Book pitch a novel concept at Bridgetown words festival

The Words in the Valley Readers and Writers Festival will for the first time offer aspiring authors a chance to pitch their work, Bridgetown organiser Sarah Evans says.

Nannup publisher Leanne White from Wild-Eyed Press will lead a children’s writing workshop and talk about publishing before listening to pitches from aspiring authors.

“There are only a certain number of places available but if someone’s got an idea, Leanne’s giving them a 15-minute pitch time to put their idea or show their work,” Mrs Evans said.

Anyone wanting to pitch ideas should book through the Bridgetown-Greenbushes Visitor Centre.

The festival begins on Friday, July 27, with a sundowner featuring rural romance writer Rachael Johns, who will also run a workshop the next day on writing different points of view.

The Perth-based author’s The Patterson Girls won the Romance Writers of Australia Ruby Award in 2016 and the 2015 Australian Book Industry Award for general fiction.

Mrs Evans will lead a workshop on writing memoirs as part of the festival.

“It’s to tie in with the (Bridgetown’s) 150th birthday celebrations for people eager to get their family histories and memoirs down,” she said.

Mrs Evans expects to publish a sequel to her romantic crime comedy Operation Paradise this year and also has a new novella out in an anthology from Clan Destine Press.

The festival winds up on Sunday, July 29, when the winner of the Blackwood Poetry Prize, this year based on the theme of Blake’s The Shepherd, will be revealed at The Cidery.