The Art of Writing Non Fiction - LitFest Local 2025

Author Philip Hoare will discuss how to take personal experience and memory to weave stories out of the natural world, art, history and place. The workshop will include writing exercises and reading aloud of work. Attendees are invited to bring short pieces of non-fiction – maximum 400 words – to be read for critique.

Philip Hoare was born and brought up in Southampton, where he still lives. He is the author of nine works of non-fiction, including Leviathan or, The Whale, which won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize, The Sea Inside (2013) and RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR (2017). Philip wrote and presented the BBC Arena film The Hunt for Moby-Dick, and directed three short films for BBC’s Whale Night.
His latest book, Albert & the Whale, is published by 4th Estate. He is co-curator of the Moby-Dick and Ancient Mariner ‘Big Reads’, and is professor of creative writing at the University of Southampton.