Tickets are selling fast for Hearth, the two-day micro-festival which returns to the Library Saturday, 29th - Sunday, 30th October with a wonderfully eclectic programme of speakers.
Situated around the fireside in our cosy common room, Hearth is a festival for writers to pick up hints and tips, and for those interested in books and literature to find out more about the writing and publishing process. Single event, Day or Weekend tickets are available, and why not make a weekend of it by booking a bedroom?
Speakers at the October 2016 festival include astrophysicist turned writer Pippa Goldschmidt, internationally-acclaimed author and performer Rose Collis, novelist and director Irene Zabytko, and award-winning journalist Nadene Ghouri. In a festival-first, this autumn’s edition also includes a film screening.
Find out more…
Pippa Goldschmidt talks about the hidden lives of scientists. Pippa is now a successful poet, novelist and short-story writer, but she used to be an astrophysicist. Her novel, The Falling Sky (2014), is about an astronomer who discovers the universe and loses her mind and her most recent collection of short stories, The Need for Better Regulation of Outer Space (2015), are all inspired by real, imaginary, and bizarre aspects of science. In Pippa’s fascinating hour, she discusses how these hidden lives of scientists can be explored in literature.
Rose Collis’s books and shows are like no-one else’s. In 2012, Rose created her ‘Trouser-Wearing Characters‘, the first ever one-woman musical cabaret show written and performed by a female author. The show has been performed at theatres and festivals throughout the UK as well as in New Zealand and Australia. From women who wore the pants, to the darkest secrets of cities, join Rose for an hour of stories, vignettes and songs as she talks about – and performs – extracts from her plays about some of her favourite characters from ‘alternative’ history.
Irene Zabytko promises a thoughtful hour as she shares the experience of writing The Sky Unwashed, a novel praised for its depiction of Chornobyl refugees returning to their still-irradiated villages. This session includes a showing of Irene’s award-winning short, Life in the Dead Zone, a film documentary about the real-life survivors who are still impacted by Chornobyl.
Wrapping it all up on Sunday, 30th October, Nadene Ghouri talks about the art of writing memoir. A multi-award winning journalist who specialises in human rights issues, Nadene is a former correspondent of both the BBC and Al Jazeera English and today is a freelance broadcaster and reporter working for BBC current affairs and leading publications including the Guardian and the Mail on Sunday. Nadene is also the co-author of The Lightless Sky with Gulwali Passarlay. Gulwali’s talk sold out at Hearth in February this year; now Nadene joins us to share the secrets of writing bestselling memoir with a unique impact.
Individual event tickets are priced at £12. Day tickets are priced at £32.50 which includes a lunch or dinner. Weekend tickets are priced at £55 including a meal on each day. All tickets include free entry to the panel discussion on Saturday evening with all four Hearth speakers during which they will reflect on reading and writing and guests are invited to put forward their most testing questions!
To book, please call 01244 532350 or email [email protected].