Guest: Evie Wyld

Experimenting with character, voice and dialogue can open up your writing practice and lead to exciting possibilities, and place is not simply the setting of your story - it’s the interaction of character, context, time, emotion and atmosphere too. Join Kellie tonight to unpack these ideas in conversation with novelist Evie Wyld. She’s the author of four novels including The Bass Rock and the recipient of the Miles Franklin Award, The Stella Prize, the European Union Prize, the Jerwood Fiction Prize and the Encore Award. In 2013 she was included in Granta’s list of Best of Young British Novelists.

Guest: Diana Evans

Tonight we’ll be discussing the challenges and complexities of revisiting beloved characters, interweaving multiple strands of story and working on a large canvas with Diana Evans, the award-winning, bestselling author of A House for Alice, Ordinary People, The Wonder and 26a. A book of the year in the New Yorker, Ordinary People received the South Bank Sky Arts Award, and was shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction, the Rathbones Folio Prize and the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction. A House for Alice is the critically acclaimed follow-up. Set in the aftermath of the Grenfell tragedy, it reignites the cast of Ordinary People to create an intergenerational portrait of middle-class black Britain.

Guest: Meryl Pugh

What can a prose writer learn from thinking like a poet? The poet employs metaphor, simile, sound, rhythm and precision of language to create intensity, mood and tone. These elements can be in service to the prose writer too. Join us tonight online in conversation with poet and author Meryl Pugh. She’s the author of three pamphlets and one collection of poetry, Natural Phenomena. Her latest book Feral Borough, part herbarium, part bestiary and part memoir, was published in 2022. She holds a PHD in Critical and Creative Writing from UEA and teaches creative writing, mostly at the Poetry School.

Guest author: Claire Fuller

Words Away is delighted to welcome back Claire Fuller, the Costa-winning, Women’s Prize-shortlisted author of Unsettled Ground. We shall discuss writing speculative fiction - a genre she’s loved reading since she first was a reader. Claire’s much anticipated fifth novel, The Memory of Animals (published in the UK on 20th April 2023), has been described as ‘…a gripping, haunting novel about human need and survival, for readers of Never Let Me Go and Station Eleven.’ In the context of imagining a world of ‘what if?’ we’ll be chatting about the creative challenges and possibilities of character, plot, structure and pacing. All Claire’s books will be offered at 10% discount on the night, supplied by P&G Wells Bookshop.

Guest: Federico Andornino

Our guest this evening is Federico Andornino, Executive Publisher at Sceptre, the literary imprint of Hodder & Stoughton. He’s published many bestselling and prize-listed books including Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers, Murder Before Evensong by the Reverend Richard Coles, Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason and The Weekend by Charlotte Wood. We’ll be breaking down what happens to your book from submission through to the final manuscript ready for publication and beyond. Learn about the editor-writer relationship, what sort of books excite interest and why, and how business balances with creative decisions. Includes a Q&A session.

Guest: Tom Conaghan

Tonight’s zalon celebrates the brilliance of the short story. Kellie will be joined by Tom Conaghan, publisher of Scratch Books, a new publishing house dedicated to the craft of short  stories. We’ll be exploring what makes a story brilliant, from openings to endings to inspiration and craft as well as the eco system and getting published.

Guest author: Lily Dunn

How can we write about real lives and experiences - your own or someone else’s - with candour and authenticity to create a compelling story? Join Kellie online tonight in conversation with Lily Dunn, who’s recent memoir, Sins of My Father: A Daughter, A Cult, A Wild Unravelling was included in the Guardian’s list of best memoirs of 2022. She also teaches creative writing at Bath Spa University and co-runs London Lit Lab.

Guest writer: Zoe Gilbert

Who says stories must be told the same old way? How can we break away from conventional storytelling formats to breath innovation into our writing? Please join us online tonight alongside author Zoe Gilbert as we delve into the creative possibilities of narrative form. Be it experimenting with structure or perspective, combining different genres or playing with time, come find new ways to embolden your writing practise. Zoe Gilbert’s first novel, Folk, was shortlisted for the International Dylan Thomas Prize and adapted for BBC Radio. Her second novel, Mischief Acts, was published in March 2022. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies and journals in the UK and internationally, and won prizes including the Costa Short Story Award.

Guest author: Leone Ross

Fusing realistic detail and magical elements in long- and short- form fiction makes for exciting and original storytelling. What possibilities or technical challenges await the writer as they navigate the blurred lines between literary realism and fantasy? In tonight’s zalon, Kellie is delighted to welcome back acclaimed author, editor and lecturer in creative writing, Leone Ross. We’ll be discussing Leone’s creative process, magic realism and her latest novel This One Sky Day, fifteen years in the making and shortlisted for the 2021 Goldsmiths Prize.

Guest author: Anna Mazzola

As the evenings begin to draw in Words Away is returning online for an autumn/winter series of Zalons. Join Kellie in conversation tonight with Anna Mazzola, author of historical thrillers and Gothic fiction. We’ll be exploring the shadowlands of fiction, where the macabre and unexplained disrupt the orderly surface of ordinary life. Come along and discover ideas on how to incorporate elements of the gothic in your own writing to create a brooding atmosphere, vivid characters and compelling stories.