The Working-Class Writers Festival is a dynamic new festival taking place in Bristol in October 2021.The festival aims to enhance, encourage and increase representation from the working class across the country, whilst connecting authors, readers, agents and editors.
Running from 21 to 24 October 2021, the festival will use physical and digital spaces, and will include panel discussions, speaker events and workshops. Events will take place in a wide variety of locations around the city, including local libraries.
Working-class writers from across the UK will be congregating in Bristol, physically and digitally. Writers that are set to appear include Val McDermid, Paul Mendez, Carmen Marcus, Mohsin Zaidi, Anita Sethi, Mahsuda Snaith, Lorraine Brown, Kalwant Bhopal, Mark Hodkinson, Paul Sng, Cash Carraway, Coco Kahn, Sam Missingham, Terri White, Rachel Trezize, Tony Walsh, Dr Wanda Wyporska, Paul McVeigh, Sadie Hasler, Basit Mahmood, Dave O’Brian, Laura Henry-Allain, Tanya Shadwick, Simon Kvosi, Mary O’Hara, Amer Anwar, Jessica Andrews, James McDermott, Sharon Duggal, Cole Moreton, Conrad Murray, Dr Pragya Agarwal, Una, Sarah Shaffi, Hamza Jahanzeb, Niamh Mulvey, Emma Glass, Brian Reade, Caroline Carpenter, Eve Ainsworth, Chris Walsh, Julie Rea, Simon Moreton, Angie Belcher, Tania Harrison, Juliet Pickering, Sam Hodder, Julia Silk, Jenny Knight, Stewart Lansley, Joelle Taylor and Yvonne Bailey-Smith.
The artistic director is Natasha Carthew, herself an award-winning working-class writer, poet and passionate campaigner for working-class representation in the arts.
Find out more here