Our ethos is to inspire writers to write - regardless of where you are on your writing journey. You could be a complete beginner thinking about getting that book out, already published or perhaps you used to write and want to de-rust! The Bournemouth Writing Festival offers a variety of practical talks, workshops and activities to get your creativity flowing. This is not a literary festival where celebrity authors stand at the front and lecture you about their book, the themes of their books and then long lines to get their book signed. This festival is much more practical, with the aim to get you writing and to find your local writing tribe in our wonderfully creative community by the sea.

The majority of talks and panels are one hour in length, including an opportunity for questions and answers. It depends on the session and how things go during the event. Timings are detailed on individual booking pages.

Yes, there will be two writing competitions this year - one for adults (poetry and flash fiction) and one for schools. If you'd like to sponsor our competitions, please get in touch!

All of the organisers, speakers, event hosts and staff are volunteers. 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 bournemouthwritingfestival@gmail.com or private message us on Twitter if there are any urgent issues during the festival.

No, none of the sessions will be recorded.

Yes, a photographer and videographer will be roaming the entire event recording footage for promotional purposes. If you do not wish your image to be part of this, please inform them at the event, or contact us at bournemouthwritingfestival@gmail.com.