Meet Trezza Azzopardi this October

Trezza Azzopardi will be speaking at our first members’ event! She joins our wonderful panel of  writers talking about  the Dos and Don’ts of their professions. 

Trezza has written four novels: her first, The Hiding Place, won the 2001 Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize; Remember Me (2004) and Winterton Blue, (2007) were both listed for the Wales Book of the Year, and her latest novel, The Song House, has been serialized on BBC Radio 4. Her novella The Tip of My Tongue, based on one of the tales from The Mabinogion, will be published next month.

If you’d like to hear what Trezza has to say  then join Words And Women, and come to our event at Appleyard & Co, Norwich, October 13^th, 2-4pm. See our membership page for further details. Don’t miss out!

Quines, a rib and a story shortlist

There was a great Reunion programme on BBC Radio4 last Sunday when Sue MacGregor brought together five of the women who created Spare Rib. Among them were editors Marsha Rowe and Rosie Boycott, and Anna Raeburn who wrote the advice column. 

Did you know that in the 1970s when Spare Rib was launched a woman still needed her husband or father's permission to get a mortgage, women were barred from visiting Wimpy bars after midnight (on the assumption they must be prostitutes) and at the BBC female employees were strongly discouraged from wearing trousers?Click here for the podcast.
 
There have been plans to relaunch Spare Rib and it seems there’s a chance that 90’s Scottish feminist magazine Harpies & Quines could resurface too. Click here for further details.

Lynne, who organizes Words & Women, was one of the founding Directors of Harpies & Quines and has been interviewed by The Glasgow Women’s Library about her work on the magazine. The Glasgow Women’s Library is a wonderful resource – is there anything like it in the East of England? - and has back-copies of Spare Rib and Harpies.  For a link to the library, click here.

Finally Words And Women would like to congratulate the five women writers who are on the shortlist for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013.  These are Lisa Bower, Lavina Greenlaw who is Professor of Poetry at UEA in Norwich, Sarah Hall who lives in Norwich, Lionel Shriver and Lucy Wood. Their stories are currently being broadcast daily on BBC Radio 4 at 3.30pm. Click here for more info. 

Interested in fiction for teenagers?

Then come to our first membership event because one of our guest speakers will be Hayley Long, author of the Lottie Biggs' novels and What’s Up With Jody Barton?

Hayley has won awards for her writing, has been shortlisted for a Costa Book Award, and appears at literary festivals up and down the UK.   She will be talking about the Dos and Don’ts of her profession to our members at Appleyard & Co, Norwich, on the 13^th October.

If you’d like to hear Hayley then join Words And Women! Annual membership costs £10 and more details and information on how to join can be found on our membership page.

Sarah Poulton to be guest speaker at our first members’ event

Our first membership event will take place on the 13^th October in Appleyard & Co, Norwich. This will be a Sunday afternoon treat of tea and cakes with some short talks by regional writers on the Dos and Don’ts of their profession.

We’re very pleased to say that Sarah Poulton will be giving one of the talks. Sarah lives in Norwich and is a freelance writer and editor with more than 20 years experience of working for mainstream magazines, newspapers and web publications. Past employers include IPC Media, BBC Worldwide, Redwood and, most recently, the Telegraph, where she was deputy editor for Special Reports.

If you’d like to hear Sarah’s talk, as well as eat cake, then join Words And Women! Annual membership costs £10 and more details and information on how to join can be found on our membership page.