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Not sure about poetry? Can’t see how it’s useful to your writing? Then this live online workshop with the current Children’s Laureate Wales, Alex Wharton, is the one for you!
Find out how to have some fun with poetry and learn about some of the ways to bring it into your craft, bringing your writing and/or illustrations to life. Alex will guide you through some simple children’s poetry exercises and give you lots of take-away tips in this exclusive live masterclass and Q&A .
To view our full festival line-up, click here. A weekend pass is available for just £80!
Alex Wharton is an award-winning writer and performer of poetry for adults and children. His First Book of poetry for children, Daydreams and Jellybeans, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of The Year Award 2022, The North Somerset Teacher’s Book Awards, The Laugh Out Loud Book Awards and was named as a National Poetry Day Recommended Read.
Alex won the inaugural Rising Stars Wales Award in 2020 and is the Children’s Laureate Wales 2023-2025. He has collaborated with key national organisations such as Cadw, National Dance Company Wales, Welsh Government, British Council of Literature and Welsh Libraries, and has also appeared in festivals such as Hay Festival and Edinburgh International Book Festival.
Alex’s second and third collections of poetry Doughnuts, Thieves and Chimpanzees and Red Sky at Night: A Poet’s Delight will be published with Firefly Press in 2023 and 2024.
Follow Alex on Twitter @alexwhartonpoet and on Instagram @alexwharton_
And There's More... Pitch Your Work to a Literary Agent!
Reserving a place at this masterclass entitles you to a place at our agent panel discussion, which begins at 14.45 on Sunday 24th March 2024.
Charlotte Colwill and Julia Churchill, two specialist children’s agents will join us to critique your pitches live, offer general guidance and advice on the submission process for both authors and/or illustrators, and take questions via a live Q&A.
Ahead of this session, you will be invited to submit your own novel pitch. A select number of pitches will then be chosen by our agents, and critiqued during the session itself! Look out for an email from W&A in days leading up to the festival, which will contain all the information you need about how to submit your pitch.
Festival Raffle
Every festival attendee is automatically entered into our festival raffle, while weekend pass holders receive two raffle entries. The raffle will be drawn at the end of the festival, with the following prizes up for grabs:
3rd prize: Children's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2024 and Bloomsbury Children's book bundle
2nd prize: complimentary place at any W&A evening masterclass (RRP £30) + Children's Writers' & Artists' Yearbook 2024 and Bloomsbury Children's book bundle
1st prize: gratis Opening Chapters editing service (RRP £240/£380)
A booking for this event gives you access to the following: an online masterclass with Alex Wharton (10:00-12.30, Saturday 23rd March 2024) and a panel discussion with literary agents (14.45-16.15, Sunday 24th March 2024), while you will also automatically receive a single entry into our festival raffle.
Like the rest of the festival, this masterclass session will take place online in full and will be presented using video conferencing software. Joining instructions, links, and full guidance will be circulated for the above in the week leading up to the festival.
Any event materials associated to this masterclass will be made available to attendees at the author's discretion, with any live recordings of this event made available for a time-limited period.
This individual masterclass session is priced at £45 (inc. VAT), and payable in full online.
Please note that payment instalment plans are available for all W&A events, writing courses and editing services. Contact W&A Admin on events@writersandartists.co.uk so that we can find a payment schedule that works for you.
To view our event refund and cancellation policy, please click here.
Accessible to All
It’s of real importance to Writers & Artists that our events and courses remain accessible to all.
- Writers & Artists has made one full weekend pass available for our festival as part of our accessibility scheme. Please visit our bursaries page for further information about how to apply. All bursary applications must have been submitted for consideration by 4th March 2024
- At the author’s discretion, event materials will be made available to attendees after the masterclass.
- A link to a recording of the masterclass will be circulated after the event. This will be made available to event attendees only, and for a time-limited period.
- Each event will include written text and visuals. Please contact us in advance so that we can make arrangements to be sure all documents appear in a format that works for you.
- If you’d like to attend but have any questions or concerns regarding accessibility, then please email AccessWA@bloomsbury.com
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