Northern Lights Writers Conference
Tickets: £40 (full) / £25 (concession)
Book online here or call 0161 912 5616
CIT’s popular Northern Lights Writer’s Conference returns for its 10th iteration. Designed to inspire, to build connections and increase sector knowledge, Northern Lights features a blend of panel talks, workshops, in-conversation sessions and advice surgeries all focused on the craft and industry of writing.
This year’s event, hosted by Ric Michael, includes:
Writers & the Impact of AI - Panel Discussion
As new technologies expand into the human realm, this panel discussion looks at what the emergence of AI means for writers, with guests Monica MacSwan (Aitken Alexander Literary Agency) and Lisa Holdsworth (screenwriter and former chair, The Writers’ Guild GB).
The panel explores themes including what effects AI is having on writers’ career, whether writing is uniquely human, whether an algorithms are reinforcing human prejudices and much more.
Critiquing for Writers - Panel Discussion
All writers will need to respond to their work being critiqued so how can writers use feedback and understand its intention to improve their work?
Scriptwriter Natalie Beech and novelist and editor Melissa Welliver discuss giving and receiving feedback, how editors work with writers, taking criticism and how writers can make the editing process improve their work.
To Self-Publish or Not to Self-Publish - Discussion Session
An informal lunchtime chat about the world of independent publishing with Kristina Turner who has recently self-published her first novel, I am Heidi, Skogkatt, A Feline Thriller in Five Parts, via Kindle Direct Publishing, (Amazon).
If you’re thinking about self-publishing or have already self-published, join Kristina for a brew and a chat in this informative introduction to the world of self-publishing.
Poetry for Performance: Engaging Your Audience
This practical workshop, led by Louise Fazackerley, helps poets develop the skills to deliver engaging and confident live readings or performances.
Looking at writing for performance and considering voice, pacing and physical presence, participants will explore how to bring their poems to life and connect with an audience. The session also encourages finding your authentic performance style while building confidence in reading aloud. Ideal for open mics, competitions, or public readings, this workshop begins to equip you with tools to make your poetry performance clear, compelling, and memorable.
Participants should bring one or two of their own poems to work with.
Writing Competitions, Schemes and Awards: What to apply for and how to make a great application
Writing competitions, schemes, programmes and awards are an incredible way to break into the industry and gain recognition for your work. Yet as new writers we have limited time, whether it’s balancing the demands of your day job, caring for your family or loved ones - or all of the above.
This workshop will help you identify which writing competitions, awards and programmes are worth entering, what will help you achieve your goals, and start preparing you to apply.
Led by writer Natalie Beech, who has made her career off the back of winning writing competitions - the workshop will offer participants tailored support and resources to take home.
Building Your Digital Audience
A practical talk on how to develop an audience for your writing, looking at creating audio content for social media as well as creating podcasts to explore themes in your work. This will be an easy-to-follow guide suitable for all levels of experience.
Drop-in Advice Sessions
Come and discuss your writing and publishing questions with our pool of experienced writers.
These 20 minute sessions are available on a first-come, first-served basis and are bookable upon arrival at the conference.
Agent 121s
Apply for an in-person discussion about your work and career with literary agent Monica MacSwan. Please note: these sessions are 15 minutes in duration and are to apply, please email cit@watersidearts.org with the following information:
Up to 10 pages from a completed and unpublished manuscript
Cover message detailing any previous writing background
Application deadline: 17:00, 30 April 2026. Selected participants will be notified by Tuesday 05 May of their places.
About The Speakers
Natalie Beech
Natalie Beech is a freelance writer based in Manchester.
In 2022 she won the Channel 4 Writing for Television Award with New Writing North, in 2023 she was selected for the LOOP Audio Fund and the BFI Script Lab, and in 2024 she won the Women X Film Festival Script Competition, as well as being selected for BBC Voices and the Warner Brothers Access programme.
Her play Bears Bears Bears recently won the DCC Playwriting Award 2025 and will be premiering at Contact Theatre in May 2026. She is also the writer of the BFI-funded short film Cass & Roya, set for release later this year.
www.nataliebeech.com | Instagram @natalielbeech
Louise Fazackerley
With work rooted in word-witchery and the working class, Louise explores the synergy between poetry and movement in a way that makes the ugly beautiful and the mundane fantastical. Winner of BBC Radio 3 ‘New Voices’ and European Slam Finalist, as seen and heard in The Guardian/ BBC Breakfast/ Radio 4 Women's Hours/ Radio 3. Published poetry collections include The Lolitas and The Uniform Factory (Verve Poetry Press) Bird St. (The Secret Writers Club) and ‘The Pleasure Dome’ (Burning Eye)
www.louisethepoet.co.uk | Instagram @louisethepoet
Lisa Holdsworth
Lisa’s TV writing career started with a 50-minute stand-alone episode for Fat Friends. She was then was part of the Emmerdale writing team for several years before going on to write numerous episodes of dramas including New Tricks, Robin Hood, Midsomer Murders and Waterloo Road, as well as radio and stage work. She won the Writer of the Year award in the RTS Yorkshire Awards 2011 for her 90-minute opener for Series 4 of Waterloo Road. More recently she’s written episodes of Call the Midwife, All Creatures Great and Small and A Discovery of Witches (on which she was co-showrunner on Series 3). She created, executive produced, and wrote several episodes for Channel 4’s series Dreamers, broadcast in 2025.
Her stage adaptation of Adelle Stripes’ novel Black Teeth and a Brilliant Smile about the life of northern playwright Andrea Dunbar opened in 2019 and was included in the Observer critics’ review of the top 10 theatre shows of 2019. She is also developing several original TV pilot scripts and treatments, and spent four years as Chair of the WGGB.
https://www.haworthagency.co.uk/lisa-holdsworth
Monica MacSwan
Monica is an Associate Agent at Aitken Alexander, where she has worked since 2020. She is actively building her list and looking for new projects to work on collaboratively with authors.
Her list of authors includes the poet & spoken word artist Belinda Zhawi and journalists Moya Lothian-McLean, Anna Cafolla and Peter Apps, whose book Show Me The Bodies won the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing and second book Homesick was published in September 2025. In fiction, she represents the novelist Nicola Dinan, whose debut Bellies won the Polari First Book Award and second novel Disappoint Me won the inaugural the New Adult Fiction Prize; Onyi Nwabineli, whose debut Someday, Maybe was a Good Morning America Book Club pick and second novel Allow Me To Introduce Myself won the Diverse Book Awards; and prize-nominated author of Dominoes Phoebe McIntosh.
In fiction, she is drawn to literary and upmarket novels which provide its readers with a sense of escapism through imagination and adventure.
In non-fiction, she likes to read books by writers who want to shift public discourse by putting forward a new framework for their subject of expertise. She is on the lookout for books about health, medicine, history, politics and biographies or memoirs of fascinating lives.
https://aitkenalexander.co.uk/literary-agents/monicamacswan | Instagram @monicamacswan
Kristina Turner
Kristina’s professional background is in training with a specialist interest in experiential learning and self-development. She is currently working on her latest novel, a totally different genre, which she describes as political fiction. As well as writing, Kristina is a pianist and has performed in the Manchester International Festival and the Manchester Jazz festival.
Melissa Welliver
Melissa writes Young Adult Speculative novels. She works at Writementor and runs the Community Writing Hub for Children's writers. She has two dystopian rom-coms, My Love Life and the Apocalypse and Soulmates and Other Ways to Die, published with Chicken House Books.
The first in her dark dystopian trilogy, The Undying Tower, was published by UCLan Publishing in August 2024.
She has been longlisted for the Bath Novel Award, the #BNAKids award, and Mslexia's Children's Novel Prize, and she was shortlisted for both the inaugural Hachette Children's Novel Award in association with New Writing North, and the Wells Book for Children competition. Alongside her writing work, Melissa provides editorial services for writers.
https://melissawelliver.com/ | Instagram @melliver