The Brontë Women’s Writing Festival has wrapped up another year of literary celebration.
Now in its 16th year, the festival ran from September 25 to 29 in Haworth and featured a packed programme of events at the Brontë Parsonage Museum and online, highlighting women’s voices across fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and scriptwriting.
Sam Harrison, first-time programmer of the festival, said: "It's been really good.
"This is actually my first time programming the festival this year, and so I was very nervous beforehand"
"The main thing was I really wanted people to come away feeling like they had a really good time.
Bronte Women's Writing Festival (Image: Newsquest)
"Everyone's really enjoying it. The feedback's been really good and the speakers have been great.
"I feel very lucky that we've had such an amazing group of women writers come together."
Sold-out opening event
The festival opened with a sold-out talk by writer Sally Wainwright, who discussed her work including the BBC drama To Walk Invisible, which marked its 10th anniversary this year.
He said: "Sally Wainwright was great, she was sold out and she's become just part of the Brontë legend.
"We're, again, so grateful that she was able to come and be part of the festival and celebrate 10 years of To Walk Invisible.
"It's a film that means so much to so many people still."
Bronte Women's Writing Festival (Image: Newsquest)
Authors, poets and panels take centre stage
The programme included a gothic fiction panel with Essie Fox, Heba Al-Wasity, and Stephanie Bramwell, a discussion on historical novels with Liz Flanagan and Anna Craig, and a poetry event inspired by Emily Brontë’s The Hawk.
The festival also offered online events and workshops exploring themes of literature, history, and the environment.
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Mr Harrison said the organisation had partnered with the British Library on the newly produced Wuthering Heights facsimile.
A workshop featuring Anna Chilvers and Clare Shaw also took place, inspired by their Book of Bogs project and aimed at educating people about the importance of peat.
Mr Harrison added, "They are also curating our poetry at the Parsonage event, which is at the end of October as well, so that will be really exciting."
Haworth Street (Image: Newsquest)
Inspiring the next generation of writers
He said, "It's so inspiring to hear these up and coming writers and just listening to their processes of creating.
"I think it's nice because you get so many people who are aspiring writers or creators.
"You hope that they can come and it will just give them a bit of a boost to keep going and keep pushing with their dreams."
As the festival wrapped up, Mr Harrison said even the weather had played its part.
She said: "The weather's also been good, which is very rare for Haworth."