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Head to Haworth for the seventh Brontë Festival of
Women's Writing, September 22-24
Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were pioneering women writers
and continue to inspire contemporary literature in limitless ways. The
Museum is delighted to be hosting its seventh festival dedicated to showcasing and celebrating
women's writing, featuring readings, panel sessions and workshops for teens and adults.
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The Festival kicks off this year with a free event at
Cobbles and Clay on Friday 22 September, from 7pm. An expert panel of
writers will share their experiences on Getting Yourself Out There, and
the importance of self-promotion as an author. We'll be hearing from
academic Laurie
Garrison, whose #womenwriters Twitter chat was dubbed
"hearteningly radical" by the Guardian Books blog, novelist Helen Taylor,
who ran a crowdfunding campaign to get her second book published, local
author Sarah
Dunnakey on the importance of a social media presence
even when publishing "traditionally", and Jane Davis, who
turned to self-publishing and has never looked back. Come along for an
evening that promises to be both informative and informal, get some tips
from our panel, and meet other local authors.
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We're running our first ever Festival workshop for teens!
If you're a teenage girl who likes
to write, come along to the Brontë Parsonage Museum on
Saturday 23 September, and join YA author Liz Flanagan to Step into the Sisters' Shoes.
There's just one place left on this workshop devised especially for girls aged 12-16,
and Liz will lead a series of writing exercises designed to be fun and
accessible. Attendees will draw
inspiration from our Museum collections to create a new
piece of writing, and the workshop is suitable for seasoned scribblers
and those who are completely
new to creative writing.
Liz Flanagan writes for children and young adults. She
lives in Hebden Bridge and is currently studying for a PhD in Creative
Writing. Her debut novel Eden
Summer is published by David Fickling Books, and was
nominated for the CILIP
Carnegie Medal. Follow her on Twitter @lizziebooks or
visit www.lizflanagan.co.uk.
Tickets £5. Please book in advance at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on
or call 01535 640192. Don't delay - there's only a single space left!
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The novels of the Brontës are among the most commonly adapted
in literature.
Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall have been
brought to life as plays, ballets, films, operas and radio dramas. Join
novelist Rachel
Joyce and playwright Deborah McAndrew as they discuss
the challenges inherent in adapting some of the world’s best loved
fictional texts to suit a new medium.
Rachel Joyce is the author of bestsellers The Music Shop, The Unlikely
Pilgrimage of Harold Fry, The Love Song of Miss Queenie Hennessey,
and a collection of interlinked short stories, A Snow Garden & Other
Stories. Her work has been translated into thirty-six
languages.
Yorkshire born playwright Deborah McAndrew studied Drama
at Manchester University. Her performed and published plays include new
work and adaptations of classic novels and foreign language plays.
Deborah’s moving WW1 drama An
August Bank Holiday Lark won both the UK Theatre Award and
Manchester Theatre Award for Best New Play 2014.
Tickets £10/£8 concessions and Brontë Society members (£2
for 16-25 year olds). Please book in advance at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on
or by calling 01535 640192.
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Our 2017 headliner, novelist Sarah Perry,
talks about her bestselling novel The Essex Serpent from 7.30pm
on Saturday 23 September. Set in 1893 and firmly rooted in the author’s
home county of Essex, The
Essex Serpent follows Cora, a keen amateur naturalist
convinced that what the local people think is a magical beast may be a
previously undiscovered species, and William Ransome, a local vicar who
sees the rumours as a distraction to the true faith.
Sarah Perry was born in Essex in 1979. She has a PhD in
creative writing from Royal Holloway, and has been the writer in
residence at Gladstone’s Library and the UNESCO World City of Literature
Writer in Residence in Prague. Her first novel, After Me Comes the Flood,
was longlisted for the Guardian
First Book Award and the Folio Prize, and won the East
Anglian Book of the Year Award in 2014. The Essex Serpent is Waterstones Book of the Year
2016, and British
Book Awards Book of the Year, and was shortlisted for the
Costa Novel Award
2017.
Tickets £10/£8 concessions and Brontë Society members (£2
for 16-25 year-olds). Please book in advance at www.bronte.org.uk/whats-on
or by calling 01535 640192
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The final day of the Brontë Festival of Women's Writing
takes place at the beautiful Ponden
Hall, and features two complementary workshops on writing
for different mediums - the stage and radio.
Join playwright Deborah
McAndrew for a workshop on writing for the stage, which
will combine her extensive
advice and experience with more practical exercises, and
a focus on the
particular challenges of adapting classic novels.
Deborah’s produced commissions in 2017 include an
acclaimed new stage adaptation of Anne Brontë’s The Tenant of Wildfell Hall for Bolton
Octagon and York Theatre Royal, a reworking of Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac
for Northern
Broadsides, and adaptations of Arnold Bennett’s Anna of the Five Towns
for New Vic Theatre and Dickens’ A
Christmas Carol for Hull Truck. She is also the writer on The Chester Mysteries 2018,
and produces her own work through her company Claybody Theatre, based in
Stoke-on-Trent.
Rachel Joyce,
award-winning novelist and author of BBC Radio 4’s Jane Eyre, Agnes Grey and Shirley, hosts a
workshop on writing for radio covering the essentials of the medium –
‘telling’ instead of ‘seeing’ and some of the dos and don’ts of audio drama.
Rachel has also written over twenty original afternoon plays and
adaptations of the classics for BBC Radio 4, including all the Brontë
novels.
Transport to and from Ponden Hall can be arranged from the
Museum car park, and a packed lunch is also available for those attending
both workshops (at an additional cost).
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Ever wondered how we prepare the Museum for visitors
each morning, or how we ensure the
collection is cared for and preserved? If you're in
Haworth for the Bank
Holiday weekend, why not come along to this special event
on Friday 25 August and meet members of our team who can give you a
glimpse behind the
scenes at the Museum? Go behind the velvet rope and come
along after hours to have all your
questions answered!
Tickets £18/£15.50 concessions and Brontë Society members
– includes a glass of wine. Places are limited, so early booking is
advised.
Why not make a day of it? Combine a Parsonage Unwrapped
event with a Brontë Treasures session for £100 per person. Please call
01535 640192 for more information.
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Stay in touch ...
We produce our newsletters every 4-6 weeks, but for the
latest updates and photos of day to day life at the Museum, you can
follow us on twitter @BronteParsonage / @BronteShop and Facebook
@BronteParsonageMuseum.
Until next time,
From all at the Brontë Parsonage Museum.
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