The Brontë Festival of Women's Writing (IV)

Tomorrow, August 1, the final series of events of this year's Brontë Festival of Women's Writing:

9 - 10am

Festival Creativity Session Sunday

Tickets: Free (Booking needed)

This event will take place via Zoom Meeting.

Bring a morning brew and whatever creative project you’re working on, be that a poem you’ve been editing, a painting you’ve been working on or your knitting, and join other creatives around the world. You will be offered a series of pre-recorded prompts by writers involved in the festival to get your creative ideas moving and you’ll be able to chat to other festival-goers and take forward your creative project in the company of others.

 10 - 11am

Sam Missingham: How Authors Can Empower Themselves

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Join award-winning book marketer and publishing consultant Sam Missingham as she offers practical tips and ideas. Irrespective of which publishing route authors follow, more and more is expected of them and Sam will highlight the key areas where authors can empower themselves.

11:30 - 12:30

Arifa Akbar: Consumed, a Sister's Story

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Arifa Akbar’s Consumed, a Sister’s Story has been described as ‘one of this year’s must-read memoirs’. When Arifa discovered that her sister had fallen seriously ill, she assumed there would be a brief spell in hospital and then she'd be home. This was not to be. It was not until the day before she died that the family discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis. 

13:00 - 14:00

Anita Sethi: I Belong Here

Tickets: £6 (£4 concessions)

This event will take place via Zoom Webinar. You can watch the event live and it will also be recorded and made available to Ticket Holders on our Vimeo channel from Tuesday 3 August 2021 for 7 days (you will be emailed after the event with a link).

Chosen as a Guardian literary highlight of 2021, Anita Sethi’s I Belong Here was written after she became the victim of a race hate crime while travelling through Northern England. After the event Anita experienced panic attacks and anxiety. A crushing sense of claustrophobia made her long for wide open spaces, to breathe deeply in the great outdoors. She was intent on not letting her experience stop her travelling freely and without fear. 

The Pennines called to Anita with a magnetic force; although a racist had told her to leave, she felt drawn to further explore the area she regards as her home, to immerse herself deeply in place. Anita’s journey through the natural landscapes of the North is one of reclamation, a way of saying that this is her land too and she belongs in the UK as a brown woman, as much as a white man does. 

Hear Anita talk with writer Helen Mort about a journey that gave her the perspective to reflect upon the important issues encompassed in her experience of abuse including speaking out, gaslighting, trauma, kindness, and notions of strength. Her journey transforms what began as an ugly experience of hate into one offering hope and finding beauty after brutality.