The Writers’ Toolkit 2010 – Birmingham

The Writers’ Toolkit 2010 – Writer Networking Conference
Saturday 20th November 2010, 10.30am – 4pm

South Birmingham College, High Street, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5SU

Cost: £32 (£26 concession)

Deadline for booking: Friday 12th November, 2010

Full details on the Writing West Midlands website.

The Conference

This is the third annual gathering for emerging and established writers and anyone working in the creative writing industry. The Writers’ Toolkit offers opportunities to learn about aspects of the business of being a writer and to network with others working in the creative writing industry through a mixture of panel discussions and Q&A sessions.

The Writers’ Toolkit will open with a keynote address from the distinguished novelist Jim Crace. Other speakers will include playwrights David Edgar, Nick Walker and Naylah Ahmed, novelists Mike Gayle, Graham Joyce, Ian MacLeod, Roger Ellory, Paul McDonald, Helen Cross and Chris McCabe, broadcast journalist Sue Beardsmore, poets David Morley (University of Warwick), Mandy Ross, Brenda Read-Brown and Roz Goddard, and representing the writing industry (and also writers in many cases) Kate Chapman (Theatre Writing Partnership), Jo Bell (National Poetry Day), David Hunter (BBC Radio), Carol Harding (BBC Television), Philip Gwyn-Jones (Portobello Books), Irenson Okojie (Apples & Snakes), Luke Brown (Tindal Street Press), Catherine Clarke (Felicity Bryan Agency), Caroline Jester (Birmingham Rep), Paul Munden (National Association of Writers in Education), Bernie Corbett (Writers’ Guild of Great Britain), Lucy Macnab (Southbank Centre), Chris Unitt (Mashed Media), Antonia Byatt (Arts Council England), Ros Robins (Arts Council England West Midlands), Ceri Gorton (Arts Council England West Midlands) and Dr Patricia Stafford (Newman University College). Also involved are poet and psychiatrist Femi Oyebode (University of Birmingham), writer Eugene Egan, Damien Walters (The Literature Network), Catherine Rogers (Writing East Midlands), Steve Dearden (National Association for Literature Development), Shreela Ghosh (Free Word Centre, London), Peggy Riley (East Kent Live Literature), Malcolm Dewhirst (Polesworth Poets Trail), Tony Taylor (Anthony Taylor Accountants), Lara Ratnaraja (Business Link), Julia Bird (Jaybird Productions), Roy McFarlane (Birmingham Poet Laureate 2010/11) and Naomi Alsop (University of Warwick).

A total of sixteen panel discussions will include Writing for Broadcast, Writing and Health, Real Writing Lives, Understanding Publishing, Writing and Education, Writers’ Rights, Doing Digital, Writing and Science, The Business of Writing, New Theatre Writing, Writing and Higher Education, Building Audiences for Poetry and many more. A full programme will be provided before the conference.