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Please note a change to our advertised programme for 10th March 2020. Stella Duffy is no longer available on this date.  

Tuesday 10th March 2020 at 7.30pm

Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Christine Hammacott

Talk: Getting to grips with Genre – why understanding your genre is so important. 

Christine Hammacott writes psychological suspense. In her day job she is a graphic designer and runs her own design consultancy, The Art of Communication, working with companies on branding, websites and promotional materials. Christine has worked in publishing as a cover and book designer and having gone down the self-publishing route herself, now helps other authors through the process of getting their books to market. Although self-published all of the books look and feel as if they are traditionally published.

Website https://artofcomms.co.uk work or www.christinehammacott.com author

Special Guest:  Louise Morrish, Winner of the Daily Mail First Novel Competition

Competition: Write the beginning of a murder mystery set in the past. (300 words) Entry deadline: 25th February (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Claire Gradidge

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Tuesday 14th April 2020 at 7.30pm

Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Nate Crowley

Nate Crowley is an author and journalist from London, who now lives in Walsall, with his wife, daughter and extremely large cat. He is the author of The Death & Life of Schneider Wrack, and The 100 Best Games (That Never Existed), both published by Rebellion, as well as the forthcoming Notes from Small Planets, published by Harper Voyager. He is an editor with PC gaming website Rock Paper Shotgun, and a frequent author for Games Workshop’s Black Library imprint. All of the above was, in some way, the fault of his presence on twitter as @frogcroakley.

Talk: How I accidentally started a career on twitter

Prior to 2015, Nate Crowley was a trade journalist for a series of extraordinarily dry magazines, who used twitter to procrastinate while at work. Over the next four years, it ended up taking over his life; but in a good way. In this talk, Nate will talk about how to write fiction on twitter, and what happens when it gets noticed by interesting people. He’ll discuss how to use social media to generate work – rather than inhibit it – and offer some tips on how to be more visible on social media without becoming consumed by self-promotion.

Special Guest: E.Random – Children’s/ YA sci- fi author

Competition: Write a short story outlining a medieval farmer’s view of new technology. (300 words) Entry deadline: 25th March (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Nate Crowley

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Tuesday 12th May 2020 at 7.30pm

Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Deborah Alma

Deborah Alma is a UK poet, with an MA with distinction, in Creative Writing from Keele University. She taught for 3 years at the University of Worcester and now lectures part-time at Keele University, where she is also an Honorary Research Fellow. As well as teaching part-time at Keele, she works as a writer in the community, especially in schools and with vulnerable groups. Emergency Poet was conceived by poet and writer Deborah Alma as a fun way of bringing poetry to people. She is assisted in this by creative partner and poet James Sheard.

Talk: The Emergency Poet and Poetry Pharmacy
Poets and partners Deborah Alma and James Sheard talk about the ideas and challenges behind their creative projects and the place of poetry in the world.

Special Guest: James Sheard  

Competition: A poem in up to 40 lines, or prose on Happiness: How do you find it? What is it? How might you measure it?

Entry deadline: 25th April(See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Deborah Alma

 

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Tuesday 9th June 2020

Starts 6.00 p.m. Book Fair with stalls displaying books from published HWS members; networking; wine bar; strawberries, nibbles and entertainment

 Talk at 7.30pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Tamar Hodes

Tamar Hodes was born in Israel in 1961 and lived in Greece and South Africa before settling in the UK in 1967. She read English and Education at Homerton College, Cambridge, and for the past thirty-four years she has taught English in schools, universities and prisons. Her novel, Raffy’s Shapes was Waterstones’s book of the month in October, 2006. Her novel, The Mauves was shortlisted for the Wells Literature Festival children’s writing prize; her story, The Boating Pond longlisted for the Frome prize; Letter to the Sea was a runner-up in Elle magazine’s short story competition, and The City of Stories won third prize in the Retreat West Flash Fiction competition.

Talk: My Writing Life

Tamar will talk to us about writing short stories and novels, how she has incorporated her life into her work and her work into her life – and the issues which have arisen where fact and fiction meet.

Special Guest: Professor Joy Carter CBE DL, Vice-Chancellor at the University of Winchester

Competition: Write a short story where fact and fiction meet in 300 words.

Adjudicator: Tamar Hodes
Entry deadline: 25th May  (See website for rules of the competition)

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Tuesday 10th September 2019 at 7.30pm

 Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

E. M. Davey

E. M. Davey studied history at the LSE and went on to spend eight years with the BBC, going undercover for Panorama, presenting the BBC World Service, and working on investigations for Newsnight, File on 4, and News at Six. He has visited more than sixty countries and now works for Global Witness; working to expose corruption, human rights abuses and environmental destruction in some of the world’s most beautiful but troubled countries. His first novel, Foretold by Thunder is the first in a series of contemporary thrillers with a historical dimension. 

Talk: Fiction as a Window on Our World

Ed recounts how adventure, travel, history, and investigative journalism have inspired his thrillers. 

Special Guest:  Crispin Drummond, proprietor of Winchester’s noted bookshop PG Wells

Competition: Write a travel article in 300 words.

Entry deadline: 25th August  (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator E. M. Davey

Keats’ Competition : The winner of the Keats Competition will be announced.

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Tuesday 8th October 2019 at 7.30pm

 Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Speaker: Claire Dyer

Claire’s latest novel, The Last Day, is published by The Dome Press. Her previous novels are published by Quercus and her poetry collections are published by Two Rivers Press. She is a regular guest on BBC Radio Berkshire’s Radio Reads, teaches creative writing, and runs Fresh Eyes, an editorial and critiquing service.

Talk: The writer’s life: chapter and verse

Claire reveals how she has approached the challenge of producing successful novels; and provides a few pointers for aspiring novelists.

Special Guest : Hilary Hares, writer and poet

Competition: Write about a childhood memory of reading or being read to in 300 words

Entry deadline: 25th September  (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Claire Dyer

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Tuesday 12th November 2019 at 7.30pm

Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Laura Williams,

Literary Agent

Laura Williams joined Greene & Heaton as an agent in 2018. She worked at Peters Fraser and Dunlop from 2011, after completing a degree in Classics at Oxford. She represents a list of literary fiction, general commercial fiction, and high-concept contemporary young adult, as well as narrative non-fiction of all kinds.

Talk: Myth-busting the Publications Industry

Laura reveals the true way in which the publications industry works, providing guidance that will be useful to both aspiring and published authors.

Special Guest Emma Nichol-Lewis, novelist of history and the supernatural

Competition:  The Waiting Room (300 words) Entry deadline: 25th October  (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Laura Williams

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Tuesday 10th December 2019

Starts at 6pm, HWS Book Fair, networking , mince pies,  bar and entertainment

 Talk at 7.30pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Caroline Wintersgill

Caroline has been an editor for 30 years for publishers large and small, corporate and independent, including Bloomsbury, Cassell, Routledge and Biteback. She specialises in non-fiction, with a particular interest in ‘big ideas’ books and political and literary biographies.

Talk: What are editors looking for?

In this talk she aims to unravel the mysteries of what makes editors tick, offering suggestions on when you need an agent and when you don’t, how to make your submission enticing and how to get the best from your publisher. Along the way, she discusses her experiences of brilliant authors, unexpected bestsellers and publishing nightmares.

Special Guest: David Eadsforth, historical novelist

Competition:  Write a letter to an editor pitching a new book (300 words). Entry deadline: 25th November (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Caroline Wintersgill

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Tuesday 14th January 2020 at 7.30pm

Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Paul Newsome

Paul is the founder of the Self Publishing Studio, which has taken the collective experience of writers, artists and printers and provided a straightforward service to help the Indie author meet their dreams.

Talk: Beyond the creativity bit

After all of the emotional highs and lows with approaching agents, what now? First, never give in. The initial struggle hasn’t suddenly turned your manuscript into a pile of slush. Surely self-publishing must be the answer? Now, if you thought approaching agents was a minefield, self-publishing is a minefield within a minefield. Either way, whatever route you take, realise that to have any degree of measurable success (and you must set those measures) you can have success, but it requires a lot of hard work and often putting yourself out of your comfort zone.

Special Guest: Sue Lawrence, author

Competition: Why I write and where it can lead.

Entry deadline: 25th December (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Paul Newsome

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Tuesday 11th February 2020 at 7.30pm

Networking and  bar from 7pm

Venue: Stripe Theatre Building, University of Winchester, Sparkford Road, Winchester SO22 4NR

Joel McIver

Joel McIver is the bestselling author of more than 30 books on rock music, and has worked with many globally-renowned musicians in several capacities. He is also a contributor to several magazines and newspapers, including the Guardian and the Daily Telegraph, and appears regularly on BBC and commercial radio and TV.

The Geek Will Inherit The Earth

Joel will describe his journey from teenage heavy metal nerd to bestselling author.

Special Guest: Glenn Fosbraey, Senior Lecturer, Department of English, Creative Writing and American Studies

Competition: Everyone hates this song. Here’s why I love it. (300 words).  Entry deadline: 25th January (See website for rules of the competition)

Adjudicator: Joel McIver

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