2022 Festival

Timetable for our 2022 Festival!

Saturday

Start	End	Event
10:30	11:45	Taster Session: ‘Gazing Inwards: Exploring Characters’ Emotional Landscapes’ with Michael Donkor and a Q&A
11:45	12:00	Networking chat via Zoom
12:00	13:15	Conveying Identity with Dara Kalima, Ella McLeod and Joelle Taylor
13:20	13:40	Networking chat via Zoom
13:45	15:00	Lunchtime Readings: Narrative with Beth Miller, Stephen Mooney, and a Q&A with Neel Mukherjee hosted by Paul Vlitos
15:15	16:45	Building Brand Identity: A Panel on Small Presses with Angela Szczepaniak, Stephen Mooney, Sharron Green, Chiara Fumanti and guests from the University of Surrey
17:15	18:45	Psychology of the Author and the Self with Lauren Foley, Sunny Singh, and Julia Armfield
18:45	19:45	Dinner break
19:45	21:00	Headline Reading: Elise Valmorbida

Sunday

Start	End	Event
11:00	13:00	Masterclass: ‘They f* you up, your mum and dad: Writing about Dysfunctional Families’** with Beth Miller (ticketed separately; limited spaces)
13:30	15:00	Open Mic Sign up here!

Our 2022 lineup!

Headliner – Elise Valmorbida

Italian Australian author Elise Valmorbida has published journalism, poetry, short stories, three non-fiction books and four novels including The Madonna of the Mountains, which has been translated into several languages and in 2019 won Australia’s biggest literary prize for fiction. Elise is also an award-winning indie film producer and script consultant. Her latest work is The Happy Writing Book, an inspirational guide to creative writing and wellbeing, fuelled by her 20+ years of experience as writer-teacher.

Panel – Conveying Identity

Dara Kalima

Joelle Taylor

Ella McLeod

Panel – Psychology of the Author and the Self

Sunny Singh

Julia Armfield

Lauren Foley

Panel – Building Brand Identity: A Panel on Small Presses

Angela Szczepaniak

Readings

Sharron Green

Chiara Fumanti

Stephen Mooney

Beth Miller

Taster Session: ‘Gazing Inwards: Exploring Characters’ Emotional Landscapes’

Michael Donkor

Working with a selection of exciting contemporary works by authors from Deborah Levy to Caleb Azumah Nelson, Michael Donkor will take you through lively creative exercises. These will help enrich, deepen and animate moments when your characters are involved in complex self-reflection.

Question and Answer Session

Neel Mukherjee

Masterclass with Beth Miller

They f* you up, your mum and dad: Writing about Dysfunctional Families**

This year’s Masterclass session is ‘They f*** you up, your mum and dad: Writing about dysfunctional families’ and will be given by the novelist Beth Miller. Suitable for both new and practised writers, this intimate session will see Beth explore how to construct family dysfunction and the impact it has on characters. Through this workshop, writers will gain a better understanding of how to realistically present dysfunctional families in a way beneficial to their stories!