Opening Speakers 2025

We are delighted to welcome as our opening speakers this year Professor Naomi Alderman (Friday 7 November 2025, 09:00-09:20) and Peter Sansom (Saturday 8 November 2025, 09:00-09:20).

Naomi Alderman

Naomi Alderman has a portfolio career that inspires us all: Professor of Creative Writing at Bath Spa University; an award winning author of novels, short stories and journalism; games and apps creator including Zombies, Run! whose downloads stretch into millions, and she is the presenter of Science Stories, about the history of science, on BBC Radio 4. Among her award-winning fiction, Naomi’s most recent speculative science fiction novel, The Power, won the 2017 Baileys’ Women‘s Prize for Fiction. Her forthcoming book, Don’t Burn Anyone at the Stake Today, is a thought-provoking exploration of how the digital era is reshaping our world. Join us at the start of this conference to hear from a truly inspiring writer and teacher, who says of herself “I’m going to go on doing all the things that interest me until someone tells me I can’t anymore.” 

Peter Sansom

Anyone involved in the teaching and publishing of poetry knows Peter Sansom as a shining pioneer of poetry teaching, a poet of warmth and wit, and – perhaps most famously – as the first Writer in Residence for Marks & Spencer. The Guardian has called him “The best writing tutor in the world”. According to Simon Armitage he is “Mr Poetry” and “the UK’s most astute and effective tutor, a guiding light through his deft criticism and the example of his own work.” As editor of Smith/Doorstop Books and The North magazine, Peter has provided intensive editorial support to hundreds of poets – many of whom have gone on to achieve international recognition, earning him a reputation for discovering and nurturing new talent. As a tutor for the Arvon Foundation he has encouraged and inspired many to find routes to publication. Students have benefitted from his skill and insight as Fellow in Creative Writing at Leeds University, and, for the past decade, as leader of the the University of Huddersfield’s Creative Writing MA. Peter’s poetry is published by Carcanet and he was a winner in the 2016 Cholmondeley Awards for Poets. His textbook, Writing Poems, is essential reading and he continues to inspire and develop new writing talent through the advanced Writing School course at The Poetry Business.