Ruthin Book Fair - 28th Feburary 2009

February is not renowned for being the most uplifting month of the year, but if you love books this year there is an inspirational treat in store. On Sat Feb 28th From 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Ruthin’s oldest timbered town house Nantclwyd y Dre is throwing open its parlour to a writers’ fair.

This is a really exciting and unusual opportunity for booklovers to meet and talk with published writers in a relaxed and informal setting. It will also be an opportunity for writers to meet other writers and for local writing groups to attract new membership and benefit from the chance to rub shoulders with a wealth of literary talent.

A fascinating mix of people have already booked, starting locally with Aled Lewis Evans, author, hugely popular creative writing tutor in North Wales and 2008 judge of Flintshire’s Poetry Power competition.

From further afield we have Judith Kazantzis, artist and poet with ten published collections and a novel, Of Love And Terror (Saqi 2002). Judith is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Sussex University and a winner of the Cholmondeley Award for poetic achievement. She is coming up from London with her husband Irving Weinman, the author of five critically acclaimed novels, founding director of the Key West Writer's Workshop, and tutor in Creative Writing at the University of Sussex. His sixth novel, Wolf Tones, will be published in March, 2009.

Helen Tookey, Journals Production Editor of Liverpool University Press will be coming (hopefully with her publisher) to promote her intriguing collaboration of poems and photographs Telling the Fractures (Axis Projects 2008)

Thelma Hancock who lives in North Wales, is coming. She has one novel published, Relative Dating (Pegasus 2008) and another, Tree Dimensional due out this year.

Jackie Davies who lives in Bala will also be coming; her first novel, About Elin, was published by Honno in 2007 and she was also one of the authors in Honno’s anthology about women’s relationship to landscape, ‘In Her Element’ (2008.) Dee Rivaz of Bespoke Writing Projects, and Elaine Walker will be there, two more authors from the same anthology. Elaine, is also a freelance writer and Lecturer in English and Creative Writing at the University of Wales, and has recently brought out ‘Horse’ (Reaktionbooks 2008.)

Daffni Percival lives in North Wales teaches languages, writes and publishes stories and poetry and is the contact for the Poetry Society’s North Wales Stanza. She will be there, looking to develop new membership and poetry events for the area, as will the Ruthin Wheel Writers, Mold Pinboard Writers and the Wirral Writers: all groups looking to nurture local talent.

We are hoping that Ruthin’s talented actor and performance poet Gareth Roberts will be able to make it and the dynamic partnership, Huw Davies and his Wife Lal, who have been responsible for enthusing people about the fascinating art of digital storytelling around the globe. Currently last but not least, Sam Smith will be coming down from Cumberland, freelance writer, author, publisher and editor of The Journal.

We would love more authors and writing groups to take part in the fair, table space is free but please contact Dee to book, as space at the fair is limited: dee.rivaz@googlmail.com or 07757714723.

As if this wasn’t enough, down at the Library, between 11.00am - 12.00pm Dominic Williams, Marketing Director of Parthian Books will be giving a talk: ‘From manuscript to publication and beyond’ followed at 2p.m. to 3 p.m. by Mike Parker, author of ‘The Rough Guide to Wales and Neighbours from Hell?’ and presenter of ITV's Great Welsh Roads. Tickets are £5 and, booked in advance, include a day pass to both venues. (Phone Ruthin Library 01824 705274)

The event is being organized and sponsored as part of the World Book Day celebrations by a partnership of Denbighshire Library and Heritage Services, ACADEMI, and Dee Rivaz freelance writer, and director of Bespoke Writing Projects. We hope that all keen readers and writers will come with their families and make this book-fest a huge success. It would be great if it could grow and blossom into an annual event!

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