(Please apply below)

Back by popular demand, AUTHOR! AUTHOR! returns to the Isle of Wight Literary Festival, hosted by  Naked Figleaf Press. This fast-paced, friendly session offers Island writers of all genres a chance to deliver a two-minute pitch of their book to a live audience. Whether your manuscript is published or a work-in-progress, this is your chance to take to the stage and pitch it. 

(Please apply below)

Apply for a table to showcase your work and connect with festival-goers during a half-day session at the festival.

Maggie Sawkins, Jean G Owen and Anmarie Bowler are each creating opportunities for Island writers through their various activities and publications. Come along to hear them share their insights and discuss issues of interest to anyone with an interest in writing.

Brian Hinton, Lydia Fulleylove, Maggie Sawkins and Steve Rushton have all done their bit to  keep poetry alive in unexpected places. After reading English at Oxford, Brian moved to the Island to found the IW Poetry Society with the surrealist poet David Gasgoyne. He now runs Dimbola Museum and Galleries.

Lydia Fulleylove has been Writer in Residence for the Healing Arts on the IOW and is currently working as Writer in Residence in the Island prisons. Wild places are her passion and she facilitates landscape inspired wellbeing projects in collaboration with other artists.

Maggie Sawkins, the founder of Portsmouth’s Tongues & Grooves poetry and music Club, has worked with people from all walks of life including prisoners, the refugee community and people in recovery from addiction. The recipient of a Ted Hughes Award for New Work in Poetry, her work compassionately addresses concerns that haunt us all.

Artist, poet, art collector and drummer Steve Rushton creates international projects bringing diverse disciplines and audiences together to reconsider cultural history. His latest experimental project, Magdalena van der Passe and Ovid’s Metamorphoses, at the University of Chichester till the 19th of September, globalises the European tradition with contemporary contributions from as far afield as Uzbekistan and Argentina.

(For adults, +15)

For centuries humanity has made myths as a way of finding peace amidst chaos, change and uncertainty. Fantastical stories have served as a balm or even a gentle rallying cry. Embellished with humour, wisdom and local knowledge, myths offer us a vital shared point-of-view.

And so We Are The Myth Makers, presents new, unique, contemporary myths recently crafted by Island writers through a series of workshops hosted by Brevity, The Isle of Wight’s Literary Handbill and Boojum & Snark, in Sandown, with support from Arts Council England.

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Well-known Island voices and exciting new writers will reveal our Island to you through mythical tales that invite you to see your surroundings anew, with accompaniment from accomplished and beloved local fiddle player Sophie Kate.

Sit back, relax - we’ve got a story to tell you.