Wakefield Literary Festival 2016

August has been a busy month for the Wakefield Lit Fest team, we've been out and about sharing a little bit of Lit Fest love distributing our festival brochures. Time really is flying by and the summer holidays are nearly at an end which can only mean it's September - and only 3 weeks to go to Lit Fest 2016! Here are a few ideas to keep the autumn blues at bay...

Get creative this autumn
Join artist Jake Attree and poet Robert Powell for a riverside walk along the Calder as part of a one-day writing and drawing workshop at The Hepworth Wakefield and create your own river-themed response. Writer and broadcaster Ian Clayton shares creative tips in his workshop, A Sense of Place and John I Clarke brings a practical approach for beginners and experienced writers alike in his Write A Cracking Good Story workshop. The Agbrigg Writers and invited guests share and write stories in their open session called Life Support. If that's not enough to get your creative juices flowing, join Sarah Cobham for a poetry workshop in response to the contents of Ninos Box or pop along to Nostell Priory for a day of family friendly activities, Open Books and Creative Crafts.

Be inspired
Back again for 2016, The Writing Hall return with an informative, friendly and free panel session called Ready, Steady, Write! for writers to ask questions to a panel of experts. If you're desperate to get in to publishing and don't know how, find out all you need to know about the sector at a free talk with the Society of Young Authors - everyone welcome. If you're up for a fun night out and want to test your literary knowledge, look no further than the Lit Quiz with Quizzical Yorkshire - an informal night a Unity Works Cafe Bar for teams of 6 with all proceeds donated to charity.
 
Author events
As always, we have a host of author events with opportunities to meet your literary heroes, get books signed and ask questions. Wakefield Libraries have a date with Yorkshire-based author Jack Sheffield who'll talk about his Teacher series of books, and Wakefield's very own Annabel Pitcher and Michael Yates who'll talk about their latest novels.

Alan Johnson's latest instalment of his award-winning memoirs The Long and Winding Road is released in September, and best-selling author Derek Landy's American Monsters sees the final part of the Demon Road trilogy - so make sure you book your tickets early.

Spoken Word and Poetry
The festival kicks off with a special pre-festival event with spoken word superstar Hollie McNish as part of  Unity Words with a stellar line up including performance poet Becky Cherriman and singer-songwriter Fran Smith.

Speaking Volumes and A Firm of Poets bring Ranting poetry to Wakefield’s Red Shed as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations - Stand Up and Spit is hosted by Matt Abbott and the line up includes Janine Booth, Ralph Dartford, Helen Mort and Tim Wells with poems that appeal to all and pack a powerful political punch.

This year's programme also features many local poets and spoken word performers including Jimmy Andrex, William Thirsk-Gaskill and Black Horse Poets all making appearances - as well as festival favourite Roger McGough who'll return to Wakefield and read from poems, some old, some new and some topical...

If the festival is all a bit too exciting - or you're in need of a boost, pop and see the Emergency Poet at Trinity Walk, who'll provide consultations inside her ambulance and prescribes poems as cures...

See what's on and book tickets

For full event listings and to book tickets for events and workshops please visit www.wakefieldlitfest.org.uk