Newcastle Writers Festival

Until the past few years, I have never considered myself to be 'a writer'. I have always written - stories, poems, letters, emails - but I never thought of myself as having any kind of skill at it, nor that anyone (other than the recipients of those letters) would want to read my words. But with the encouragement of a few kind souls, I have found greater confidence in my own written words, and in the idea that other people take some kind of interest in reading them. Trust me though, its still a surprise!

So I was equally shocked, proud and excited to have been invited to take part in the Newcastle Writers Festival, which is happening this weekend.

You might remember that I developed a pretty affectionate relationship to Newy during the time I spent there as an Artist in Residence at the beginning of last year (If you look on the right hand side of this page, you'll see a category, 'Newcastle', that contains all my posts from that time), so you can imagine how excited I am to head back down to take part in this event. There are a load of interesting looking events that I can't wait to attend, and I get to be on two panels - one discussing writing about the sea, and the other about women writing online. The other panellists are amazing - Robert Drewe! Jane Caro! - so I am expecting to learn a lot from listening to them while I am there.

If you're about the Newcastle traps this weekend and looking for something to do, maybe you want to check it out. You can find all the information you need on the Newcastle Writers Festival website.