Books / Literature Festival
Top writers heading to Bristol for 2018 Women’s Literature Festival
The 2018 Bristol Women’s Literature Festival brings together some of the country’s best women writers, journalists, academics and feminist commentators to Watershed for a weekend of thought-provoking discussion, debate and activity.
The fantastic line up includes journalists, Samira Ahmed and Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett; writers Meena Kandamsamy, Bidisha, Louise Doughty and Patrice Lawrence; and academics Prof. Helen Taylor and Prof. Marie Mulvey-Roberts.
Joe Melia finds out what’s in store from the festival founder and producer, Sian Norris.
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What inspired you to set up BWLF?
There were lots of reasons. I was doing a lot of feminist activism about the absence of women in popular culture, and how women were often invisible on our cultural scene. One way in which this was very apparent was literature festival line-ups. There was one taking place in 2011, I think, and they put the women on a ‘woman writing’ panel and then the rest of the festival was so male-dominated. There was a panel on the ‘future of the world’ – all male. It was pathetic. And so you had these very male dominated line-ups, and of course the majority of lit fest attendees and the majority of readers are women. I wanted to create a festival that reflected that. That consciously celebrated women’s writing and history. I also wanted to create a festival that wrote women back into the literary canon. The canon is dominated by white men because it is written by white men. But there are so many women writers, extraordinary writers, who were working and writing and creating and who we never hear of. So that was part of it too, and in doing that I feel like I’m continuing a second wave feminist project of rediscovering and re-celebrating ignored women’s writing.
What do you think makes an event successful?
I think I am very passionate about making the event a success. I have three aims in the event – to celebrate women’s creativity, to counter the male dominance of cultural festival line-ups, and to celebrate women’s literary history. Everything I do is focused on achieving those three aims. But hey! Let’s not count our chickens, I’ve done two successful festivals and fingers crossed this one is too!
How did you approach selecting this year’s guest speakers and contributors?
I tend to approach it by thinking “who do I like?”!!! I am lucky that I get to read a lot, I can spend days on my sofa reading, and so I think about who I’m reading now that is making me think, reflect, ask questions, want to read more. For example, early last year I read Meena Kandasamy’s extraordinary novel, When I Hit You, and I knew I wanted to book her. I also consciously wanted to do something on Young Adult as that is not a genre I know a huge amount about and I am fascinated by the dynamic between the readers and writers, how they have created a community, and the responsibility the writers feel to their readers. Then 2018 is 200 years since Frankenstein so I wanted to do something that reflected this. So it’s a combination of reading widely, seeing what people are saying online, deciding what I like and what interests me – that sounds selfish in some ways but I think I have to be passionate and interested and enthused by the events because if I’m not, then how can I persuade other people to be.
This year I’ve been really lucky to have an amazing team of women around me, Laura Keeling and Eleanor Pender and Kelly Pike, whose knowledge and enthusiasm for women’s writing has helped shape an inspiring programme. I am also thrilled to be working in partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas who have been really supportive.
Guests appearing at the 2018 Bristol Women’s Literature Festival include writer Meena Kandasamy (left) and the journalist and broadcaster Samira Ahmed.
There are numerous literary festivals; how important do you think it is to produce a very distinct programme?
The main distinction is, of course, that it’s an all-woman line up (but men are welcome to come along to the festival!). It’s very consciously about celebrating women’s work and women’s history. I feel like we saw some really great improvements on women’s representation a few years ago but that’s slipped a bit again. So to me it’s really important that I continue to make a programme that is distinct in its celebration of women.
What are you hoping the festival will achieve?
That goes back to my three aims, really. I want it to celebrate women’s work, celebrate women’s history, and counter the male dominance of cultural line-ups. I hope that people will leave the panels feeling like they want to curl up on the sofa and read a novel by a woman they’ve never heard of, re-read Frankestein and then read The Last Man, find out how they can support a feminist protest… I want teenagers to feel excited about the next big Young Adult novel and pass their copy on to their best friend at school.
Has producing and programming the festival had any effect on your own writing?
Ha! It’s meant editing my new book has, erm, stalled!!! I have always been interested in using my own writing to tell stories about forgotten or marginalised women. For example, the novel I’ve been working is about modernist women in 1920s Paris – they are fairly forgotten compared to their male counterparts. The festival reflects those interests, then. So much of what I do is about writing women back into our cultural history and present, be that through fiction or festival line ups.
Bristol Women’s Literature Festival is a partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas and takes place from Friday March 16 to Sunday March 18. Full information is available at www.watershed.co.uk/whatson/season/430/bristol-womens-literature-festival
Read more: The Women Who Built Bristol
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