Wakefield Litfest to hold free Panel Event on ‘Writing in the North’

Wakefield Litfest is holding a free panel event at Wakefield Library, aimed at young people aged 14 to 25, focusing on Writing in the North.

The hybrid event will take place on Wednesday 27^th October at 5:30pm with both a live and online audience. Panellists include the award-winning Hebden Bridge based publishers Bluemoose Books and the Bradford based Fox and Windmill, an independent publisher celebrating British South Asian writers. Also on the panel is Selby and Durham based poet Aoifke Madeleine, who began posting her work on her Instagram account ‘@aoifkeswords’ before self-publishing her debut pamphlet, and Caleb Shepherd, a freelance screen writer whose most recent project ‘CLARA’ was awarded Best Short Film at the South Coast Film Festival.

The panel will explore the uniqueness of the northern writing scene, how to navigate the literary industry in the region, the challenges of entering the literary industry and advice for succeeding.

Audience members can attend in person or online and tickets are free to book on the Wakefield Literature Festival Eventbrite page.

Organised by young people, for young people, Wakefield Litfest is funded by Wakefield Council as an offshoot of its sister festival Wordfest. The programme board is made up of 14 to 25-year-olds who want to promote the local literary scene and create more opportunities for local creatives to share their work.

Other upcoming events and projects in the Wakefield Litfest calendar include a Political Writing online workshop with playwright Pearl Andrews-Horrigan on 3^rd November and a zine comprised of submissions from young people, including 3 commissioned headliners, inspired by hope in the past, present and future.

Tickets for the panel event and political writing workshop can be booked through https://bit.ly/3ma0vZA and details for zine writing submissions can be found at wakefieldlitfest.co.uk/.