Women's Word festival launches
11.05.09 Katie Allen writing in The Bookseller

New poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy (pic left) plus Ali Smith, Fay Weldon, (pic right), Prue Leith and Irma Kurtz are among the writers lined up for a new summer festival being set up to “celebrate women’s voices and creativity”.

The inaugural Women’s Word will take place from 13th–28th June at Lucy Cavendish College, the college at the University of Cambridge for women over 21.

The festival will allow audiences to “to hear what different women have to say and how they say it", looking at a "multitude of media and settings, including fiction, poetry, film, and journalism”.

Each event will be introduced by Janet Todd, current president of the college and an expert on women’s literature. Events this year will include a reading from Duffy and author and screenwriter Fay Weldon in conversation with screenwriter William Nicholson, author of the script for "Shadowlands" .

Other guests include Helena Kennedy, Amanda Craig, Lucy Cavendish and Frances Spalding.

More on the Man Booker Prize website.