We’d like to thank our 2025 authors and speakers for their support.
Gwyneth Box
Festival one-to-one sessions (morning)
Award-winning poet, generalist non-fiction writer, and Spanish/ English translator, Gwyneth is also an experienced copywriter and a Kobo best-selling children’s author under the pen name David Aston. She has several decades of experience in supporting other writers through workshops and writing groups, and has been a regular open mic host and participant. She led the Poetry Society Stanza in Madrid for many years and recently set up the Global Online Stanza. As joint owner of Tantamount creative agency, she provides author mentoring services, publishing support and poetry critique.
Find out more about Gwyneth on her website gwynethbox.com
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Kay Brophy
Festival workshop: Finding Your Way Through Emotions
Kay Brophy is the Founder/Director of Lifeland Learning Ltd, she has worked therapeutically with children and families in educational and NHS settings for over 25 years and is passionate about childhood mental health.
She is author of the Finding Your Way children’s picture book series, published by Splendid Publications. Her aim is to help educate children of all ages, using fun characters and stories, about the six human core emotions of sadness, fear, happiness, anger, disgust, and surprise. Lifeland is the map at the front of each book which connects the six emotions to help children visualise and navigate the world where the characters live. Her books and accompanying resources are now used in homes and schools across the UK and have been proven to help children have conversations and explore emotions in a safe and healthy way.
Kay currently works for the NHS within the specialist children’s community eating disorder team (CEDS) and is a member of the British Psychological Society and the Association for Family Therapy.
Mark Edwards
Festival main hall speaker
Mark Edwards writes psychological thrillers in which scary things happen to ordinary people.
He has sold over 5 million books since his first novel, The Magpies, was published in 2013, and has topped the bestseller lists numerous times. His other novels include Follow You Home, The Retreat and The Psychopath Next Door. His new novel, The Wasp Trap, will be published by Penguin in July 2025.
Originally from Hastings in East Sussex, Mark now lives in Wolverhampton with his wife, their children, two cats and a golden retriever.
Beth Ferguson
Festival one-to-one sessions (morning)
Originally from Birmingham, Beth graduated from the University of Oxford with a BA and MSt in Theology and Religion. She joined the Kate Nash Literary Agency in 2022 as an Agency Trainee and then Agency Assistant. In just under two years with the agency, Beth represented nine authors across a variety of genres in fiction and non-fiction and assisted a wide array of authors
Paul Gitsham
Festival workshop: Crafting a Killer Crime novel and one-to-ones (afternoon)
Paul Gitsham started his career as a biologist, working in Manchester and Toronto, before retraining as a science teacher. Along the way he had spells as the world’s most over-qualified receptionist and spent time working for a major UK bank, ensuring that terrorists, foreign dictators and other international ne’er do wells hadn’t embarrassed the institution by managing to deposit their ill-gotten gains in a Children’s Trust Fund.
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Paul is the author of the DCI Warren Jones series. His most recent novel is a standalone domestic thriller, The Aftermath. He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and the International Thriller Writers organisation. He lives with his wife in the West Midlands in a house with more books than shelf space.​
Janet Gover
Festival main hall speaker
Janet Gover grew up in rural Australia, surrounded by wide open spaces, horses and many books. She now lives behind a computer keyboard in West London, and is slave to a large furry cat.
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Janet writes stories about strong women finding their own way in the world. About families and falling in love. She loves making her readers cry – but in a good way. She loves flawed characters, communities and pretty much every one of her books has horses in it – except for the one with alpacas. And the one with penguins.
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She has written eighteen novels and won The Romantic Book of the Year (Aust), Romantic Novel of the Year (UK) and several USA Romance awards.
Janet is a former Television Journalist, University tutor, and Broadcast technology consultant. She is a specialist in on-line teaching for adults. She teaches at writing retreats and conferences in the UK and abroad, and provides private mentoring for new writers.
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Twitter: @janet_gover
Instagram: @janetgoverauthor
Emilie Lauren Jones
Festival workshop - Around the world of poetry
Emilie Lauren Jones was Coventry's first Poet Laureate. Her words have featured on local and national radio and television, including two award-nominated television programmes. As well as performing, writing commissions, and participating in poetry projects, Emilie facilitates workshops for adults and young people. She enjoys visiting schools, care homes, community groups, conferences (and anywhere else!) to share her love of words. She has performed in a variety of venues across the UK and internationally, from libraries and village halls to Alexandra Palace. Her first book of children’s poetry A Poetic A-Z of Awesome Animals was released by Caboodle Books in October 2023.
@EmilieLaurenxx
Alison May
Festival main hall speaker & workshop on Romance
Alison May is a novelist, short story writer, and writing mentor, based in Worcester, where she lives with her husband. No kids. No pets. There were goldfish once. That ended badly.
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Alison writes romantic comedies as Amelia Berry and Ally Sinclair and emotion-driven fiction, in collaboration, as Juliet Bell. Her latest book is, A Recipe for Love, writing as Amelia Berry.
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In her non-writing time Alison is a writing tutor, editor and tour guide for the National Trust. You can find out more about her at www.alison-may.co.uk, on Instagram @MsAlisonMay or on youtube – www.youtube.com/@alallyalison
Gabrielle Mullarkey
Festival workshop - Get in to Character
Gabrielle Mullarkey trained as a journalist and has worked for many years in the magazine industry. The author of three published novels, she’s also contributed nearly 2,000 short stories and serials to women’s magazines, alongside travel and opinion pieces. Her work has been recorded for radio and audio download. She has an MSc in creative writing for therapeutic purposes and works as a creative writing tutor for both Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Adult Learning.
@authorgabrielle
Festival main hall speaker
Gary Phelps, who writes under the name G J Phelps, is an award-winning journalist who spent 30 years in the news industry, working his way up from junior reporter to eventually edit nine newspapers. A devotee of supernatural fiction since his childhood, Gary drew on real-life stories of hauntings - which he collected during his years in journalism - to inspire his debut novel 13 Doors.
Siân Smith
Festival main hall speaker and one-to-ones (afternoon)
Sian Smith Editorial was created by Siân to provide editorial services for non-fiction books written by women.
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Specialising in personal development, health, wellness, and memoir, Siân’s top priority is to remove the fear of the editing process. This starts with reframing what self-publishing means for independent authors: it doesn’t mean doing it all by yourself, it’s about working together to make your book is the best it can be.
Siân will provide feedback on the outline of your non-fiction book AND a 500-word sample from your book (this doesn’t need to be the first 500 words). This way, you’ll get to discuss possible ideas for approaching and structuring your book, and also review the finer details of your writing style.
Please email your one-page non-fiction book outline and a 500-word sample of your book to southwarwickshirelitfest@gmail.com stating your booking reference. We will forward your work to Sian for her to prepare your assessment and feedback.
Ellie Tilley
Festival main hall speaker
Ellie Tilley lives in the historic town of Rugby surrounded by beautiful countryside. She loves both reading and writing fiction that transports her out of this world and aims to provide similar experiences to her readership with her fantasy fiction novels.
After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in English Literature, Ellie has pursued her own writing career. Her debut novel, Blackthorn and Beyond - The Sorcerer's Redemption, was released in October 2024 and takes readers down a fairytale path deep into the forest.
Ellie spends her time drinking entirely too much Earl Grey tea and wading through the pages of her next novel, an underwater fantasy romance series.
Ananditha Venkatramanan
Festival main hall speaker (WYPL)
I'm Ananditha Venkatramanan and I'm in Year 11 at Rugby High School. Poetry is one of the best things in my life and it’s taken me from being one of the commended poets at the Foyles Young Poets Awards to becoming the Warwickshire Young Poet Laureate! I love Maya Angelou, Taylor Swift, Dave and making ramen. Along with my poetry, I learn and perform music and play badminton. When you listen to my poems, I hope you feel more connected to yourself and the people around you. Thank you so much!
Kerry Williams
Festival main hall speaker
Kerry Williams writes romantic fantasy. She graduated from Brunel University with a 2:1(hons) in Creative Writing and is now an author based in the heart of England. Her debut YA romantic fantasy trilogy was originally released in 2023, and is now self published by Williams. Her sophomore duology, The Darkness Duet, was acquired in a two-book deal by Hot Tree Publishing and is set for an early 2025 release.
Copywriter by day, she gets lost in a world of magic at night, either in her writing or in what she reads. Her creative roots were cultivated by the writing of the unforgettable Anne Rice, she also adores the work of Erin Morgenstern, Holly Black, Judy I. Lin, and Rachel Griffin to name a few.
Shelley Wilson
Festival one-to-ones (morning)
Shelley Wilson is a writing mentor and multi-genre author of over twenty titles. Her books include self-help, personal development, memoir, children’s, planners, YA fiction, historical fiction, and romance. Shelley began her writing career ten years ago as an independently published author before signing a traditional contract on a ten-book deal. Through her mentoring, she specialises in getting you started on your writing journey and helping you go from idea to first draft and beyond.