ILKLEY Literature Festival will explore the barriers working-class writers face as well as make its events more accessible to low-income audiences at this October’s festival.

On Saturday, October 8, the acclaimed writer and Artistic Director of the Working-Class Writers Festival, Natasha Carthew, features in Reclaiming the Wild: Smashing Middle-Class Norms in Nature Writing.

Natasha has written extensively on nature and socio-economics, and frequently discusses how authentic rural working-class writing is represented. She will be in conversation with Dipika Mummery, Carmen Marcus and Adam Farrer about what it means to be a working-class writer writing about the natural world.

Together they will highlight the importance of authentic voices, give readings from their latest works and discuss the barriers working-class writers face when entering the world of publishing.

The event is part of the ClassFest 2022 UK-wide tour, which aims to promote and celebrate books by working-class writers.

Ilkley Literature Festival is offering the event as part of their Pay What You Feel initiative, aimed to help people on low incomes to attend the festival.

Pay What You Feel tickets are also available for Mark Hodkinson’s talk on his book, No One Round Here Reads Tolstoy. A working-class reader, writer, and publisher, Mark’s book is a love letter to the north and the printed word.

The ticket option is also available for the award-winning journalist Vicky Spratt and feature writer, Daniel Lavelle, who will discuss their investigations into the UK’s housing crisis with their talk, Home/Less on Wednesday, October 12.

Spratt’s book Tenants traces decades of bad decisions detailing how and why the British dream of homeownership has withered and the safety net of social housing has unravelled.

Lavelle’s Down and Out draws on the author’s own experience of homelessness to create a powerful memoir, unflinching polemic and probing investigation into modern homelessness in the UK.

Erica Morris, Director of the Ilkley Literature Festival, said: “People from working class backgrounds face huge barriers to building careers in the creative and cultural industries. A recent study cited the percentage of people working in publishing with working-class origins as just 12.6%. This underrepresentation means today’s book culture doesn’t accurately reflect or feel relevant to the lives and experiences of millions of people. By showcasing passionate, powerful working-class voices we aim to help challenge that status quo.”

Ilkley Literature Festival runs October 7 to 23 in venues across the town. To book and find out more, go to: www.ilkleyliteraturefestival.org.uk