2023 Speakers

A man in a blue shirt standing indoors next to a white door, looking into the camera.

Marcel Theroux

The Sorcerer of Pyongyang

Writer and broadcaster. Winner of the Somerset Maugham Award and the Prix de l’Inaperçu.

Black and white portrait of a man looking at the camera.

Alex Preston

Winchelsea

Winner of Spear’s and Edinburgh Award, selected as one of Waterstones’ New Voices 2010, shortlisted for The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize.

Woman in white blouse smiling outdoors with plants behind her

Jyoti Patel

The Things That We Lost

Winner of Stormzy’s Merky Books New Writers’ Prize 2021 and listed among The Observer’s ‘best new novelists’.

Smiling woman with curly hair and floral shirt in front of green leaves.

Rebecca Stott

Dark Earth

Author of fourteen books including a New York Times bestseller and her Costa Biography Prize-winning memoir about living in a cult. Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature.

A woman with long blonde hair wearing a gray sweater, resting her head on her hand, outdoors with greenery in the background.

Patricia McCarthy

A Ghosting in Ukraine

Winner of the National Poetry Competition 2012, editor of Agenda. Patricia’s collection Horses Between Our Legs was chosen book of the year in The Independent.

Workshops

Smiling person in a studio with art supplies and shelves behind them.

Robyn Wilson Owen

Children’s Illustration Workshop

Author and illustrator. Books chosen as The Sunday Times children’s book of the week and among The Guardian’s best books of the summer.

Person wearing a white shirt sitting in a library with books

Genevieve Stevens

Poetry Workshop

Award-winning poet and lecturer in English. Teaches poetry at Charleston and Poetry School.

Marcel Theroux photo by Urszula Soltys. Jyoti Patel photo by Mark Strauss. Rebecca Stott photo by Nick Bradley.