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2012's Best New Writers make Festival appearance alongside Marina Warner, Richard Bean and UK's biggest publishers

Anyone interested in meeting the next generation of the best new writers or finding out how to get published, New Writers' Day at the York Festival of Ideas will be a 'must attend' event. Tickets for all sessions are available www.yorkfestivalofideas.com/tickets.

Distinguished author, Professor Marina Warner, award winning playwright, Richard Bean whose play One Man Two Guvnors won a Tony Award for its lead actor James Corden on 10 June, a host of the best new writers, including Kathleen McMahon who received the largest ever advance of £600,000 for a first novel and the head of new writing at the Royal Court Theatre, London, Chris Campbell, will all give talks during New Writers' Day at the Ron Cooke Hub on 23 June from 10am onwards. Representatives from major publishing houses, Portobello/Granta and Faber will also be in attendance. The Ron Cooke Hub cafe will be open from 10am onwards and car-parking at Heslington East will be free.

The atrium of the Hub will be taken over by musicians playing throughout the day. The University of York’s Humanities Research Centre‘s postgraduate students will be inviting families to participate in a poetry scavenger hunt, record Dickens in our innovative 3Sixty space, take part in a live experiment to understand what footprints can tell us about the mesolithic era and much more.

The format of the day will include:

10am onwards, Faber Academy Creative Writing Workshops I, II and III

11am, New writers, Chibundo Onuzo, Noo Sara Wiwa and Katherine Rundell

The spirit of Africa will be brought to life by three incredible new writers, hailed by a range of influential reviews in the Guardian, Observer and Daily Telegraph.

12.30pm, New writers, Adharanand Finn and Oliver Balch

Travel writer Adharanand Finn will provide a fascinating account of the year he and his family lived in Kenya whilst he tried to learn how to run like the Kenyans. Oliver Balch travelled the length and breadth of India for more than a year trying to get under the skin of one of the world’s fastest emerging economies.

2pm, Writing for theatre: Richard Bean in discussion with Chris Campbell (Royal Court) and Professor Mike Cordner (Head of Theatre at the University of York's Department of Theatre, Film and Television)

One of the hottest playwrights in the West End and on Broadway, Richard Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors recently took the theatrical world by storm. Bean’s plays include England People Very Nice for the National, The Heretic, Harvest (winner of the 2006 Critics’ Circle Award for Best New Play), Honeymoon Suite, Under the Whaleback and Toast for the Royal Court.

Richard will be joined by Chris Campbell, who has been Literary Manager at the Royal Court since April 2010. He was previously Deputy Literary Manager of the National Theatre for six years where he chaired the National’s reading panel, before joining the Literary Department and taking a leading role in the discovery and promotion of new work.

12pm – 4pm – Scavenger Hunt, Dickens Sound Recording, Understanding Your Footprints, Mesolithic Soup and much more...

4pm, New writers, Kathleen McMahon, Essie Fox and Sophie Coulombeau

Kathleen McMahon is a journalist with Irish broadcaster, RTE and received the largest ever advance given to a first time novelist for her critically acclaimed novel, ‘So this is how it ends’.

Essie Fox is gaining huge momentum with a late 19th century romantic gothic mystery, The Somnambulist, gaining huge critical and commercial success.

Sophie Columbeau is a PhD student at the University of York’s Humanities Research Centre University of York PhD student and winner of the 2011 Route Author Competition. Her novel provisionally titled Rites beat off strong competition from a group of exceptionally talented authors under the age of 30 to win a publishing contract.

6.30pm, Word Power: Speaking against death in the Arabian Nights, by Marina Warner

The Festival is delighted to welcome Marina Warner. Since 2004 she has been a professor in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex. She has been visiting professor at NYU Abu Dhabi from January 2012. She gave the BBC’s Reith Lectures in 1994 and has been short-listed for the Booker Prize.

In her York Festival of Ideas talk, Marina Warner will explore some of the magical powers ascribed to literature in the Arabian Nights based on her forthcoming book, Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights.