BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Whitby Lit Fest - ECPv6.15.11//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Whitby Lit Fest X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Whitby Lit Fest REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:UTC BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:+0000 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:UTC DTSTART:20240101T000000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251108T180000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251108T200000 DTSTAMP:20260428T201425 CREATED:20251018T141345Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251018T141345Z UID:880-1762624800-1762632000@whitbylitfest.org.uk SUMMARY:Open Mic Night DESCRIPTION:We’re offering a platform for local/regional writers\, reading and writing groups\, and for new and upcoming authors\, poets\, and performers to have the opportunity to share some of their work or perform a piece to the audience.  Whether it is a poem\, a monologue\, a folk tale\, or excerpt from your book\, we welcome all\, and some acoustic musical accompaniment is fine too. \nThere will be some pre-booked performers taking to the stage during the event\, but there will also be many open mic slots. Just let us know if you’d like a slot and send an email via the contact page on the website. There will be the chance to chat\, meet new people\, perhaps help find out or join a local writing group or for individuals and groups to offer their own books for sale if they have anything published. \nBook Tickets (Donation) URL:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/open-mic-night/ LOCATION:Coliseum Centre\, Victoria Place\, Whitby\, North Yorkshire\, YO21 1EZ\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Poetry & Spoken Word ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/AdobeStock_190879737-scaled.jpeg ORGANIZER;CN="Whitby Lit Fest":MAILTO:info@whitbylitfest.org.uk END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251108T140000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251108T160000 DTSTAMP:20260428T201425 CREATED:20250802T111009Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250802T201710Z UID:442-1762610400-1762617600@whitbylitfest.org.uk SUMMARY:Old Songs\, Stories of Love and Death: A musical afternoon with Amy Jeffs\, Gwen Burns\, and Natalie Brice DESCRIPTION:Amy Jeffs\, author of the Sunday Times bestseller Storyland and Wild\, artist Gwen Burns\, and musician Natalie Brice combine forces to create a rich compendium\, singing of mystery\, magic and\, above all\, humanity. \nThe three celebrate their illustrated and music-infused book\, Old Songs: Stories of Love and Death from Traditional Ballads\, which fuses short stories\, histories\, lyrics\, and illustrations in an enthralling reimagining of traditional folk ballads. \nFeaturing iterations of fairy tales and sinister descendants of Greek myths and bible stories\, Old Songs threads a tapestry of Britain’s landscape\, history\, and cultures. \nDr Amy Jeffs is an author\, artist\, and medievalist. She worked in the British Library’s department of Ancient\, Medieval and Early Modern manuscripts. \nGwen Burns has a background in costume design and social history. Her work is informed by fine art\, western symbolic traditions\, historic artefacts\, and nature. \nNatalie Brice is an actor-musician\, composer\, and teacher – she’s sang with The English Touring Opera and arranged music for film\, theatre\, commercial voiceover work\, with collaborations with various artists. \nBuy Tickets URL:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/old-songs-stories-of-love-and-death-a-musical-afternoon-with-amy-jeffs-gwen-burns-and-natalie-brice/ LOCATION:Coliseum Centre\, Victoria Place\, Whitby\, North Yorkshire\, YO21 1EZ\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Music,Poetry & Spoken Word ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Amy-Gwen-Nat.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Whitby Lit Fest":MAILTO:info@whitbylitfest.org.uk END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251107T190000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251107T203000 DTSTAMP:20260428T201425 CREATED:20250801T165448Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250922T094145Z UID:416-1762542000-1762547400@whitbylitfest.org.uk SUMMARY:Diaries of Note 366 Lives\, One Day at a Time: Shaun Usher DESCRIPTION:Shaun Usher is a literary phenomenon – the appointed custodian of letters\, lists and now\, diaries. \nHis book Letters of Note not only became a huge bestseller\, it evolved into Letters Live featuring A-list actors reading out the letters on iconic stages in London\, New York\, LA\, and Venice. \nThis year\, he took it to Glastonbury with Benedict Cumberbatch\, Simon Pegg\, Andrew Scott\, and James Norton to name a few. \nWhitby is his next stop! \nDiaries of Note is a daily celebration of the diary—one of the most intimate\, therapeutic\, and revealing forms of writing imaginable—and a regular opportunity to see how people have attempted to memorialise and make sense of their lives throughout the ages. \n\n \n \n \n \n Miriam Margolyes\n \n \n \n \n \n Ace Bhatti\n \n \n \n \n \n Lucinda Hawksley\n \n \n \n \n \n Shaun Usher\n \n \n\nJoin him in conversation with historian and author\, Lucinda Hawksley\, featuring actors Miriam Margolyes and Ace Bhatti giving very special diary readings. \nBuy Tickets URL:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/diaries-of-note-366-lives-one-day-at-a-time-shaun-usher/ LOCATION:Eighteen91\, Brunswick Street\, Whitby\, North Yorkshire\, YO21 1RB\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Headliners,Non-Fiction,Poetry & Spoken Word ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/IMG_5096-scaled.jpeg ORGANIZER;CN="Whitby Lit Fest":MAILTO:info@whitbylitfest.org.uk END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251107T153000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251107T173000 DTSTAMP:20260428T201425 CREATED:20250801T162925Z LAST-MODIFIED:20251004T170036Z UID:407-1762529400-1762536600@whitbylitfest.org.uk SUMMARY:Sea Here: North Yorkshire Women Poets and Music by The Marigolds DESCRIPTION:Three poets from the Yorkshire coast – Wendy Pratt\, Rowena Somerville\, and Charlotte Oliver – perform a selection of their poetry as a dynamic group. \nWendy Pratt is the founder and editor of Spelt magazine\, dedicated to celebrating rural life. She runs short courses and workshops through her Substack writing community\, Notes from the Margin. Her latest poetry collection is Blackbird Singing at Dusk. \nAn Ilkley Literature Festival New Northern Poet\, Charlotte Oliver is published widely\, with commissions for the BBC and North Yorkshire Moors National Park. She has appeared on R4’s Front Row and is Resident Poet at Scarborough’s South Cliff Gardens. She is one of the Poetry Society’s Poets in Schools. \nRowena Sommerville is a writer and singer who lives on top of a cliff. She has written and illustrated books for children. Her first adult collection of poetry\, Melusine was published in 2021. Rowena was the Visual Artist in Residence for the quarterly review of poetry The High Window in 2022\, and she regularly reviews poetry for the magazine. \nLocal group\, The Marigolds (flowers of beauty\, with a hint of washing up) perform a variety of harmonious female Acapella music. From trad to weird\, their songs always have a distinctive edge. \nThe Marigolds are Fay Gillanders\, Gillian Edwards\, and Rowena Sommerville. \nBuy Tickets URL:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/north-yorkshire-women-poets-and-music-by-the-marigolds/ LOCATION:Whitby Mission & Seafarers Centre\, Haggersgate\, Whitby\, North Yorkshire\, YO21 3PP\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Music,Poetry & Spoken Word ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/julia-kwiek-2j8X-RpB1sM-unsplash-scaled.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Whitby Lit Fest":MAILTO:info@whitbylitfest.org.uk END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251107T140000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251107T153000 DTSTAMP:20260428T201425 CREATED:20250801T155545Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250812T105616Z UID:399-1762524000-1762529400@whitbylitfest.org.uk SUMMARY:Verses (we’ve forgotten\, by) Voices (you’ll remember) DESCRIPTION:The best poetry is original yet accessible; it stirs the mind or moves the emotions. The 1950s\, ‘60s and ‘70s were arguably the greatest eras for poetry in the UK. But many writers are now forgotten – producing a wide range of pocket masterpieces\, some arising from the upheavals of those decades\, others apparently untouched by them. \nVerses Voices attempts to reclaim this Golden Age of poetry for all\, with a still-greater ambition: to reclaim poetry as the property not of hushed and ponderous received-pronunciation\, but of the regional voices that have always been the backbone of our nation – voices that can animate and communicate these poems to the full. \nThis is a poetry performance unlike any other. \nPerformers: Ann Gibbon\, Eddie Lawler\, Shirley Field\, Sue Grogan\, Suzie Millar\, with Rob Tyson and Felix Hodcroft (director). \nBuy Tickets URL:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/verses-weve-forgotten-by-voices-youll-remember/ LOCATION:Whitby Mission & Seafarers Centre\, Haggersgate\, Whitby\, North Yorkshire\, YO21 3PP\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Poetry & Spoken Word ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/nick-fewings-q0MSEVq7JMo-unsplash-scaled.jpg ORGANIZER;CN="Whitby Lit Fest":MAILTO:info@whitbylitfest.org.uk END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20251106T130000 DTEND;TZID=UTC:20251106T143000 DTSTAMP:20260428T201425 CREATED:20250923T154342Z LAST-MODIFIED:20250926T181516Z UID:781-1762434000-1762439400@whitbylitfest.org.uk SUMMARY:A Dramatic Tale: Dogwood Productions and Going For Independence DESCRIPTION:A unique collaboration between Whitby’s professional theatre company\, Dogwood Productions and Going For Independence (GFI)\, the Teesside organisation supporting the blind and partially-sighted has led to the creation of a four-part audio drama. \nIt features a young couple\, struggling to run the recently inherited guest house\, Bel View\, in a fictitious resort north of Whitby. Each episode was created by one of GFI’s groups in Redcar\, Darlington\, Hartlepool\, and Stockton\, not only working with experienced writers\, but recording alongside professional actors. This session reunites the writers\, performers\, and group members to tell the story of the project\, plus a playback of the dramas. \n\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\nThe project was made possible through the financial support of Arts Council England via their National Lottery Project Grants programme. \n \nBuy Tickets URL:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/event/a-dramatic-tale-dogwood-productions-and-going-for-independence/ LOCATION:Whitby Mission & Seafarers Centre\, Haggersgate\, Whitby\, North Yorkshire\, YO21 3PP\, United Kingdom CATEGORIES:Dracula, Dickens & Local Interest,Fiction,Poetry & Spoken Word ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/png:https://whitbylitfest.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Dogwood-Fictional-hotel.png ORGANIZER;CN="Whitby Lit Fest":MAILTO:info@whitbylitfest.org.uk END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR