Monday, April 18, 2011

'Publishing Legend' Barry Cunningham OBE To Speak At Winchester Writers' Conference

Press Release -  Monday 18 Apr 2011

The University of Winchester is proud to announce that publisher, Barry Cunningham OBE, famously known for his discovery of J K Rowling, will give the plenary address at the 31st Winchester Writers' Conference, Festival and Bookfair on the weekend of 2-3 July. The event will be followed by a week of in-depth writing workshops.

Barry Cunningham's talk, J K Rowling and Me on Saturday 2 July is just one in a series of exciting events at this year's conference. The legendary publisher will join a team of more than 60 novelists, poets, playwrights, literary agents, commissioning editors and book industry specialists who will give workshops, lectures, seminars and one-to-one appointments at this year's festival of writing.

As well as J K Rowling, Barry Cunningham, as Marketing Director of Bloomsbury Publishing, launched the careers of Hilary Mantel and Martin Amis. He also became closely associated with the success of Roald Dahl. Barry left Bloomsbury to launch his own publishing company, The Chicken House, in 2000 promoting such leading authors as Cornelia Funke and bestsellers such as the Tunnels series.

"This conference is bursting with talent," said Barbara Large MBE, Founder and Director of the Winchester Writers' Conference based at the University of Winchester. "We're excited to be welcoming Barry Cunningham alongside an impressive line up of other writing practitioners. Barry's publishing company, The Chicken House, has become an international industry success story and J K Rowling herself stated that without him,'Harry Potter might still be languishing in his cupboard under the stairs!'"

Other writing practitioners present include Rebecca Shaw, Judith Allnatt, Craig Batty, Jack Sheffield and London literary agents Teresa Chris, Lorella Belli and Judith Murdoch.

"As well as the chance to enter 18 competitions, writers can create their own specific programme from 43 workshops, 60 lectures and one-to-one appointments," added Barbara. "They will be encouraged to explore areas such as writing for children, how to harness ideas for poems or how to polish and pitch manuscripts for agents and commissioning editors.

"More than 100 writers have reported major publishing successes as a direct result of their attendances at past conferences."

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