WRITE Festival 2022

Our sixth WRITE Festival took place in September 2022, this jam-packed programme of events took place across the whole month of September.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the last two festivals were delivered differently, with a lot of events taking place online. In 2022, we were able to welcome back visitors The Word, and to our other library venues, to enjoy a range of unmissable events, workshops, and performances.

We saw some familiar faces return to the festival as well as introduced some newcomers. There was a fantastic selection of author talks including bestselling authors LJ Ross, M.W Craven, and Ann Cleeves in conversation with Julia Chapman. There was also a performance from Gerald Dickens, a presentation from costume historian and dressmaker Meridith Towne, plus a dinosaur appearance for children and so much more!

We held workshops for writers and aspiring writers too who were looking for feedback on their writing or wanted to find out more about getting published, with opportunities to get tips and advice from some industry insiders.

Throughout the festival, as well as holding several events that were open to the public, we also engaged with our local community groups.

South Tyneside Libraries ‘Living Well with Dementia’ group enjoyed a storytelling event as part of WRITE Festival. A friendly storyteller shared seaside tales of mermaids, pirates and shipwrecks and played games together. The event was a great opportunity for the group to have fun and enjoy each other’s company.

South Tyneside Libraries and members of ‘Speaking Up Together’, a self advocacy group for adults with learning disabilities, ran an online reading group over the year. The group read titles from ‘Books Beyond Words’, which are books where the story is all in pictures and they took it in turns to explain what was happening on each page. During WRITE Festival the group worked with local author Celia Bryce to produce their own book in this style.