The Bournemouth Writing Festival is due to take place on Friday 26th, Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th April 2024 and we are looking for writing professionals and practitioners to be involved in a varied, inclusive and quality programme to inspire writers to write. In its inaugural year, the Bournemouth Writing Festival put on 75 diverse events and activities across several venues, with nearly 2,000 free and paid-for tickets being snapped up. 26% of people came from outside of Dorset, including as far away as Albania, Wales and Gateshead, resulting from over 20 pieces of media coverage, national partnerships and well over 200k social media impressions. This is not a literary festival where writers and authors talk about their book and the themes of their book. This is a writing festival to encourage writers to write (whether they are just starting out or more advanced), offering practical and hands-on tips, advice and strategies in creative writing to ultimately be published. From best-selling and award-winning authors, BAFTA-winning screenwriters, poets, journalists, editors, publishers, writing coaches and even a contracts lawyer, all gave talks, curated activities and inspiration to help writers on their writing journey. Examples of some of the more popular events and activities that took place included:
Writing your first full-length book
7 proven tips to market your book
Writing thrillers on the South Coast
The Fundamentals of writing Short Stories
How to earn a living as a screenwriter
Creative writing workshop for adults with additional needs and teenagers
Children’s readings (including a charity event)
Writing on the Beach
Sculpture Trail around Bournemouth Town Centre
Poetry Hunt around Bournemouth Town Centre
Open Mic and Keynote speeches
Photos from 2023 can be seen here.
We are now looking for writing professionals to be part of the 2024 festival programme.
Call for facilitators and speakers
This is a writing festival to encourage writers to write (whether they are just starting out or more advanced), offering practical and hands-on tips, advice and strategies to get writing and be published. We are looking for Expressions of Interest for ideas and suggestions that you can deliver and have experience in which falls under our ethos of inspiring writers to write. This may be the techniques in writing, or understanding the process of getting work out into the world. As we achieved with the first festival, we want to be as inclusive and diverse as possible – not just in our participants, but in the topics discussed too. The 2024 programme will again be split into three sections:
Formal programme of talks, workshops, panels and masterclasses from writers and authors and those that support writers (editors, publishers, agents etc). One hour long including Q&As. Topics should not necessarily focus on one genre, but try to be relevant to different writing styles.
Informal programme of networking events, performances and activities to provide stimulus, connections and inspiration. Our aim is to utilise different spaces within Bournemouth Town Centre whilst creating unique experiences.
Activities for children to inspire young people to write.
We are looking for facilitators to deliver any in the above categories. Events and activities should be as engaging, interactive and as participatory as possible (reducing reliance on PowerPoint or paper hand-outs if possible). It can be delivered how you want - tables and chairs or out walking on the beach! Every event is one-hour long including Q&As. Following feedback from the first festival, we are particularly interested to explore:
Poetry
Short Stories
Memoirs and autobiographies
Elements of fiction writing (plotting, characterisation, setting)
Traditional publishing routes
Self-publishing routes
Publishers and literary agents
An Advisory Panel, comprising four writing professionals, is supporting the Festival Director in the curation of the programme. Their decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into with unsuccessful applicants. Deadline for submissions is 31st October 2023.
What you'll get We have applied for funding to pay speakers. If a fee is possible or not, you will receive:
Free professional photographs courtesy of Solid Imagery, our official festival photographer, of your event or activity for you to use as you wish.
2 free tickets for you to attend any event (subject to availability)
Exclusive discount code to help promote your talk for your audience.
Social media publicity to promote your event or activity.
Goody bag.
Inclusion of your book in the Speaker’s Bookshop, if required.
Complete the form in this link to apply.
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