Join us for this unique summer event and learn how to write well, and feel well.
TLC is delighted to reveal the lineup for the Being A Writer Festival 2023. Programme highlights include a keynote by Sunday Times bestselling author Will Storr, our new interactive Writers’ Cafe with Cairo Aibangbee, sessions on success, failure, and wellbeing with speakers including Elliott Rae, Wiz Wharton, Kerry Fisher, Rónán Hession, Clare Pooley and Ronali Collings, sessions with a range of publishers and agents, and creative writing Masterclasses on how to write page-turning literary fiction (Imogen Hermes Gowar), the art and craft of the short story (Vanessa Onwuemezi) and how to strike to the truth of life writing (Xanthi Barker).
The Being A Writer Festival is fully virtual, with sessions auto-captioned and available to attend live or on demand. Sessions are held every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday between June 27th – July 27th 2023 with five distinct, themed weeks: Inspiration, Industry, Wellbeing, Community, and Craft.
Across nineteen inspiring sessions in a range of formats (from panels to readings, interviews and workshops), we invite you to hear from speakers across the publishing and wellbeing industries. All Being A Writer Festival ticket-holders are invited to submit their work to the hugely popular TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition for the opportunity to pitch to a live panel of industry judges. 2023 marks 11 years of TLC Pen Factor, and as a competition it has an impressive track record for finding talent, with many of our previous finalists going on to be published.
You do not have to be a member of the Being A Writer platform to attend the Festival – it is open to any writer, anywhere in the world, who wants to attend, live or asynchronously. If you are a Being A Writer member, you can enjoy a 30% discount across all tickets. We have also made concessionary rates available to anyone who needs a discount, no questions asked, and we have introduced pay-what-you-can tickets for those needing a little extra support. There is no need to register or apply for these discounted tickets; simply book your place and join us at the Festival.
This year, you can buy either a Festival Pass which grants access to all sessions, or grab a ticket to one of our themed weeks. Being A Writer is all about how to write, how to keep writing, and how to thrive. We hope you will join us.
For member booking, please ensure you are logged in to your Being A Writer account before clicking the booking link below. Not yet a member? Sign up for just £12 a month here and access the entire toolkit and all benefits including your 30% Festival discount.
Ticket Pricing
Being a Writer Member Festival Pass: £45/ £30
Being A Writer Member Single Week Pass*: £15
General Sale Being a Writer Festival Pass: £60/ £45
General Sale Single Week Pass*: £22
Video Ticket: £30**
*Join for a single week at a reduced rate. Includes entry to the TLC Pen Factor. Does not include Masterclasses.
**All session recordings on demand for 90 days. Does not include Masterclasses or TLC Pen Factor entry.
About the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition
The TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition is a competition for new, unpublished writing across fiction and non-fiction, open exclusively to Being A Writer Festival ticket-holders. Now in its eleventh year, the competition started as an adjunct to TLC’s Writing in a Digital Age Conference in 2012, later becoming part of our popular Writers’ Day. We have now gone fully virtual, welcoming an even bigger audience, and continuing to showcase the work of talented writers with our live pitch session.
As a competition, TLC Pen Factor has an impressive track record for finding talent, with many of our previous finalists going on to be published – including as a direct result of meeting their agent at the event! You can read about how entering (and subsequently winning) resulted in Lizzie Damilola Blackburn landing a two-book deal with Viking here. Previous winners and finalists include Neema Shah, Guinevere Glasfurd, Adam Sharp, Abi Dare, and Fawzia Kane.
The TLC Pen Factor has been generously sponsored in previous years by Kobo Writing Life, IngramSpark, and Byte the Book. Prizes have included editorial feedback from The Literary Consultancy, digital marketing consultancy, web presence consultations, free one-day writing retreats, membership to various writing organisations, and free e-reading devices. This year’s prize will be announced in April.
TLC Pen Factor Key Details
The deadline for submission is 9am BST Friday 16th June 2022.
TLC Pen Factor Judges for 2022 are Megan Carroll (Watson, Little), Emma Leong (Janklow & Nesbit), and Serena Arthur (Trapeze, Hachette).
Full entry guidelines and Ts & Cs will be sent to paying ticketholders once you purchase your Festival Pass, or Single Week Pass. You must be a Being a Writer Festival ticketholder and able to attend the TLC Pen Factor Live Pitch on Thursday 20th July 2022 in order to enter the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition.
Accessibility note
- The Festival will be hosted online via Zoom. Most sessions will be held as Webinars, excepting the Writers’ Cafe which will be held as Zoom Meetings in order to encourage interactivity.
- Participants are not visible in the Zoom Webinar format and so there is no need to have your camera on. We encourage writers to switch cameras on for Writers’ Cafes, but this is not mandatory.
- Login details for each individual event will be sent to you on purchase of tickets. A strong internet connection is recommended to get the most out of the sessions.
- You do not need to be physically fit or able-bodied to participate in the Festival.
- Captions will be accessible via the Zoom Closed Captioning function. Transcripts can be made available with on-demand resources on request.
- The Keynote with Will Storr will contain pre-recorded material which will have been BSL-interpreted in advance. Captions will also be provided for this session.
- Some sessions may include presentation material which may not be accessible to reading devices for the visually impaired. Please contact us at least 14 days clear of the Festival if you require descriptions for visual materials to be sent to you in advance. All speakers will be briefed to audio-describe any shared materials.
- All sessions will include a brief introduction to establish the format and outline, including whether there will be any comfort breaks.
- If you would like to attend any Festival event and have any additional access questions or requirements, please feel free to email us at .
