Dr Paul Vlitos (Lecturer in Creative Writing) writes about the upcoming Surrey New Writers Festival hosted by the School of English and Languages. 

Are you a budding writer? Do you want to find out more about the world of publishing? Tickets are selling fast for the 2016 Surrey New Writers Festival – organised and hosted by the University of Surrey’s Dr Holly Luhning – due to take place on Saturday 14 May at G Live in Guildford. Novelists, poets, screenwriters, literary agents and publishers will all be there – in conversation, answering audience questions, giving talks and performing! This will be a unique opportunity to rub shoulders with all manner of literary professionals, and to gain insight into the writing life and the publishing world.

Always an enjoyable and informative event, this year the Festival includes panels on digital publishing, paths to debut publication, and how to build a writing career – plus a panel of agents, editors and publishers discussing what they look for in a client or manuscript. Meanwhile, the University of Surrey’s poet in residence, Prudence Chamberlain, will be curating the poetry stage all afternoon, introducing readings and talks from some of the most exciting poetic voices in the UK – while the festival’s lunchtime lecture will be delivered by award-winning novelist Monica Ali, the University of Surrey’s Distinguished Writer in Residence 2016.

In the evening there will be a reception with drinks and canapes at 5 pm, followed by more readings, music, poetry performances and a chance to mingle with the creative professionals at the Saturday Evening Soirée!

Book early to avoid disappointment. Tickets are available from GLive.co.uk or by calling 01483 369350. Full line-up is available at http://bit.ly/1UdH3HM . If you have any questions about the festival please contact Bonnie Ruddock in Marketing at the University of Surrey (b.ruddock@surrey.ac.uk) or Dr Holly Luhning, the director of the festival (h.luhning@surrey.ac.uk).

You can also follow the Surrey School of English and Languages on Twitter (@SurreySEL) and tweet about the event on #SurreyNewWriters.