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Being A Writer Festival 2023
Join us for this unique summer event and learn how to write well, and feel well.
The Literary Consultancy’s Being A Writer Festival returns for 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.
*Please be aware that the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition for 2023 is now CLOSED for entries*
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.
Being A Writer Member Single Week Pass*: £15
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.
*Please be aware that the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition for 2023 is now CLOSED for entries*
Now in it’s eleventh year, 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. You can read more about the competition and see Showcases on each of the previous winners here.
The deadline for submission is 9am BST Friday 16th June 2023.
TLC Pen Factor Judges for 2023 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 2023 in order to enter the TLC Pen Factor Writing Competition.