Author Wren James visits OSFC

On Monday 10th March, Young Adult author Wren James visited Oldham Sixth Form College, where she delivered two engaging talks for OSFC students and visiting librarians, along with a workshop for English students.

The first talk, True Crime Thrills and Cold Case Conspiracies, took the audience on a deep dive into the world of internet detectives and fandoms. Wren shared the real-life true crime inspirations behind her murder mystery novel Last Seen Online, offering insights into how she crafts the perfect plot twists and spine-tingling thrills in her writing.

Next, Wren led a workshop for A Level English Language students titled Writing Diversely. The session focused on the importance of diversity in writing and how writers can make their work more inclusive. Students learned how to research different identities, avoid stereotypes, and explore diverse perspectives using case studies and examples from Young Adult fiction.

In the second talk, Writing with STEM, Wren discussed how her background in Chemistry and Physics at Masters level influenced her transition to writing science fiction. She explained how scientific research from her studies inspired key events in her novels and shared spreadsheets used to calculate things like spaceship travel times and time travel figures. The talk also touched on topics such as climate change, Einstein’s theory of relativity, extinction, and evolution, providing a fascinating experience for our science students in celebration of British Science Week.

Our students really enjoyed the visit:

What I found the most interesting is the way she expressed her passion for writing and backstory to some of the ideas she incorporated in her books.

I liked how she talked about how to develop separate stories for each character and how plot twists can appear.

I enjoyed how she related the theme (crime) back to recent and contemporary examples so everyone could relate and be involved.