Sorry! The other one cut off.

Hi folks. I have copied this from a pdf file so it might come out funny. I went to this last year and it was terrific and better than the Edinburgh bookfest in terms of encouragement for new writers. It is a small intimate festival - but in some ways I think that is better and this year it is quite interactive which takes advantage of this. The Unpublished Writer's Jam is a brilliant opportunity and the teaching how to read and present for authors is a unique thing, plus a discussion on the place of creative writing courses. Plus lots of interesting debut writers. I put what I can below:

Friday 8th
7pm
Unpublished Writers Jam Session
Judges: Alan Taylor, Fatema Ahmed and David Stenhouse
This is a fantastic opportunity to read your unpublished work in front of an expert
panel. Alan Taylor (Literary Editor; Sunday Herald & Editor, Scottish Review of
Books), David Stenhouse (writer and BBC producer and broadcaster) and Fatema
Ahmed (Managing Editor at Granta) will judge the winner, who will take home
a bottle of whisky and, if they wish, have their entire manuscript read by Mark
Stanton, literary agent at Jenny Brown Associates. Each author may read their
unpublished work for four minutes.
To take part in this event as an author, please email pru@authortalks.org by 25th
May. The first 14 names out of the hat will be selected. For audience tickets of the
Unpublished Writers Jam Session and all other Festival events, please contact the
Traverse Box Office.

6pm
How to Make a Performance
– Karen Glossop
Reading work on stage and radio is a major part of promoting published work
and is daunting for most new writers.Actress and tutor in presentation and
communication skills Karen Glossop will share tips and ideas with the audience
about the best ways of confidently presenting your work in public.
Accompanying her will be performance artist, air hostess and newly published
author Karen McLeod In Search of the Missing Eyelash. In this practical and
highly entertaining event, these two performers will explore dynamic and
extremely novel ways of getting themessage across.

Sunday 10th
1pm
The Dark Imaginings of
the Mind – Chaired by Catherine
Lockerbie
These four exceptional new authors have explored their dark side to create
compelling psychological thrillers and dangerous confusing worlds. In this
event the writers will discuss the literary and film influences in their books. In The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall has created a horrifyingly believable world
in which identities are stolen by brain eating conceptual sharks, in The Seven
Days of Peter Crumb by Jonny Glynn a damaged man has a week to enact
terrifying revenge for a devastating act of violence, and in Mirror, Mirror by Maria Alvarez a woman’s life is dominated by a manipulative but thrilling stranger. Secrets surrounding a woman’s disappearance have long and damaging
effects in Lesley McDowell’s novel, The Picnic.


3pm
Famous First Books –
Chaired by Stuart Kelly
Literary Editor Stuart Kelly will talk with writer and novelist Kirsty Gunn (most recently 44 Things and The Boy and the Sea) and debut author and journalist Maria Alvarez (Mirror Mirror) about the following three well known debuts: Man Booker 2006 shorlisted In The Country of Men by Hisham Matar, Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith - the queen of the psychological thriller and the always influential (to readers and writers alike),
The Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger. This is an interactive event and the
audience will be encouraged to take part by asking questions and sharing opinions about the books chosen for discussion.

5pm
Creative Writing Courses
– Chaired by Jenny Brown
It appears that almost every newly published writer has attended a creative
writing course. Considered prestigious by some and unnecessary by others, are
they now an essential part of becoming a successful novelist? Discussing their
strengths and weaknesses will be the critically acclaimed writers Kirsty Gunn
(professor of creative writing at Dundee University) and Alan Bissett (tutor of
creative writing at Glasgow University),Alison Baverstock writer on all aspects
of publishing, marketing and reading,most recently, Is There A Book In You?
and Jennifer McCartney (Afloat) a debut author who has been compared to
Margaret Atwood and graduate of the Glasgow University course.

Saturday 9th
12pm
Escaping the Day Job
– Chaired by Bob McDevitt
Dreaming of adventures while stuck at an office desk is a common habit. In this
session these three writers will discuss about how they used that desire for
escape for their books. In Mark McNay’s novel, Fresh, Sean dreams up alternative lives while stuck at work at a chicken packing factory. Lois Pryce has written of how she packed in her career at the BBC and rode her motorcycle solo from Alaska to South America in Lois on the Loose. Guy Grieve left office life behind to live in the wilds of Alaska for his inspiring book, Call of the Wild.

2pm
Britain Today
– Chaired by Jackie McGlone
These four young writers have all chosen to look at their experiences
in a changing Britain in their debut books. Guardian journalist Libby
Brooks interviewed children from all backgrounds for her book The Story of
Childhood, Lynsey Hanley drew on her own experience for a very personal
and political look at council housing in Estates – An Intimate Portrait, music nut and journalist Sarfraz Manzoor explored his childhood move to Britain from
Pakistan for Greetings From Bury Park and poet Daljit Nagra focuses on this
multicultural country with great wit and imagination in his collection, Look We
Have Coming to Dover!

4pm
Love Against the Odds
– Chaired by Faith Liddell
Even in the midst of danger, war,displacement or emotional strife, love
still flourishes and these writers will talk about the power
ful need to connect profoundly to one another. In Serpent in Paradise, journalist Julian West explores obsession in conflict-torn Sri Lanka. Poet
Annie Freud has written wise, funny and erotic poems for her collection The Best Man That Ever Was. In Ishq and Mushq, Priya Basil follows a couple through their lives and transition from India to Britain and James Hopkin considers how we can love and understand each other when cultural differences seem so great in his acclaimed novel, Winter Under Water.

Hi Snowbell
Sounds great. I've probably missed it in the blurb - where is it? I take it its not Edinburgh?

yes, it's edinburgh.

Sorry - does it not say? Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh. And it is in June.

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Oh that's great I just looked and you're in Scotland so you'll be able to come along hopefully. Honestly - I thought it was great last year.