(#15) Where do I find courage in my writing when I don't feel it?
The books and words I turn to, when I need to be brave in my work. Plus EXCITING UK news!
Dear readers,
In this issue of The Joy Rise, I’m sharing the books and words that I reach for to keep my creative courage firing - when it feels like an insurmountable number of things are threatening to snuff it out.
But first, some ants-in-pants exciting UK news!
There is so much that is always asking for our attention - thanks for sharing your time with my writing, and for supporting my work by being one of my subscribers.
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While this issue is for paying supporters of my writing, every month I also write for all of my subscribers. You can find all of my free-to-read issues of The Joy Rise here.
UK FRIENDS!
I’m out of my mind about this!!! All the exclamation marks!!!
SAVE THE DATE!
I’m deeply honoured and overjoyed to be invited by the Brontë Parsonage Museum to take part in the 2025 Brontë Women’s Writing Festival. (The force of the noise I made when the email came through possibly registered on the Richter scale.)
The dates and line up has just been announced - Tracy Chevalier! Emerald Fennell! - see details below. Tickets and event details coming soon!
As I read the company of all of the women I am going to be in, all I can say is that my language was … well, I think Emily Brontë would have approved.
Since 2009, when I moved from Australia to Manchester to rebuild my life and chase my dream of becoming a writer, the Brontë Parsonage Museum and surrounding moors have been a founding touchstone in my northern life. An hour’s drive from my front door in Manchester, I visit as often as I can throughout the year, especially in August when the heather is in bloom. My pilgrimages always include a visit to the museum to pay my respects. And then I walk. Step by step, with whatever is in my heart, up and over the moors to the sycamore trees that look over the ruins of Top Withens farmhouse. For the last fifteen years I’ve walked there when I’ve been in grief, joy, celebration and in memoriam, always with my writing dream burning in my soul. Just one part of why this invitation has undone me.
The festival is held in Haworth, the unbelievably gorgeous West Yorkshire town where the Brontës lived, surrounded by the wildness of their beloved heather-covered moors that mean so much to so many lives, including mine.
If you’re in the area, I hope you can join us what will be, without question, a magical and powerful weekend!
Read my love letter to walking in the footsteps of the Brontë sisters and the moors here:
Brontë Women’s Writing Festival
26 – 28 September 2025, Haworth, England
The Brontë Women’s Writing Festival is back for its fifteenth year, celebrating women writers across fiction, non-fiction, poetry and scripts. Inspired by the Brontës’ evocative northern home, this year’s focus is on writers from and based in the North, and on stories that centre around northern landscapes and Brontë influence.
We’re delighted to be joined by internationally best-selling authors Tracy Chevalier and Holly Ringland, who’ve both found inspiration in the Brontë story. We’re also thrilled to welcome Oscar-winning writer and actress Emerald Fennell, who’ll be discussing her hotly-anticipated Wuthering Heights adaptation, coming to cinemas next year!
Over the weekend, we look forward to hearing from a host of established and new writers, including Jennie Godfrey (List of Suspicious Things) and Rachel Bower (It Comes from the River), as well as Penelope Batchelor, Anna Chilvers, Colette Snowden, Amanda Smyth, Rozie Kelly, Sairish Hussain, and SJ Bradley.
Alongside the festival, we’re hosting local writer Linda Green (best-selling author of twelve novels) to deliver in-person and online novel-writing courses, for writers feeling moved by the Brontës and the Yorkshire landscape.
Last year saw over 500 people join us against the backdrop of Haworth’s cobbled streets and sweeping moorland, with more attendees tuning in online. We hope you can join us for another incredible festival celebrating women’s writing!
Over the last decade, whenever I’ve needed help to keep my creative courage firing - especially when it feels like there are an insurmountable number of forces threatening to snuff it out - there are a collection of books and words that I find myself returning to over and again, to keep the little flame in my heart and soul burning.