SIGN UP FOR OUR WRITERS' CONFERENCE ON MONDAY 6 JUNE - VENUE BRUNEL UNIVERSITY - MEET THE GREATS IN THE WRITING WORLD

The Society of Women Writers and Journalist members are pleased to announce our Writers' Conference taking place on Monday 6th June 2022. www.swwj.co.uk to book your ticket. 

About this event

Organised in Partnership with Brunel University's Creative Writing Department, this exciting conference is packed with help, advice and thought provoking sessions.

We have an awe inspiring line up, including the poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who recently appeared in the international TV hit series 'Peaky Blinders'; Christina Lamb OBE, top foreign correspondent and winner of Europe’s top war reporting prize - the Prix Bayeux; Freya North, author of 16 best selling novels and screen plays; Liza DeBlock, Agent at Mushens having worked with multiple Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling authors; Darren Hardy, Amazon's Head of UK Author and Editorial programmes; Daljit Nagra, Poet, Faber lecturer and Chair of the Royal Society of Literature; Rebecca Harding, Chair of the SWWJ, business author, journalist and international marketing consultant.

With a mixture of workshops and keynote sessions there will be masses to enjoy and to learn from.

The full agenda and timings are currently being finalised. The agenda will be released very soon.

The conference is open to members and non-members and is aimed at anyone with an amateur or professional interest in writing or publishing, including both authors and journalists.

The conference will run from 9.30 am to 7.30 pm. Ticket prices include lunch and refreshments during the day. Finally, the day will be rounded off with an evening drinks reception, the perfect chance to enjoy a glass of something sparkling and network with your fellow writing professionals.

Special Guest Speakers include:

Benjamin Zephaniah

Benjamin is Poet, Novelist, Playwright, Musician, Actor, Television and Radio presenter.

He cannot remember a time when he was not creating poetry but this had nothing to do with school where poetry meant very little to him, in fact he had finished full time education at the age of 13. His poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls ‘street politics’.

In the early Eighties when Punks and Rastas were on the streets protesting about SUS Laws, high unemployment, homelessness and the National Front, Zephaniah’s poetry could be heard on the demonstrations, at youth gatherings, outside police stations, and on the dance floor. It was once said of him that he was Britain’s most filmed, photographed, and identifiable poet, this was because of his ability to perform on stage, but most of all on television, bringing Dub Poetry straight into British living rooms. The mission was to take poetry everywhere, he hated the dead image that academia and the establishment had given poetry and proclaimed that he was out to popularise poetry by reaching people who did not read books, those that were keen on books could now witness a book coming to life on the stage. This poetry was political, musical, radical, relevant and on TV.