Organizers: Dr Sandra Daroczi (Bath), Dr Adalgisa Giorgio (Bath & CCWW), Prof. Claire Williams (Oxford)

Twelve years since the Year of Reading Women, seven since Bernardine Evaristo and Margaret Atwood won the Booker Prize, and six and four years, respectively, since Annie Ernaux and Han Kang won the Nobel Prize for Literature, are more women writers getting translated, published, circulated, reviewed, read in the UK? Are they winning prizes, and, if they win them, does it make a difference? How are they being read and discussed, and by whom? In 2026, the National Year of Reading, this in-person conference will bring together academics, writers, translators, and practitioners from the publishing industry, in order to discuss the ‘business’ of contemporary women’s writing.

The conference will include:

Author Reading: French author Marie Darrieussecq and Portuguese author Susana Moreira Marques

Keynote Speakers: Emma Lowe (Director of the London Book Fair) and Prof. Helen Vassallo (University of Exeter)

This event is the fourth and last in a year-long project exploring this topic. 

The November conference builds upon the previous events and aims to discuss a number of related questions, while also keeping a focus on the circulation of books after publication:

• The publishing industry (in any country)
• Grants and other forms of support for women writers
• Diversity and gender dynamics in publishing and marketing
• Literary translation of women, by women
• Feminist translation
• Women writing in regional languages
• Canon formation
• Women writers on modern languages curricula at schools and universities
• Women’s writing and policy
• The promotion of women’s writing in the press and on social media
• Literary festivals and prizes
• Building reading communities and promoting the reading of women’s works, including in translation, among different generations

Find out more here 

Please send your proposal, and a 100-word bio, by 1 September 2026 to businessofwomenswriting@gmail.com

You will be notified of acceptance by 15 September 2026.

Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing (CCWW)
INSTITUTE OF LANGUAGES, CULTURES AND SOCIETIES
School of Advanced Study • University of London
Room 239 | Senate House | Malet Street | London WC1E 7HU | UK