The Westgate-on-Sea Literary Festival 2019 is a new two day event to celebrate literature for all, embracing established and new authors and works across all genres for all age groups. The festival includes talks and activities delivered by writers and experts from the industry. It runs on September 14-15 in venues across Westgate.
The aim is to showcase local and national authors and literary talent through workshops, talks and panel discussions, experts in children’s writing, published novelists and non-fiction authors. Current strands include crime fiction, romance, mystery, science fiction and fantasy, children’s fiction, ePublishing and autobiographical writing. There will also be a range of writing workshops and a wandering poet who will be writing about Westgate as they go.
Running alongside this are events across the two days for children. These include children’s authors reading from their stories and talking about the characters, dressing up, a writing workshop and much more. Waterstones will provide a pop-up bookshop where signed copies of the authors’ work will be available and there will be refreshments available across all the venues.
To encourage budding authors, there is a short story competition which has both adult and children’s categories. This year also sees the launch of a new literary competition specifically for authors aged over 65. The Dee May Prize for Fiction has a 5,000 word limit and must be on the topic of aging.
Find more details at https://www.westgatelitfest.co.uk/