WESTWORDS

Westwords Get Ready To Go Live

Westwords Live will start on the 1st of March 2005. It will be the biggest ever literature festival in west London, spanning Hammersmith & Fulham, Harrow, Ealing, Brent and Hillingdon.

With top names like including Benjamin Zephaniah, Hanif Kureishi, Brian Keenan and Penelope Lively involved, this promises to be a great month-long festival.

The Westwords Live Festival features more than 100 mostly free events – including:

• Author readings, performance poetry and theatre
  
• Book launches, writers’ workshops, one to one writing surgeries, screenwriting talk and author visits to readers’ groups
  
• Advice from leading professionals on finding an agent and publisher
  
• Focus on international literature, including Middle Eastern and Irish writing
  
• Focus on women writers, in association with literary magazine Sable LitMag. Events will be linked to International Women’s Month in March.

The literary extravaganza has been organised by Westwords, the literature development agency for west London, with the support of the five London boroughs and Arts Council England.

David Herbert, chair of Westwords, said:

“Westwords Live is bringing some of the biggest names in British and international literature to west London to develop interest in creative writing, reading and performance. This extraordinarily varied programme of more than 100 events reflects the cultural diversity of west London and marks an important step forward for literature development across the participating boroughs. I would particularly like to thank Westwords project manager Steve Porter for his hard work in making this happen.”

Westlondgrid will be covering more detail on these events in March. But, because many events require reservations and are happening at the start of March, it seemed wise to give a bit of advanced warning.

You can currently access full details of the Westwords Live on one of the following ways:

• Pick up a copy of the festival brochure from your local library or town hall (available from 1 February).
  
• For travel details, further festival information and to reserve places at all free events phone the festival hotline on 020 8753 3813 (weekdays 9.00am – 5.00pm).
  
• For fee paying events only phone the box office on 020 8237 3111 (unless indicated).

To download a pdf version of the full programme, click here...