North London Story Festival
Welcome!
Running since 1996, the iconic North London Story Festival is freely open to all – local schools, students, university staff, artists, writers, business people and those who are just interested in celebrating storytelling.
StoryFest is student-led, and hosts a range of guest speakers, panel debates and practical workshops, both online (so you can attend from anywhere in the world) and at the Hendon campus of Middlesex University. Formerly the North London Literary Festival, previous speakers include Dame Professor Carol Ann Duffy, David Nicholls, Al Kennedy, Lynton Kwesi Johnson, Andrew Motion, and Fay Weldon.
StoryFest’s theme this year is the ‘Future of Storytelling’, with events running 20-22 March 2023. Storytelling is being redefined for an ‘always-on’ world. Mobile technology is already transforming how audiences consume media, from retail shopping, to VR and sporting events. Storytelling in the future will be no different?
The novel is dead... long live Netflix?
Find more info, via the links, and sign up for the free celebrity events below.
Schedule
Monday 20 March,
on Hendon campus, Middlesex University
12:00-14:00 UK time, ‘Career paths in writing panel’, with Professor Kurt Barling, Aurora Herrera, Ariel Kahn and Matt Lewis of the MDXworks employment service, Room G229, Grove Building
Tuesday 21 March,
online
16:00-16:50 UK time: ‘Writing graphic novels and comics’, with graphic novelist John Dunning and comic writer R J Collins, creator of ARKS
17:00-17:50 UK time: ‘Story in games’, with Penda Tomlinson, Senior Lecturer in Games Design
18:00-18:50 UK time: ‘Climate fiction (cli-fi) panel’, with publisher Sammy HK Smith (Kristell Ink), editor Matt Beeson, and writer-researcher Boe Huntress
19:00-19:50 UK time: ‘Generational trauma’, with Nadege Rene, winner of the London Writers Award
Wednesday 22 March,
online
16:00-16:50 UK time: ‘How narrative affects your brain, and non-fiction cinema’, with Michael Neelsen of Storyfirst
17:00-17:50 UK time: ‘New tech tools for storytelling’, with Vincent Ryan, Training Manager of Google NewsLab
18:00-18:50 UK time: ‘Political story writing’, with Professor Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, Professor Kurt Barling and Russell Smith
19:00-19:50 UK time: ‘The future of storytelling panel’, with poet Kel Duckhouse, Gangs of London actor Lucian Msamati, children’s author Gabriela Houston, Academic Dean James Martin Charlton, and Head of Media Helen Bendon
“Social media art-scientists are pushing the boundaries of our world, outwards and upwards, and increasing the ways in which stories can be told – moving us away from the linear narratives of yesteryear to a multimodal, multi-sensory experience of story. Is it liberating, simple evolution, or simply too much? Isn’t a story still just a story?”
Adam Dalton, MA Media Management,
designer of www.creativewritinghq.com