Workshop: Voice

Whether you’re writing middle-grade or Young Adult, contemporary or fantasy, voice is incredibly important in hooking agents, editors and ultimately readers. But what exactly is voice, why is it so important and how can you nurture yours? Using examples from Kesia’s editorial and writing lives, she will help explore her take on voice and guide you through a few key exercises. For the last half an hour, she will open up to Q&A.

Kesia Lupo is Senior Editor at Chicken House, the boutique children’s publisher founded and run by publishing legend Barry Cunningham, where she has worked since 2015. Now, she acquires and edits Young Adult and middle-grade fiction across an eclectic range of genres, as well heading up the Times/Chicken House Competition, the largest children’s fiction competition in the UK. Authors she works with include Costa-winning magical realist author Jasbinder Bilan and bestselling fantasy writer James Nicol on the middle-grade side, and speculative fiction writers Ben Oliver, Naomi Gibson and Molly Morris for Young Adult. Kesia is also the author of two YA fantasy novels published by Bloomsbury, We Are Blood and Thunder and We Are Bound by Stars. Find her on Twitter and TikTok: @keslupo and on Instagram @kesialupoauthor