This week with non-fiction and fiction bestsellers Ciaran Thapar and Pragya Agarwal is suitable for writers of both genres who may want to use social issues as a stepping-stone for storytelling.

Ciaran and Pragya will guide you in how to write with nuance and sensitivity, how to research for it, how to incorporate your research into storytelling, and the different ways such narratives can be approached and structured. You may be expanding your writing into important issues such as climate, race, gender, and disability.

Ciaran Thapar is a youth worker and nonfiction author based in London. He has experience working as an educator and mentor in schools, youth clubs, charities and prisons, and is the founder of RoadWorks, a community organisation which empowers young people to tell stories using creative writing and music. Ciaran is a regular contributor to publications such as British GQ, Vice and the Guardian, for whom he writes social investigations and rap music profiles. His debut book, Cut Short: Youth Violence, Loss and Hope in the City, was published by Penguin (Viking) UK in June 2021.

Dr. Pragya Agarwal is the author of four widely acclaimed non-fiction books, Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias; Wish We Knew What to Say: Talking with Children about Race; (M)otherhood: On the choices of being a woman; and Hysterical: Exploding the myth of gendered emotions, which was published in September 2022. Pragya has also written Standing Up To Racism, a book for young children. In addition to her writing, she works as a behavioural and data scientist and a visiting professor of social inequities and inclusion. 

Guest: Ben Rawlence

Dates: Monday 4 - Saturday 9 December 2023
Location: The Hurst
Cost: £925 Concessions £647.50

Further info and to book here