A whole day of workshops and performance at The Melville
10:00 – Noon. Place and Landscape in Your Fiction – workshop with Katie Munnik & Tyler Keevil.
Tickets are £16.26 (including booking fee) and can be purchased here (link opens in new tab)
Many writers see plot as paramount, while others claim character is the key. The importance of setting in writing fiction is often overlooked, or viewed as secondary. In this two-hour prose fiction workshop, award-winning Welsh-Canadian authors Katie Munnik and Tyler Keevil will examine the ways place and landscape can enhance our stories. Through sharing examples from favourite works, and reflecting on their own writing practice, they will encourage participants to consider how they use place in their writing, and offer advice on making it more effective. The workshop is open to aspiring and emerging writers of all levels and experience – and it only requires a pen and notebook, and some creative enthusiasm!
Katie Munnik is a Canadian writer living in Cardiff, UK. In 2017, she won the Borough Press Open Submission, and her debut novel The Heart Beats in Secret was a USA Today Bestseller. Her second novel The Aerialists was published in April 2022 by HarperCollins.
Tyler Keevil grew up in Vancouver, Canada and moved to Wales in his twenties. He is the author of several novels and the short story collection, Burrard Inlet. He has received a number of awards for his work, including the Wales Book of the Year People’s Choice and the Writers’ Trust of Canada Journey Prize. He lives in Abergavenny and is the director of the Creative Writing MA at Cardiff University. His most recent books are No Good Brother (The Borough Press) and Your Still Beating Heart (Myriad Editions).
10:30-11:15am – Hamed Amiri’s Journey: from Afghanistan to Cardiff, a bestselling book & theatre production
Tickets are £5.42 (including booking fee) and be purchased here (link opens in new tab)
Hamed Amiri is the author of the bestselling book and the theatre production of The Boy With Two Hearts. Hamed will share his story of fleeing Afghanistan with his family when he was just ten years old and their perilous journey to seek refuge in the UK in an attempt to prolong his brother Hussein’s life. Why he was driven to write about this and the subsequent adaptation of his bestselling book to theatre production.
Making a promise to his brother has been Hamed’s new mission in life. To share the story with the wider audience and showcase diversity in a truly unique version, while ensuring his late brother’s legacy lives on through the journey and reliving his contribution to the NHS.
Currently working as a senior leader in the tech sector while an influencer in the education sector. Hamed has learned the key ingredients to break down the perception in society and has become a role model to the younger generation, which was recognized when he was awarded “Inspiring the next generation.”
All ticket proceeds for this event will be donated to https://daringtodream.wales/ Supporting the emotional health and wellbeing of patients in Wales
12:15 – 13:15 – Amser Cinio gyda Lowri Haf Cooke
Tickets are £7.59 (including booking fee) and be purchased here (link opens in new tab)
Ymunwch â Lowri am sesiwn fywiog o flasu a sgwrsio am bopeth yn ymwneud â bwyd. Ar y fwydlen, bydd sôn am wahanol flasau, nostalgia, atgofion, teithio, gramadeg bwyd a chyfle i ofyn unrhyw gwestiynau fel adolygydd bwyd.
Ar hyn o bryd, mae gan yr awdur o Gaerdydd nofel, a dau lyfr bwyd ar y gweill ac mae hi hefyd yn gwneud gwaith creadigol gyda gwahanol ysgolion. Hi oedd golygydd cyntaf a sefydlwr y cylchgrawn Taste/Blas. Mae hi hefyd yn ysgrifennu i gylchgrawn Barn, Y Dinesydd a Croeso Cymru/ Visit Wales.
Llyfr diweddaraf Lowri yw Bwytai Cymru (Gwasg Gomer) dathliad o’r 50 bwyty gorau yng Nghymru. Hi hefyd yw awdur Canllaw Bach Caerdydd – llyfr sydd yn tywys y darllenydd o gwmpas Caerdydd. Ei llyfr arall yw Caffis Cymru adolygiad o gaffis gorau Cymru.
Ar ôl ennill gradd mewn Daearyddiaeth a Chymraeg ym Mhrifysgol Aberystwyth aeth Lowri ymlaen i ennill M.A ym maes Theatr, Ffilm a Theledu.
Mae Lowri hefyd yn wyneb a llais cyfarwydd ar S4C a Radio Cymru yn adolygu ffilmiau. Felly dewch a’ch tips sinema ynghŷd a’ch chwant bwyd i’r sesiwn hwn!
13:30 – 14:30 – Comedy Writing with AberLaugh
Tickets are £7.59 (including booking fee) and be purchased here (link opens in new tab)
Have you ever wanted to try stand-up comedy but no idea where to start? Join local comedians Huw Davies and Mike Reed for a short workshop/discussion where you can learn more about the South Wales Comedy Scene, how to get started and even have an opportunity to try some of your own material.
Huw Davies has been performing and compering for several years across South Wales and runs a popular monthly stand-up comedy night (Aberlaugh) at the Kings Arms Hotel in Abergavenny.
Mike Reed is a British Comedian of the year semi-finalist and has gigged all over the UK, from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to Hawthorn Community Centre.
15:00 – 17:30 – Finding a Voice – Creative Writing Workshop for Women
Tickets are £16.26 (Including booking fee) and can be purchased here (link opens in new tab)
Liz explains what to expect from the session: “I welcome those with some writing experience and those new to writing. Working with a group, I use a creative process which starts with your individual experience and develops this into writing which resonates with others. The session will include creative exercises to stimulate and develop your writing and shared examples from different published writers to inspire you. This workshop builds on previous sessions, but is equally valuable as a stand-alone session.”
About Liz Pearce
Liz has over 30 years’ professional experience as an actor, writer and facilitator, working in education, the community, theatre, TV and radio. Her work is diverse, due to her drama background, and she writes drama, prose, poetry and poetic monologues. She also facilitates creative writing workshops, encouraging writers to find a unique voice of their own.
For further information please visit www.elizabethpearce.co.uk
15:30 – 16:30 – Readings from Where the Birds Sing Our Names
Tickets are free but pre-registration is required – register for tickets here (link opens in new tab)
Editor Tony Curtis is joined by contributors Rhian Edwards and Chris Meredith to read from Where the Birds Sing Our Names, the remarkable anthology of poems about childhood, parenting and birds, published in support of the Ty Hafan Children’s Hospice in Sully which serves the whole of south Wales. All the proceeds of this book go directly to the charity and copies will be on sale at the reading.
www.tyhafan.org/
Rhian Edwards www.rhianedwards.co.uk/
Chris Meredith https://christophermeredit9.wixsite.com/website
Tony Curtis http://tonycurtispoet.com/
16:30 – 17:30 – Illustrating text with Adam Hayes
Tickets are £7.59 (including booking fee) and can be purchased here (link opens in new tab)
Join Adam Hayes for a workshop on developing an image from a short piece of text. As an illustrator, Adam often only receives plain text [from an author or agent] which he then needs to read and work out for himself what the accompanying image should be. The session will be based around; reading the text and working out how best to apply an image to enhance it. Adam will give examples before the group gets started. Participants will be invited to pick a piece of text, perhaps just a sentence or a paragraph – some very simple & some more challenging – all of them plain text and without much context, think about which part of the text you want to illustrate and sketch out as many different ideas as you can on separate sheets of paper. Pick out your favourite ideas and create your final illustration!
Adam Hayes is a typographer and illustrator. He works on a broad range of projects from quick editorial illustrations to large-scale international campaigns. Since his graduation from the Royal College of Art in 2006 he has developed a solid roster of clients that include Apple, Google, Honda, Ikea, Shake Shack and Whole Foods – whilst also devoting time to personal projects.
https://mrahayes.com/info
17:45 – 18:45 – Memoir Writing in an Hour with Jude Rogers
Tickets are £7.59 (including booking fee) and be purchased here (link opens in new tab)
Want to turn your life story, or someone else’s, into a compelling narrative? Where – and how – do you start? How do you give shape to your experiences? How do you make the past come alive?
Critically acclaimed memoir writer and journalist Jude Rogers is here to help with a lively hour of tips, lessons learned and short exercises to help you make your writing breathe and sing.
Jude Rogers is the author of the acclaimed memoir about music, memory and growing up, The Sound Of Being Human: How Music Shapes Our Lives, published by White Rabbit Books (“Fascinating” – Ian Rankin; “What a joy” – Ruth Jones). A teacher of memoir writing for the Arvon Writing Foundation, she is also a busy freelance journalist regularly working for The Guardian, The Observer and BBC Radio 4. She lives in Monmouthshire with her husband and son.
