Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

In this interactive session creative writing tutors Jem Poster and Sarah Burton talk about their new book, The Prompts You Need to Help You Write the Book You Want to Write, explaining its nature and purpose and inviting questions from the audience.

The session will be based on the premise that, while fiction-writing exercises may not lead directly to the novel or short story you most want to write, they can help you discover the most effective ways of preparing to write it.

Poster is emeritus professor of creative writing, Aberystwyth University. He is the author of a collection of poetry, Brought to Light, and two novels, Courting Shadows and Rifling Paradise. Burton, founder and former director of Cambridge University’s MSt in creative writing, is the author of non-fiction works, Impostors and A Double Life: A Biography of Charles and Mary Lamb, and a novel, The Strange Adventures of H. Together, they are co-authors of a handbook for fiction writers, The Book You Need to Read to Write the Book You Want to Write. Their co-written historical crime novel, Eliza Mace, was published in 2024.