Kit de Waal to headline new literary festival celebrating female writers over 50

Kit de Waal will headline a new literary festival taking place in East and West Sussex, spotlighting the work of female writers over the age of 50. 

Supported by New Writing South and Arts Council England, the Forthwrite Festival claims to be the first festival of its kind in the UK. It will take place on 15th March in Brighton and on 30th March in Crawley.

"The Forthwrite Festival is a celebration of women’s voices, creativity and stories from women over 50, who are often overlooked in the literary world," said Anna Jefferson, co-director of Forthwrite. "Women such as Kit de Waal prove that women over 50 still have a lot to say and need to be heard."

The festival will also host Dorothy Koomson, Umi Sinha and Eve Ainsworth, while Parveen Khan will host a creative session on poetry. Other events will cover topics like writing for children and going through the menopause. 

"Festivals like Forthwrite are important because older women are all too often pigeonholed and stereotyped," de Waal said. "People assume we are grandmothers, we are helping out with grandchildren, we are winding down, we are gardening, we are going to tea dances and wearing elasticated trousers."

She added: "We might be all of those things and there’s nothing wrong with any of them, but we are also fighters, powerful, assertive and active. We are single and happily childless, we are blissfully unattached and having great sex, we are taking no shit and no prisoners and we are claiming back some of the power we gave away in our younger years. All of these things are what we are writing about and our stories are having more resonance than ever before."