The Bournemouth Writing Festival is a year-round writing community and hybrid festival designed to inspire writers of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds to write. While hosting virtual talks and online workshops during a three-day event in April, its spiritual home remains in Bournemouth, on the beautiful Dorset coast in South West England. The festival combines online masterclasses, in-person meetups and networking, community writing groups, writing competitions and live evening showcases to help every writer - from complete beginners to published authors - develop their craft and connect with industry professionals.

You can pitch directly to top UK literary agents through 1-on-1 agent pitch sessions (121s) hosted during the Bournemouth Writing Festival. These sessions allow fiction, non-fiction, and children's authors to present their submission pack (synopsis, query letter and sample chapters) and receive direct, professional industry feedback.

Absolutely. Sessions and events cater to all stages of the writing journey - from complete beginners looking to overcome writer’s block, build a daily routine and structure plot, to experienced authors seeking advanced guidance on copy-editing, query submission strategies and self-publishing distribution.

We will try our utmost to make your visit as smooth as possible. There are many moving parts of this festival so please be kind if something has gone wrong and we will do our best to sort it out. Please email us at info@bournemouthwritingfestival.co.uk if there are any urgent issues during the festival.

Yes, all of our online sessions are recorded and can be purchased to watch.

The festival covers a broad range of creative writing genres, including commercial and literary fiction, romance, romantasy, crime, science fiction, non-fiction, memoir, poetry, spoken word, and screenwriting.In fact, we choose and brief our speakers to apply their tips, advice and guidance to cover as many genres as possible.

The Bournemouth Writing Festival offers dedicated talks, webinars and events examining both publishing routes. Sessions break down traditional agent representation, submission packs, formatting, typesetting, cover design, Print on Demand (POD), and digital book marketing strategies for indie authors.It's a big point of discussion at our in-person networking events too!

Yes. All April festival talks, guest agent webinars and masterclasses are hosted virtually with interactive Q&A opportunities. Replays and recorded sessions are made available on demand to ticket holders following live broadcasts.

Writers can enter annual opportunities such as the Bournemouth Writing Prize, hosted in partnership with Bournemouth University. Shortlisted and winning authors receive cash prizes, readings and publication, with celebrations taking place live at the festival's evening showcase event. The festival also hosts dedicated children's writing competitions to inspire young writers, with entry guidelines, deadlines, and submission details available directly on the festival website.Categories are usually poetry and short stories.