Word up! YARN Fest launches this week (15 Feb 2011).

The irony of a dyslexic person running a storytelling festival is not lost on Gemma Mitchell.

The director of this year's YARN Festival - a week-long celebration of the fine art of storytelling - admits that a cracking tale was the very thing that helped her learn how to read.

Gemma explained: "When I was young I had a tutor and we went through adventure books to deformalise the process.

"Rather than an exercise where you had to write the word 50 times to learn how to spell it, it would be like a password you needed to remember to get through the dragon's door."

More than 20 years later Gemma's love of stories has seen her launch YARN Festival, now in its second year, a jam-packed series of interactive performances, workshops, games and exhibitions all exploring myth making.

The festival, based at venues across east London, kicks off tonight (Tuesday February 15) at The Social in Little Portland Street with an exhibition of illustrations and poems covering the murky world of show business in Victorian times.

Running until Wednesday February 23, the festival will also host a zine workshop with experts in the business including our friends at Cure Studio (Saturday February 19 at the Book Club), pit illustrators against each other in a battle to create the best book cover (Monday February 21 at the Queen of Hoxton) and showcase ten stories about smoking performed through the mediums of film, theatre, music and spoken word (Wednesday February 23 at the Queen of Hoxton). And that's just a taster of events throughout the week.

Film producer Gemma, 27, hopes the festival will rekindle people's passion for storytelling, whether it be through film, illustration, literature, music or theatre.

The former Edinburgh College of Art student said: "It's not just a literary festival. It's a fun experience rather than having someone come and read to you for an hour.

"Storytelling is the oldest form of human communication and YARN hopes to break down the audience and performance space."

She added: "I hope it will reinvigorate the art of storytelling. We never give ourselves the space to drift and dream and imagine anymore and I hope YARN will be a beacon to allow people to do that."

For the full festival line-up and details head to: www.yarnfest.com
Gemma's website: www.gemma-mitchell.com
YARN Festival is sponsored by Bookhugger: www.bookhugger.co.uk