Newcastle Writing Conference 2019

with Professor Michael Green and Dr Tony Williams, Northumbria University

Are you ready to improve the literary quality of your writing and gain a better understanding of the writing process?

Professor Michael Green and Dr Tony Williams, both of Northumbria University, are looking for a group of writers to take through a programme of critical self-reflection.

This will be the first session, with another session taking place (free of charge to participants) in central Newcastle on Saturday 8 June.

with writer Degna Stone, children’s books editor Ruth Alltimes (Hachette) and literary agents including Niki Chang (The Good Agency) and Rachel Conway (Georgina Capel Associates)

Rejection is a tough part of the writing game, but it’s something every writer has to face at some point.

In this session, Degna Stone will explore how to become more resilient as a writer, while industry insiders Ruth Alltimes and Niki Chang will talk through exactly what they are looking for, what you need to do to make your work stand out, and how to build success from rejection.

with facilitator and writer Sophie Hall-Luke

Writing is often a solitary business, but a group of peers with similar goals can provide both support and motivation. With facilitator Sophie Hall-Luke of writing group The Table, we’ll look at how to find and form your own group, as well as providing peer networking within the session.

with Lisa Blower and Anita Sethi, chaired by Dr Katy Shaw

Inspired by a shared concern that working class voices are increasingly absent from the pages of books and newspapers, author Kit de Waal came together with publishers Unbound and the regional writing development organisations, including New Writing North, to launch Common People, a collection of essays, poems and pieces of personal memoir. The anthology brings together sixteen well-known writers from working class backgrounds including Lisa Blower, Anita Sethi and Tony Walsh, with an equal number of brand new as-yet-unpublished writers from all over the UK.

In this session, Lisa and Anita will discuss their own careers and what it means to be a working class writer today.

with author Paul Magrs

THIS SESSION IS FULLY BOOKED

Paul Magrs has been a writing teacher since the early 1990s and a writer for much longer, writing in most genres and for every age group. He has also been a serious diarist all his life.

Paul says: “Journals are the books that we never have to show another person, unless we decide to do so. Our journals are where we have complete freedom – and that is the place true writing begins.”

In this workshop Paul will reveal the real writing practice of journals, the storytelling involved in teaching, and how putting stories together can seem like the most fantastic activity ever invented.

Please note, this is a repeat of Breakout 2a

with Joe Sedgwick of The Literary Consultancy and literary agent Davinia Andrews-Lynch

Learn the art of editing your own work, as we take you through a live edit of a real draft manuscript. You’ll find out how literary agents and organisations like The Literary Consultancy assess, edit and polish a draft manuscript before submitting work to publishers, and what you can do to make your own work ready for submission.