Industry Insider – Making a living as a writer in Wales

How can you make a living as a writer in Wales in 2025? Full-time children’s writer and SoA Cymru committee member Helen Docherty chairs this discussion with the writer, coach, workshop leader, and so much more, Julia Forster and the writer and editor Kathryn Tann.

It has been a time of change in Welsh literature funding, especially around magazine publishing. But Kathryn Tann and Robert Harries (editor and designer) have just set up a new magazine, Folding Rock, having received funding from the Books Council of Wales. Julia supplements her writing by working as a tutor, a writing coach, PR consultant, and running a writing retreat at Tŷ Newydd Writing Centre for Literature Wales. Diversification has been the way to ensure she can still afford to write.

Join us as we find out more about the opportunities available for funding in Wales, and ask Kathryn and Julia to share the secrets to their successes.

#SoAatHome Industry Insider events – free for all + donation

As of Feb 2025, our #SoAatHome industry insider events will be free for all but with a donation option when registering for the event.

All donations made go towards the Society of Authors’ Access Fund. The fund is to help provide authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats. If you would like to make a donation with your booking, please do so when registering for the event below.

Programme

• Welcome, introductions and housekeeping from Helen Docherty (3 mins)
• Panel discussion led by Helen Docherty with Julia Forster and Kathryn Tann (60 mins)
• Comfort Break (5 mins)
• Q&A with audience (20 mins)
• Summary and closing comments (2 mins)
• This event will be moderated by Emma Boniwell – Head of Membership and Author Communities, SoA

Who is this session for?

This session is for anyone who lives and works in Wales, or who is interested in the cultural funding picture in Wales.

What will this session cover?

Our speakers will help us to understand the current funding landscape for writers in Wales. We will cover what work is currently available, what funding streams are open to writers living in Wales, key organisations or individuals who can generate work for authors in Wales, and what makes Wales such a special place to be an author.

About the Society of Authors Cymru

The Society of Authors Cymru is a national group of the Society of Authors. Established in 2018, we provide professional advice and support for Welsh writers at all stages of their career, whether they write in English or Welsh.

We organise regular events and host socials across the year via a volunteer steering committee and local groups. Join us to meet authors across Wales, find out what’s happening in your area and be a part of your local Society of Authors community.

Find out more here

Send us your questions

If you would like to send questions in advance, email Emma Boniwell on EBoniwell@societyofauthors.org with ‘Making a living as a writer’ in the subject header. We will prioritise questions sent in advance but will endeavour to answer as many as we can from the audience on the day.

#SoAatHome Fundraising Bookshop

Browse our virtual Bookshop.org store featuring books by authors and speakers taking part in the #SoAatHome. When you make a purchase using our affiliate links, a percentage will go to the Society of Authors’ Access Fund, giving authors support for travel, subsistence, childcare or access needs for events, residencies, and retreats.

The Line-up

Helen Docherty

Helen Docherty is a children’s author based in Swansea. Her rhyming picture books have been translated into 27 languages, shortlisted for various national awards and adapted for the stage in the UK, Germany and Canada. The Snatchabook and The Knight Who Wouldn’t Fight have both won awards voted for by children.

Helen often collaborates with her husband, the illustrator and author Thomas Docherty. Their most recent book together, Superwolf, was published in September 2024. Helen also works with many other illustrators, including David Roberts, Steven Lenton, Ali Pye and Brizida Magro. Her latest books include Someone Just Like You, All The Things We Carry and The Green-Fingered Witch.

Kerfuffle Bird, Helen’s first book with Welsh illustrator Gwen Millward, will be published by OUP in June 2025.

Aside from her writing, Helen has delivered many creative writing workshops and talks on promoting reading in schools, as well as helping various groups of school children and young adults create a ‘Book in a Day.’ She has also led a Picture Book course at Tŷ Newydd, and in 2024 she and Thomas ran their first Picture Book Retreat on Gower.  

Website: www.helendocherty.com

Kathryn Tann – Co-founder, Editorial Director (non-fiction) of Folding Rock

Kathryn is a writer, editor and creative producer from the south coast of Wales. She has worked with independent publishers such as Parthian and most recently as the programme and content producer for New Writing North. She is the recipient of a Rising Star award from both The Bookseller and The Printing Charity. Kathryn’s own work has been widely commended and published, including an essay collection, Seaglass, with Calon Books in May 2024 and articles for the likes of The Guardian, The Scotsman and The Bookseller. Her essay, ‘Return to Water’, was a category winner in the New Welsh Writing Awards in 2021.

Kathryn takes the lead on creative non-fiction, as well as focusing on publicity, events, partnerships and fundraising.

Website: https://foldingrock.com/about-us/

Julia Forster – author, coach and workshop leader.

Julia Forster is an author coach, book publicist and author who runs the Writers’ Cabin, a self-led writer’s retreat just outside Machynlleth, mid-Wales. Her specialism and lifelong interest is the field of writer development, and since 2020 she has been the Co-Director of Being A Writer for The Literary Consultancy.

She has worked in publishing for 25 years in a wide variety of roles, including for publishers Dorling Kindersley, Penguin, Barefoot Books and Alastair Sawday. As a freelance book publicist, she has worked for Honno, Parthian, Seren, Aderyn, Little Toller, Nine Arches Press and Ruth Killick.

Based in Wales since 2010, she co-conceived the New Welsh Writing Awards in 2015 and more recently, she devised and launched the Write Within Residency for marginalised writers.

Her published works include What a Way to Go (Atlantic Books), Muses (Oldcastle Books) and she has a poetry collection out on submission currently. She commences a fully funded PhD in Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University in September 2025 to write her memoir.

Website: www.writewithin.wales | Instagram: @_writewithin

Need to know

Accessibility

• Attendees will have the option to turn on the live transcript, to watch with subtitles.
• If you require BSL interpretation for this event, please email events@societyofauthors.org

Before the event

• Once registered, you will be sent a confirmation email with the Zoom link
• If the confirmation email doesn’t arrive in your inbox, please check your junk/spam email folder
• Please add events@societyofauthors.org to your Safe Senders list so you receive our confirmation and reminder emails

During the event

• This online event will take place on Zoom Webinar; you will not be visible on screen but will be able ask questions via the Q&A function or interact via the chat box
• This event is 90 minutes

After the event

• Hashtag for this event: #SoAatHome
• Attendees will be able to catch the recording on our Vimeo channel

Booking

Please either use the form titled ‘Register – no donation’ or the option of the different ticket options with a donation amount depending on how much you would like to donate towards the Society of Authors Access Fund.