Novel Night - Get Your Novel Noticed

Bridport LSI, East Street, Bridport

Join speakers Helen Corner-Bryant, founding director of Cornerstones Literary Consultancy and local authors Isabel Ashdown and Kim Squirrel for a night of all things novel. Whether you’re 300 pages in or simply looking for inspiration to get started, this is the event for you. Hear how other writers approach their work, mistakes to avoid and how to make your prose sing from the page when you submit. Bring your questions along for our panel or simply soak it all up.

There’s also the chance to meet The Bridport Prize’s writers in residence for 2024 Dayal Kindy and Chloe Whiting who will be resident at Dorset Museum and the Lyric Theatre that week.

Helen Corner-Bryant

Helen spent several years in editorial at Penguin before setting up Cornerstones Literary Consultancy in 1998. In 2016, she opened Cornerstones US, creating the world’s first transatlantic literary consultancy. Cornerstones is known for teaching self-editing techniques, providing editorial feedback on all genres, scouting for agents, and launching many writers published by global industry giants including: HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Bloomsbury, Bonnier Books, Chicken House Books, Picador (Pan Macmillan), Faber & Faber, Macmillan USA, Amazon Publishing, and more. Helen is a guest lecturer and Honorary Research Fellow of the Centre for Publishing, Department of Information Studies at UCL. She is the co-author of On Editing: How to Edit Your Novel the Professional Way (John Murray, 2018) and director of the Cornerstones/PWA online course, Edit Your Novel the Professional Way.

Isabel Ashdown

Isabel Ashdown is the author of ten novels. She is also a writing coach, a mentor for the Royal Literary Fund and host of the ‘Get Writing’ Facebook group which aims to encourage writers at every stage of development. Her writing career took off with her debut Glasshopper, which was twice named among the Best Books of the Year after winning first prize in a competition judged by Fay Weldon and Sir John Mortimer. Today, her books are reviewed widely, with the national press describing her writing as ‘ingenious’, ‘compelling’ and ‘fiendishly clever’. Isabel’s first ever writing award was with the Bridport Prize.

Kim Squirrell

Kim is a multidisciplinary artist and writer whose work draws on social and cultural history and the landscape of rural Dorset. Using archival objects, images and manual skills she experiments with polyphonic narratives in poetry and hybrid poetry/prose forms.  In 2021 she won the Bridport Prize Dorset Award for her novel in progress and was shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize. In 2023 she received the Sky Arts RSL fiction award. Kim’s poetry has most recently appeared in the More Fiya poetry anthology (Canongate 2022) and her chapbook Love & Other Stories (Ink & Page 2022.)

Wednesday 20 March at 7.30pm

Ticket Price: £10.00 Adult

Tickets available from Bridport Tourist Information Centre, Bridport Town Hall, South Street DT6 3LF. Tel: 01308 424901 or

www.bridport-arts.com