The Sunday Times/Peters Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer Of The Year Award in association with The University Of Warwick – Author and blogger event and shadow panel meeting

So Saturday morning had me hot footing it to London to attend the blogger event for the award.  It was held at The Groucho club in London’s Soho and was an opportunity for bloggers to get together and hear the shortlisted authors read excerpts from their books.

I for one was beyond excited! I had spoken with bloggers online and was really looking forward to meeting them in the flesh.  It was also nice to meet Susan from A Life In Books and Lucy from The Lit Edit, who are of course my fellow shadow panel judges.

It was so lovely to talk to the authors in such an intimate setting and have the chance to hear them read from their books.  The Sunday Times Literary Editor, Andrew Holgate kicked off proceedings by giving everyone some background to the award then inviting each author to read a passage of their choosing from their book.

Laura Freeman reading from her book The Reading Cure

Each author read very well and had us all engaged with their words. Its such a treat to hear the words you’ve read in a book spoken how the author intended them to sound. After the readings Andrew asked the authors some questions and opened the floor to us as an audience to ask any questions we had.

Imogen Hermes Gowar reading from The Mermaid And Mrs Hancock

It was interesting to hear the thoughts of the authors on what the impetus had been for each of their books, their writing processes and their reactions to the promotion of their books after publication.

Fiona Mozley reading from Elmet

Adam Weymouth reading from Kings Of The Yukon

All in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable couple of hours, a glass or two of wine and some interesting chat with likeminded people.  Oh and a chance to get my books signed by the authors!  I really have appreciated this whole process and experience so much.  It has boosted my confidence and allowed me to attend events such as this and meet the fantastic little people on my Twitter timeline (I’m looking at you Years Of Reading Selfishly).

On Monday morning I attended the shadow panel meeting to discuss who we wanted to be our winner. It was a very interesting discussion and our winner was not decided on easily! It was also lovely to meet Lizzi from These Little Words.

We will be announcing the shadow panel winner at the end of November. Watch this space!

See you all soon!

Bookish Chat. Xx