Romance Writing Festival. Saturday 3rd October, Marsham Court Hotel. Details here.
Submissions now open!
Take part in the award-winning Bournemouth Writing Festival!
The Bournemouth Writing Festival will take place on Friday 23rd, Saturday 24th and Sunday 25th April 2027 and we are looking for authors, writing professionals and practitioners to be involved in a varied, inclusive and quality programme to inspire writers to write.
Going into our fifth year, the Bournemouth Writing Festival inspires writers of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities. From complete beginners to authors getting ready to query, our talks, workshops, panels and street activities create a thriving creative community.
Our Ethos: How You Write, Not What You Write
This is not a literary festival where writers and authors talk about their book and the themes of their book. This is a festival to encourage writers to write. Therefore, applications should focus on practical advice, hands-on strategies and actionable craft tips.
We are now seeking experienced writing professionals and practitioners to submit Expressions of Interest for engaging, interactive, and inclusive sessions.
Call for facilitators and speakers
Submission deadline Friday 16th October 2026
There are a number of changes from previous years due to venue availability and survey feedback, so please read the following carefully. As we are still awaiting funding news and application results, the festival infrastructure is subject to change.
Programme Categories
1. Talks (60 mins) & Workshops (90 mins)
Practical sessions on a variety of topics, including writing techniques, overcoming roadblocks, book marketing, scriptwriting or navigating the industry (for example: How to Write Compelling Characters or Top Tips to Beat Procrastination). You can see some of last year's topics here.
2. Children’s Activities & Workshops
A dedicated zone specifically to encourage children to get into creative writing. Please send us an application for drop-in sessions, workshops or fun creative writing activities. If you are a school, children's writing charity or organisation, we'd love to hear from you.
3. Outdoor & Experiential Activities
We love creative ideas that use Bournemouth as our canvas. We've had beach writing sessions, literary walks, poetry walks and even interactive storytelling adventures. If it inspires writers and fits our budget, we want to hear it!
4. Poetry
Based on feedback and venue availability, we are investigating a new feature for our wonderful poetry community. Details will be released once we firm up a few things.
Session Guidelines
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Direction: Focus on teaching the craft rather than promoting a specific book or its themes, using your experience.
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Topics: Should ideally appeal across multiple genres (including non-fiction) and levels (beginners to already published).
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Prior speaking or facilitating experience is a plus.
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Format: Keep sessions participatory, interactive and engaging (minimise reliance on PowerPoint/paper handouts).
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Setup: Sessions can be delivered in theatre-style spaces or outdoors. Please note: Workshop tables may be limited depending on venue layout.
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Diversity: We strongly encourage submissions from writers across all backgrounds and communities.
How Selection Works
Submissions are reviewed by our Festival Director alongside an Advisory Panel of writing professionals. Panel decisions are final.
What you'll get
We have applied for funding to pay speakers so any payment is subject to receiving funding. If you are successful, we will tell you of the fee if/when we receive funding. For the past three years, we've paid speakers £150-£200 including expenses and taxes.
Speakers will also receive:
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Free professional photographs courtesy of Solid Imagery, our official festival photographer, of your event or activity for you to use as you wish, royalty-free.
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Social media publicity to promote your event or activity.
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Inclusion of your book in the Speakers' Bookshop, if required.
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Online briefing sessions in advance of the festival.
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Volunteer support during the festival.
We ask all successful speakers to help spread the word of their event and the festival as a whole.
If you are pitching to facilitate or lead a session, we will never ask you to pay us. Please be wary of scammers and double-check the email address sending you emails. Official emails from us will always end @bournemouthwritingfestival.co.uk
If you are a company or service that would like to advertise or sponsor parts of the festival, then please visit the sponsor page.
