The Writers' Summit

Henderson is the Chief Executive of Writing East Midlands which works to support writers across the region, and run projects to connect them to its many communities. He previously ran Index on Censorship, publishing in support of freedom of expression, where he developed a long-held interest in how marginalised people represent themselves in unequal media and publishing environments. 

He has consulted on many literature events and projects including Arts Council England’s Cultural Olympiad, the Human Rights House Network (Norway), FLUPP Literature Festival (Brazil), literature festivals in Nottingham, Derby, and Leicester, and as a Board member of SOAS Open Air Radio, New Art Exchange, Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature, and Art Reach. He recently completed an MA in Black British Literature at Goldsmiths with a special interest in speculative fiction, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Lisa Sharkey is the SVP and Executive Director of Creative Development at HarperCollins Publishers. Following more than two decades producing, writing, and developing Emmy award-winning television news, including a role as Senior Producer of Good Morning America, Lisa made the switch into books because of her love for literature, storytelling, and going deep.

Sharkey is a champion of powerful, poignant, and persuasive storytelling. More than 75 of the books she’s published have become New York Times bestsellers, selling millions of copies in multiple languages across the globe over the past 17 years. Her authors have accomplished extraordinary things and have changed the world by telling their stories. Sharkey publishes books in the categories of politics, journalism, true crime, music, sports, medicine, self-help, cooking, mindfulness, science, religion, military life, and inspirational memoir. Sharkey is a mother of three, a yoga teacher, and a mentor of military veterans who are transitioning into civilian life. She is a lecturer in the English Literature department at her Alma Mater Washington University in St. Louis where she helped develop the publishing concentration. She is an instructor at the Kauai Writers Conference and a speaker on career transition, publishing in the zeitgeist, social media and women in entertainment.

Hazel Mead is a freelance illustrator who combines colour, characters, warmth and humour to bring to life her musings on society and topics not explored enough while inviting us all to look at each other with empathy. She graduated with a first class degree in Fine Art and Illustration in 2017, and has been working as an illustrator since. Hazel has worked on campaigns and illustrations for Adobe, Netflix, Plan International, Amnesty International, The Red Cross, SOAS, VICE, Cambridge University Press and others across the realms of branding, editorial, packaging design, publishing, illustration for TV and mural painting. Her debut book ‘Why Aren’t We Talking About This?!’ was released by Squarepeg, Penguin this year. 

Tabitha Rayne is an award-winning author, artist and sextech designer and has been writing and publishing since 2009, specialising in sensuality from 2011. With several novels and short story publications both traditionally and self-published, she loves collaborating with others. She is currently the commissioning editor for the Frolicme online magazine and erotic story page and is always on the lookout for new talent. She invented the Ruby Glow ride on sex toy range for those moments when her own writing got too hot to handle and she wanted to write through an actual orgasm without having to ‘take a break’. Her debut short film, Inevitable, premièred at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2023. Tabitha was named one of the top 50 Influential Neurodivergent Women 2022.

Joshua Fletcher, also known as "Anxiety Josh" on social media, is a psychotherapist, author, and former anxiety sufferer. He specializes in discussing and working with anxiety disorders and providing insight into the world of therapy. Joshua also hosts a popular podcast called "Disordered" and has written three best-selling self-help books focused on anxiety and panic. He has amassed over 250,000 social media followers across Instagram and TikTok, and often features in the media as a mental health expert.

Alice McIlroy is an English and Law graduate who is a fiction author and works as a teacher and assistant literary scout. Her writing career started after attending Faber Academy in 2018. Her writing has been longlisted for the Stylist Prize for Feminist Fiction 2021 and Grindstone International Novel Prize 2021, and her short story, The Cliff Falls, published by Dark Mountain Project. Her debut novel, The Glass Woman, was published in January 2024 in the US and UK by Datura, an imprint of Angry Robot Books. It is a psychological thriller and cautionary tale exploring the ethical implications of A.I. and brain implants in fiction.

Johanna is a Senior Contracts Advisor at the Society of Authors where she advises members on contracts and industry queries. She previously worked as a Contracts Executive at a literary agency, and at a theatrical agency representing playwrights and creatives. Johanna is the coordinator for the SoA’s Poetry and Spoken Word group, cohost of the SoA Advisory Clinic podcast series, and manages the advisory team’s extensive outreach programme. 

Nastasia Bishop-McHugh is the founder of Stardust Book Services, a UK-based pre-publication company specialising in fantasy fiction. They provide a vast array of services for writers, authors, and publishers, supporting the industry in creating marketable, stand-out books, with their most notable services being cover design, cartography, illustration, and editing.

Nastasia created the company in 2020 after a leap of faith leaving her job in the corporate world at the height of the pandemic and has since created an international team of 25 freelance editors and designers. She herself is a professional editor specialising in fantasy fiction and expanded Stardust into what it is now after she found her authors were struggling to find companies who could provide all the services they needed in one place. 

Martin Cavannagh is a London-based writer, creator, and Head of Content at Reedsy. Since 2017, he has hosted Reedsy Live on YouTube, sharing insights and advice from some of the world’s top publishing professionals. 

Roz Morris is an author, editor and book doctor and has been both sides of the writing and publishing fence. As a ghostwriter she’s been edited by major publishing houses. As an editor she’s trained staff in all the editorial trades, evaluated manuscripts for a London literary consultancy and developmentally edited novels and memoirs that won awards. As an author she’s self-published writing craft books, memoir and fiction for which she has also won awards. She’s taught masterclasses for The Guardian, Writers & Artists and for Jane Friedman's online academy. She’s a story consultant for a thriller publisher in Dublin and a regular panelist on the Litopia YouTube show Pop-Up Submissions with literary agent Peter Cox. Her Nail Your Novel series is recommended by writing tutors on both sides of the Atlantic.

Greg Buchanan is a bestselling author of crime fiction (SIXTEEN HORSES and CONSUMED) and a Senior Narrative Designer and writer for BAFTA-award winning games such as NO MAN’S SKY. His novels SIXTEEN HORSES and CONSUMED follow veterinary forensics expert Cooper Allen, with a TV series on the way from the studio behind Hannibal and Narcos. In video games, he is increasingly focussed on hybrids between novelistic prose and gaming  – including his own self-published, BAFTA-longlisted interactive fiction AMERICAN ELECTION (2019). He is a veteran academic and teacher, leading a game writing workshop course at the Writing Interactive Academy. Born in 1989, he studied English at the University of Cambridge; completed a PhD at King’s College London in identification and ethics; and went on to study for the MA in Prose Fiction Creative Writing at UEA. Greg is also a volunteer socializer with rescue cats at Cats Protection.

LUCY McCARRAHER is the Founder of Rethink Press, Founder of BookMagic.ai, the book-writing app, and Founder of the Business Book Awards. She also hosts the ABOO – A Book of One’s Own – women writers’ network. She is the author of 13 books including three novels, four self-help books and six books on writing books. Lucy mentors non-fiction and fiction authors through planning and writing their books and is the UK’s most experienced business book mentor. She recently won a Stevie Award for Women Helping Women in Business; and the Great British Businesswomen’s Award for Creative Industries Businesswoman of the Year for her work supporting more women to write and publish their business books.

Lucy has also been a magazine publisher, TV presenter, journalist, script-writer and work-life balance consultant. She has a post-grad diploma in teaching adults (DTLLS) Literacy and Creative Writing.

www.rethinkpress.com
[email protected]

Facebook – Lucy McCarraher, Lucy McCarraher Mentor
Twitter - @lucymccarraher @rethinkpress
Instagram @lucymccarraher @rethinkpress
LinkedIn – Lucy McCarrahe

Natasha Carthew is a working-class writer from Cornwall. She is published by Hodder, Bloomsbury, Quercus and the National Trust. Her new book Undercurrent: A Cornish Memoir of Poverty, Nature and Resilience, is shortlisted for the Nero Book Awards 2023 and is out now with Coronet/Hodder.

She is known for writing on Socioeconomic issues and working-class representation in literature for several publications, podcasts and programmes; including The Booker Prize Foundation, ITV, Writers’ & Artists’ Yearbook, The Royal Society of Authors Journal, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, The Bookseller, The Guardian, Caught by the River, The Observer, Mslexia, The Dark Mountain Project, The Big Issue and The Economist.

Natasha is Founder and Artistic Director of The Working Class Writers Festival and The Nature Writing Prize for Working Class Writers. She guest edited the working-class edition of The Bookseller in 2022 and is recipient of The Bookseller Rising Star Award 2022.

She is represented by Juliet Pickering at Blake Friedman Literary Agency.

Francois von Hurter is a co-founder and co-publisher of Bitter Lemon Press. We are London based and an independent publisher of suspense fiction and eclectic non-fiction. Founded just over twenty years ago we have published novels translated from twelve different languages as well as fiction written in English from England, India, Australia, New Zealand, and the US.

Cat Mitchell is a Senior Lecturer in Publishing and the Programme Leader for the Creative Writing and Publishing BA at the University of Derby. She previously worked in the publishing industry, including four years at Penguin Random House. She is currently researching disability in publishing, and in 2021 published the Access Denied report, which investigated barriers for disabled job seekers and employees in the industry.

Jo Henry is Managing Director of the online book trade journal BookBrunch.  She started in publishing at Victor Gollancz, becoming Sales Director in 1989.   In 1995 she moved to Book Marketing Ltd. as MD.  Following the acquisition of BML by Publishing News in 2007 she also became MD of the PN Group.  In 2010, on the closure of PN, BML was acquired by Bowker Market Research, which was in turn acquired by Nielsen Book in September 2013.  At Nielsen Book she led the consumer insight service as VP of Insight and Analytics.  She is co-founder of the Book Marketing Society and a former Chair of both the Book Society and the Book Trade Benevolent Society.

Sacha Black is a bestselling and competition winning author, rebel podcaster, speaker and casual rule breaker. She writes writing craft books for authors, and spicy sapphic fantasy romance as Ruby Roe. She lives in Cambridgeshire, England, with her wife and genius, giant of a son.

Dan is a performance poet, novelist, non-fiction author and speaker, long-time News Editor for the Alliance of Independent Authors, and CEO of Rogue Interrobang, a University of Oxford spinout dedicated to solving wicked problems with creative thinking. He has been Creative Thinking World Champion 4 times, European Speed Reading Champion 3 times, is a powerlifter, bridge international, ultramarathoner, and lover of small pets. 

Dan researches and campaigns on disability. His recent paper The Wheelchair and the Whale, published in the Journal of Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Studies, focuses on the way narrative shapes the inclusion and exclusion of disabled people. He is also a director of WhatWeNeed.Support, an open source platform developing cross-industry standardised support needs, spun out from Experian’s Support Hub platform on which Dan has consulted for 2 years.

His most recent book, Living in Longhand, is a “self-help book for people for whom self-help books don’t work”

Sana Rasoul was born in Slemani, a city in the East Kurdistan region of Iraq. She currently lives in London working as a teacher of Politics. Sana writes books that spook and scare. Her debut novel, The Twig Man, was published by Hashtag Press.  Follow her on Twitter and Instagram @bookgirlsr to find out more.

Abiola Bello is a Nigerian-British, prize-winning, bestselling author from London. She's an advocate for diversity in books. Abiola's the author of the award-winning fantasy series Emily Knight which was nominated for Yoto Carnegie winner of London's BIG Read 2019, the People's Book Prize Best Children's Book finalist.

Abiola contributed to The Very Merry Murder Club, which was selected as Waterstones Children's Book of the Month.

Her debut YA, Love in Winter Wonderland, was an Amazon's Editor's Choice and featured in The Guardian's Children's and Teens Best New Novels.

Her new book Only For The Holidays is a Waterstones Best Paperback book of 2023 and The Bookseller One to Watch.

Abiola won The Black British Business Awards 2023 for Arts and Media Rising Star, The London Book Fair Trailblazer Awards 2018. She's the co-founder of Hashtag Press, Hashtag BLAK, The Diverse Book Awards and ink! 

Natasha Bowen is a New York Times and Indie bestselling author of Nigerian and Welsh descent. She studied English and Creative Writing at Bath Spa University before moving to East London, where she taught for nearly ten years. Natasha’s debut book, Skin of the Sea, and its sequel Soul of the Deep, were inspired by her passion for mermaids and African history. Skin of the Sea won the YA Diverse Book Award in 2022, was shortlisted for the YA Book Prize, the Branford Bose Award, and the Young Quills Award. Skin of the Sea was also nominated for the Yoto Carnegie medal 2023. You can find her on Instagram at @natasha_bowen_ and on Twitter as @skinofthesea.

Polly Atkin (FRSL) is a poet and nonfiction writer. She has published three poetry pamphlets and two collections – Basic Nest Architecture (Seren: 2017) and Much With Body (Seren: 2021). Her nonfiction includes Recovering Dorothy: The Hidden Life of Dorothy Wordsworth (Saraband: 2021), a Barbellion-longlisted biography of Dorothy’s later life and illness, and a memoir exploring place, belonging and disability, Some Of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better (Sceptre: 2023). Her work is included in various anthologies, including Moving Mountains (Footnote: 2023).

She taught English and Creative Writing at QMUL, Lancaster University, and the Universities of Strathclyde and Cumbria before becoming a freelancer. In 2019 she co-founded the Open Mountain initiative at Kendal Mountain Festival, which sought to recentre voices currently at the margins of outdoor, mountain and nature writing. In 2023 she and her partner took ownership of historic Grasmere bookshop Sam Read Bookseller.

Davina is the founder and creative director of Sadé magazine, an independent quarterly publication. With inspiring and sophisticated editorial, it's perfect for confident readers who love to take on new challenges. Sadé, daughter of Davina, is head of editorial content. Davina has an MA in Photography and Urban Cultures, lives in London with her family. She enjoys reviewing and recommending books with her daughter on their YouTube at @sademagazine

Helen is the CEO and Founder of prize-winning publicity agency LitPR (www.literallypr.com), founded in 2012 when Helen had a baby and toddler, and decided life wasn’t quite busy enough.

Fast forward 650+ campaigns, the babies are teenagers, and LitPR is a team of 8 amazing women. Specialising in working with indie authors, and building long-term, sustainable and successful author brands, Helen is passionate about diversity and inclusion in publishing. A single mum, born and raised in Yorkshire, Helen is passionate about levelling the playing field for authors, and hopes that in the future, her daughters’ children won’t grow up reading all of the same books by all the same sorts of authors as she read when she was at school. Being the co-founder of The Diverse Book Awards, alongside the amazing author Abiola Bello, is one of her proudest work achievements.

Helen lives in the countryside in Kent, and although she’s a self-confessed workaholic, she also loves walking, travelling, yoga, and making memories with her family and friends

Davina Hamilton is a rhyming children’s author of four books: Riley Can Be Anything, Riley Knows He Can, Ella Has A Plan and Riley Finds His Beat. 

She has been featured by outlets including BuzzFeed, HuffPost, Made For Mums, BBC Radio London and The Independent, with the latter hailing Riley Can Be Anything as the Best Inspirational Book in their 2022 Black History Month list of 13 Best Children’s Books With Empowering Black Characters.

An exciting and engaging author, Davina has delivered a host of readings in schools and literary events, including the storytelling festival, Shakespeare’s Telling Tales, held at the renowned UK venue, Shakespeare’s Globe. 

The former Arts Editor for UK publication, The Voice, Davina has over 20 years of writing experience and has contributed to a host of publications, both in the UK and internationally. 

TRISH COOKE is a Royal Literary Fund Fellow and a founding board member and commissioning editor for the Royal Literary Fund initiative WritersMosaic. She is also on the board of the Society of Authors Scriptwriters Group Committee.

Trish Cooke writes for theatre, TV, film, radio, and she is also a children’s book author.

She was recently on attachment at the National Theatre and theatre writing includes Cinderella (the first pantomime to be nominated for an Olivier award); Running Dream, for the Theatre Royal Stratford East and Back Street Mammy, Temba Theatre.  Radio scripts include comedy drama Single Plus One (BBC Radio 4) and the mini-series Unspoken (BBC Radio 4). TV writing includes Doctors (BBC); EastEnders (BBC); PlayDays  (CBBC); The Tweenies (CBBC); Pop Paper City (Milkshake Ch 5);  JoJo and Gran-Gran (CBeebies). Trish has written more than twenty children’s books, including the multi-award winning So Much, illustrated by Helen Oxenbury, and published by Walker Books. The book has been voted one of the 100 Best Children’s Books by Time Out and BBC Culture. Trish’s next book, ‘The Magic Callaloo’ will be published by Walker Books on April 4th 2024.

Yvonne Battle-Felton, author of Remembered, is an author, academic, host, creative producer, and writer. Remembered was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction (2019) and shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize (2020). Winner of a Northern Writers Award in fiction (2017), Yvonne was commended for children’s writing in the Faber Andlyn BAME (FAB) Prize (2017) and has six titles in Penguin Random House’s The Ladybird Tales of Superheroes and The Ladybird Tales of Crowns and Thrones. Yvonne has received a British Library Eccles Centre and a Kimbilio Fiction Fellowship. Host of Write Your Novel with Yvonne Battle-Felton, a write-along podcast series, and Bookable Space, a book loving podcast, Yvonne creates and hosts literary and storytelling events and opportunities. She’s the host of Sheffield Draft Night and Telling it Like it’s Lived. Curdle Creek, her second novel, will be published in 2024. Yvonne is Senior Commissioning Editor (fiction) at John Murray.

Abie Longstaff is the Chair of the Children’s Writers and illustrator Group at the Society of Authors. She is the author of over 50 books for children (picture book to middle grade) including The Fairytale Hairdresser, The Magic Potions Shop, The Trapdoor Mysteries and a wide range of educational titles. Abie regularly appears at literary festivals and in schools. She gives mentoring and manuscript advice and sits on the Management Committee of the Society of Authors.

Twitter/Instagram @abielongstaff

Kevin Anderson is the founder and CEO of KAA (Kevin Anderson & Associates) – publishing’s fastest-growing ghostwriting and editorial service company. With offices in New York, London, Los Angeles, and Nashville, KAA’s in-house team of former Big-5 executive editors, literary agents, and bestselling writers has combined to produce over 200 New York Times and Sunday Times bestsellers. KAA also helps authors navigate their traditional and nontraditional publishing options and develop strategies to achieve their publishing goals. 

Kevin is also a #1 national bestselling author, editor, and entrepreneur. He is a contributing author by invitation to Publishers Weekly’s Book Publishing Almanac 2022 and the author of the #2 Wall Street Journal, #1 Barnes & Noble, and #1 Amazon bestseller, PhDone: A Professional Dissertation Editor’s Guide to Writing Your Doctoral Thesis and Earning Your PhD.

More information about Kevin Anderson & Associates can be found at www.kawriting.com.

Adam Strange has been an editor, publisher and agent in the UK for 17 years, working with multiple #1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling authors, including Rafa Nadal, Seth Godin, JK Rowling, and Gwyneth Paltrow – among many others. As Executive Editor of KAA’s London office, Adam works closely with authors, guiding them through the writing process and helping to bring their stories to life.

Previously, Adam was a non-fiction publisher at Little, Brown (Hachette), before heading up the literary arm of talent management agency, Gleam Futures. Adam has collaborated with dozens of writers of all experience and abilities to ensure that the publishing projects they undertake are as creatively and commercially rewarding as possible, and has published multiple bestsellers. He has worked with a large number of high-profile authors across the celebrity, sporting, and business landscapes, along with lesser-known expert authors in a wide variety of fields.