I’m chairing a panel at 1.30pm Saturday Nov 11th.

Our stories is the first in person & online conference of 3 conferences in UNESCO Cities of Literature starting in Dublin on Saturday 11 November as part of Dublin Book Festival. Inspired by Pop Up projects (a literary agency in the UK), the conference is aimed at young people  (16+)  who will hear from established writers and illustrators as well as publishers and agents on representing more Lgbtq+ voices in literature for younger age groups. Award winning authors, Meg Grehan, Adiba Jairgirdar, Jarlath Gregory and Helen Corcoran will be on hand to discuss their creative paths to getting published. Mentors and young participants from the Rainbow Library creative writing & art projects held in Northern Ireland and Cork in 2022 will have an opportunity to discuss their own experience of developing stories and illustrations for publication. Finally, Faerie Press CIC  based in Northern Ireland will also launch a new  community publishing enterprise  during the conference with the aim of publishing inclusive children’s books across the island of Ireland.

Participants will have more to look forward to from the conferences at Manchester UNESCO City of Literature on Saturday 18 November  and Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature on Saturday 25 November.

MC for the event is Sasha De Buyl.

Tune in on the day to watch the event live streamed over on the Dublin Book Festival YouTube Channel.