Fantasy Writers' Day
Saturday 24 February, 9:30am-2:30pm
Do you enjoy writing in the genre of fantasy? Are you interested in the writing process? Would you like to improve or share your writing? Join us at a fantasy-focussed Writers' Day for talks, panels, workshops and networking that will allow you to discover, improve and share the process of writing and publishing fantasy fiction, wherever you are on your creative journey.
Author, speaker and broadcaster Justin Newland will be discussing his work and his tips and tricks for writing fantastical plots, local fantasy authors Zen Cho, Anna Stephens and Stephen Aryan will be discussing their adventures in writing and being published as fantasy authors, and fantasy writing workshops will be available from the Creative Writing team at the University of Worcester.
Tickets are £3.00 each - book your place here
The following workshops will be bookable at sign in on the day:
Writing The 'Weird' with Katy Wareham Morris: Want to know more about the practices and methods used to write the strange, the uncanny, the surreal and the extraordinary? Join Katy for a practical writing workshop on how to create the 'weird' in your writing.
Exploring New Worlds with Ruth Stacey: Are you thinking of writing a fantasy novel? Overwhelmed by worldbuilding? Too obsessed with worldbuilding? This workshop will introduce some worldbuilding ideas via writing prompts to generate some starting points and fun ways in to your fantasy novel ideas.
About Justin Newland
Author, speaker and broadcaster Justin Newland writes novels that represent an innovative blend of genres from historical adventure to supernatural thrillers and magical realism, speculating on the human's spiritual place in the universe. Justin appears on LitFest panels, gives talks to libraries and historical associations, and enjoys giving radio interviews.
About Zen Cho
Zen Cho is the author of the Sorcerer to the Crown novels, and her newest novel is Black Water Sister, a contemporary fantasy set in Malaysia. Zen is a winner of the Hugo, Crawford and British Fantasy Awards and the LA Times Book Prize/Ray Bradbury Book Prize, as well as a finalist for the World Fantasy, Ignyte, Lambda, Locus and Astounding Awards. She was born and raised in Malaysia, resides in the UK, and lives in a notional space between the two.
About Anna Stephens
Anna Stephens is the author of the epic fantasy Godblind and Songs of the Drowned trilogies through HarperVoyager, and also writes for Black Library in their Age of Sigmar and Warhammer Horror imprints, as well as for Marvel Comics through their tie-in publisher, Aconyte Books. As a black belt in Shotokan Karate and a sometime historical fencer, Anna's no stranger to the feeling of being hit in the face, which is more help than you would expect when writing fight scenes.
About Stephen Aryan
Stephen Aryan's debut novel, Battlemage, was published in 2015 and was a finalist for the David Gemmell Morningstar Award for best debut fantasy novel. Battlemage went on to win the inaugural Hellfest Inferno Award in France after a public vote. The sequels were both published in 2016, completing the Age of Darkness trilogy. In 2022, Angry Robot signed The Judas Blossom, the first instalment in a Persian inspired fantasy trilogy. The Judas Blossom was published on 11 July 2023 and has been described as an "imaginative and sprawling reimagining of the Mongol Empire's invasion of Persia".
About Katy Wareham Morris
Katy leads the BA Hons in Media & Culture, a dynamic course which responds to innovations in media forms and applications as well as contemporary cultural issues. She is a proud working class, disabled, female academic and a published poet. Her poetry is experimental and explores human vulnerabilities, played out on a fragile earth. She is interested in performance, live or online as a form of artivism: art as activism. Her poetry has been published by award-winning independent presses and endorsed by some of Britain's best contemporary poets including Andrew McMillan, Helen Ivory and John McCullough.
About Ruth Stacey
A prize-winning writer, Ruth is interested in reclaiming maligned or forgotten voices in her work, combining historical research with imagined memoir to create a new document that allows a different perspective on the historical person. Ruth is widely published and has taught literature and writing to all age groups, including in schools and with Writing West Midlands youth groups. An experienced freelance writer and copywriter, Ruth also helped to start the indie press V.Press and worked as the illustrator for the press for seven years.