Coffee and… NYA Lit Fest

There’s an exciting book event coming up soon in the North! Join me in a coffee whilst I give you all the details?

The Coffee:

This week I’m drinking a Costa Rican coffee from Square Mile Coffee Roasters. It is called Sumava Lourdes and has tasting notes of grape, muscovado and fig. I don’t really know what figs are meant to taste like, but this coffee is good.

The Event:

You may remember me writing about and attending a book event in Preston last year called Northern YA Lit Fest. This year it is back, even bigger and better. The list of authors attending this time has blown me away and I am SO excited for 16th March.

The event, hosted by UCLAN Publishing, is taking place in the Greenbank building in Preston and you can register for your FREE tickets now. Yes: the tickets are completely free. You have to register for general admission and also for the individual panels you’re interested in, and you can do that here. Trust me when I say you want tickets for these, because they are going to be AMAZING.

10:15 – 10:45 is the YA Thrillers panel with M.A. Bennett and Will Hill, chaired by Caroline Carpenter (from The Bookseller). They will be talking about what it takes to write a thriller and what makes us love them. I have read and adored books from both these authors so I am really looking forward to hearing them talk about their books (and hopefully I will finally get my copy of After the Fire signed)!

11am – 11.45am is one of my most anticipated panels: the Feminist Fantasy Panel  featuring Queen Melinda Salisbury, Samantha Shannon, Laure Eve & Rose Edwards. I adore Mel, Samantha and Laure and all they have written, and I have heard nothing but amazing things about Rose’s debut book The Harm Tree.

1pm– 1.45pm is the  Inclusiveness in YA Panel where Non Pratt, A.J. Hartley, Bali Rai & Mel Darbon will be chaired by Aimée Felone talking about the importance of inclusiveness and seeing the world through different eyes. I’ve seen both Non and A.J. talk in panels before and they’re both really engaging, so I am looking forward to seeing what this panel have to say!

2.30pm – 3.15pm is the Shame-Less Panel where two of my absolute favourites, Katie Webber and Laura Steven will be joined by Tamsin Winter and Melving Burgess and discussing the concept of shame. Any event featuring Katie and Laura is bound to be amazing, so make sure you have your tickets for this one.

And last but not least, the panel that had me squealing in delight:

Mental Health in YA which includes Lisa Williamson (brilliant author and the leader of the -losing- quiz team at YALC this year!), debut author Alexandra Sheppard, and more of my absolute faves Alice Broadway, Sara Barnard and Akemi Dawn Bowman talking about mental health and it’s representation in YA books. I am fangirling so hard I cannot even.

And if these panels weren’t enough for you…there are also workshops on Creative Writing with Melvin Burgess & Lucy Christopher, and a SOLD OUT Ask the Agents workshop. As well as publisher stalls from Oxford University Press, Andersen Press, Faber, David Fickling Books, Bloomsbury, Macmillan, Bonnier, Walker, Head of Zeus, Hachette and UCLan Publishing, bookish gift and jewellery stalls, FREE face painting, food and drink vans, a book exchange and Waterstones selling books by the attending authors.

What more could you possibly want? Get your tickets here now, and let me know if I’ll be seeing you there!

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