Lots of support for literature festival (From Worcester News)

Lots of support for literature festival

2:40pm Saturday 5th June 2010 in News By Lauren Rogers, @laurenrogersWN #WENews

ORGANISERS of Worcester’s first literature festival have been bowled over by the public response.

More than 50 people attended a public meeting at AiR cafe in Broad Street, Worcester, on Thursday to show their interest in the emerging festival, share ideas and talk about what kind of festival Worcester should have.

“We had fantastic feedback,” said festival director Lisa Ventura.

“There were a lot of great ideas and lots of people filled out the comment forms. The big question now is the date of the festival so we’ll go away and mull over the pros and cons before we decide.”

The first Worcester Literature festival will take place in 2011 and there will be an array of events from creative writing workshops and poetry sessions, to talks by well-known authors, book signings and a book swap stall. Ideas thrown about at the meeting ranged from finding publishers to advise local writers to holding poetry slams for people of all ages, screenwriting workshops, interactive competitions and even the possibility of finding a poet laureate for Worcestershire.

Some people felt it was important the Worcester festival did not clash with near-by events, such as Ledbury Poetry Festival or the Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts, currently attracting hundreds of people to Hay-on-Wye in Wales.

Anyone who could not attend the public meeting can still register interest by phoning Lisa Ventura on 0845 652062, e-mailing info@ worcesterliteraturefestival.co.uk or visiting worcesterliteraturefestival.co.uk.

A further public meeting is being planned and there are updates on Facebook.