There is plenty on offer for younger writers at this year’s Beverley Literature Festival with some great writing workshops for teenagers and young people.
Katherine Dunn-Mines, one of the brains behind www.yorkshirecoastgigs.co.uk, will be sharing her tips on writing for the web and running a Bloggers’ Café at the Treasure House on Sunday, 5 October.
Dorcas Taylor, Director of the Festival, and director of Wordquake, East Riding Libraries’ enhanced literature development project, said:
“The idea behind the Writing for the Web workshop came from my daughter. She’s 12 and loves writing. She publishes some of her stories online on Wattpad and has a number of young writers she follows. Wattpad is the world’s largest community of readers and writers and there are 40 million stories on there to read.”
Dorcas Taylor continued:
“Publishing online – whether it’s reviews, blogs or self-published e-books – is becoming increasingly popular with our younger writers and so it’s a great opportunity to involve Katherine in running workshop on the subject. Not only will Katherine be offering advice and tips, she will also be digging deeper so young writers start thinking about their audiences and also how to remain safe when publishing online.”
The unique Bloggers’ Café is a new departure for the festival. “What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon than enjoying a juice or cappuccino and a slice of delicious cake in the Beverley Treasure House café, enjoying some me-time and writing on your laptop?” said Dorcas. “Visitors can enjoy a 10% discount in the café and the atmosphere will be informal and relaxed.”
If you want to express yourself on the page in other ways then House of Deadleg (aka Simon Whittaker) will be leading a session on Graphic Illustration on Sunday, 5 October to bring your pages alive with drawings and words.
Simon is a designer and illustrator who works with companies from all over the world. He recently worked with the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough on a project based on their production of The Boy Who Fell Into A Book, developing characters, settings and stories based on the themes of the play with children and young people.
“They came up with monsters, robots, deadly chickens, giant cucumbers, poisonous injections, psycho killers, booby traps and much, much more”, said Simon. “It was a great deal of fun!”
Join Simon to learn some illustration techniques and professional tips and explore new ways to express creative ideas and concepts.
