Conference
On Writing for Young People: Conference 2026
Leaf Journal’s annual conference returns for our fourth year. This year we will be gathering online on Thursday 5th and Friday 6th November to hear from the usual, wonderful mix of invited keynote speaker, panel presentations from our wider community and writing workshops. This year, we are delighted to be joined by Beth O’Brien, poet and author of Carnegie-winning Wolf Siren. Beth will deliver a keynote on her research in disability in literature. Bestselling author Sophie Anderson will lead a workshop on 'Reimagining Traditional Tales'.
Call for Papers/Workshops!
At this point, we warmly invite proposals from our wider community for topics they would like to present on at the conference. If selected for the programme, we will ask you to pre-record a 10-15 minute talk on that topic (your ‘paper’) and then attend the conference live to take part in a Q&A session. Papers can be on any subject likely to be of interest to the Leaf Journal community of practitioners. These might be insights gained through creative writing; discussions of literature with a writerly application; reflections on the industry as it relates to writers, and more. Take a look at the articles we have previously published to see the breadth of our interests. Papers with a purely English Literature approach are unlikely to make the cut.
We are also seeking creative writing workshop proposals. Any activity you would like to lead should be suitable for an online audience (max capacity 100) and last between 30-60 minutes. There must be a practical creative writing task for the audience to participate in as part of your workshop proposal.
Initially, we only need to read a proposal for your paper or workshop. Proposals of up to 200 words should be emailed to LeafJournal@bathspa.ac.uk, please also include a short biography of up to 150 words and any specific timing request for your panel (e.g. a morning slot, if you live in Australia). If you would like to see an example proposal you can do so here.
Closing date for proposals is Friday 28th August at 5pm (UK time).
Key information for presenters and workshop leaders:
- Send a proposal (max 200 words) and bio (max 150 words) and specific timing request to LeafJournal@bathspa.ac.uk by 28th Aug at 5pm (UK time)
- Your place on the conference programme will be confirmed by early-Sept 2026. If you are not offered a place, you will receive feedback on your proposal
- You will be asked to pre-record your paper (as an oral presentation, no more than 15 minutes long) by 19th Oct 2026
- You will be invited to attend the online conference live on 5th or 6th Nov for a Q&A on your paper. You could be allocated a Q&A slot on either date; if you are in a time-zone that makes a particular time of day difficult, please let us know as part of your proposal and we will make all effort possible to avoid that time.
- Presenters and workshop leaders will receive a free ticket for the conference.
As well as panellists and workshop leaders, we are also looking for two people to help us with the running of the conference. These are voluntary roles (as are all roles at Leaf Journal) full details can be found on the Get Involved page.
