The Poetry Business in 2022 and young poet-in-residence for Sheaf Poetry Festival 2023. In the same year, he was runner-up in the International New Poet’s Prize and was commissioned by the British Library and Leeds 2023 to write a piece of children’s literature for the Northern Dreaming anthology. In 2024 he was a shadow judge for the Forward Prize 2024 and highly commended in the international Fool for Poetry Chapbook competition.
Jason has been the Community Engagement Manager at the Barnsley Civic Arts Centre since 2019 and has previously worked in galleries in London and Sheffield. He’s interested in creating more equitable cultural opportunities for neurodivergent young people and adults and is passionate about visual art, musical theatre and zines. A father of two, Jason is a cat person, allergic to cow’s milk and nearly always seen wearing a hat and headphones. He’s previously been a trustee for Creative Recovery, a Barnsley-based charity that uses creativity to support mental health and recovery to boost well-being.
Katherine Henderson is an alumnus of Rotherham Young Writers and Hive Poetry. She started out writing for performance and has competed in and won several slams, including Best of Sheffield 2011. She went on to perform at the Lyceum Theatre, supporting Benjamin Zephaniah as part of Off the Shelf Literature Festival at the age of 18. Katherine has been published in various anthologies including Verse Matters (Valley Press 2017) and Introduction X The Poetry Business. These days she is a special needs teacher. As well as writing, Katherine is an avid maker of all things craft and crochet.