Words Unwound Online Writing Festival

Words Unwound, our online creative writing festival, is coming to your screens in March 2026. Brought to you by Writing East Midlands’ Beyond the Spectrum programme of workshops for Autistic writers, the festival starts on Monday 23^rd March and finishes Saturday 28^th March 2026.

While Words Unwound features many talks, workshops and panels led by Autistic authors and poets, with topics that Neurodivergent writers may find particularly interesting, it is open to all and covers many topics that all writers will find of interest.

This year’s theme is Writing as Rest. We’re celebrating writing as source of creativity and connection, for telling the stories we want to tell without pressure to be productive and exploring genres and routes to publishing that bring us joy. Words Unwound encourages writers to slow down, reflect, and create in their authentic voice.

In 2026, our Keynote Speaker is Chris Packham, naturalist, nature photographer, television presenter and author. Fellow speakers include Kate Oliver, Charlotte Faulconbridge, Accessibility Arts, Emma Pass, Sabrina Mei-Li Smith, Claire Thomas-Hawnt, Antonia King, Kit Whitfield, Caroline Stancer, Suzie Wilson, Gemma Lees, K Angel, Lauren McMenemy, David Green, Jess Telling, Claire Ingham, Matthew Huntbach and CJ DeBarra.

Workshops, talks and panels will cover subjects such as Radical Rest, Calming Sensory Overload, Writing Ourselves into the World, Sustaining Your Creative Practice, Autistic Women Writers, Lore and Order, Intersectional Identities and Creative Spaces, Fun With Monsters, Poetry and Mindfulness, Submitting to Poetry Magazines, Why We’re Drawn to Imaginary Worlds, Self-publishing, From Page to Stage and Screen and Neurodivergent Stories.

You can find out more about each session by browsing the full programme here. All sessions are online, and those that take place on a weekday are usually scheduled between 1-2 pm or 7-8 pm, making them easy to tune in to during lunch hours or after dinner. Recordings will also be available to all ticketholders once the festival has concluded.

Tickets for the full week are just £30 per person with concessions at £15. You can also by tickets to individual talks and workshops for only £5 each with a concessionary rate of £3 each.

To find out more about the programme and secure you tickets, visit the Beyond the Spectrum website here:

https://beyondthespectrum.uk/product/online-festival-2026/

Or here:

https://bit.ly/BTSFEST26

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