Portfolio Writing Careers and How To Build Them

Online talk - will be recorded!

Teams link circulated the day before :)

A candid, empowering conversation with two leading voices in writing and publishing — covering the realities of sustaining a multi-disciplinary creative career, building an author brand, and yes, talking openly about money - all whilst prioritising our well-being and mental health.

Join Anna Vaught and Isabelle Kenyon for an empowering discussion and Q&A about their career trajectories, what has worked and not worked for them, and tips for staying creatively fulfilled and financially abundant as a writer and a creative.

What we'll cover

• Navigating a multi-disciplinary writing career with clarity and purpose
• Defining and growing your author brand authentically
• Normalising conversations about money 
• What has worked, what hasn't, and lessons along the way
• Staying creatively fulfilled and financially sustainable as a writer

About the speakers -

Dr Anna Vaught is a secondary English teacher, Creative Writing mentor, editor and the author of eleven books, across genre and form, including novels Saving Lucia and The Zebra and Lord Jones, short fiction collection, Famished and teaching book, The Alchemy. Her work has been widely published, and she has written for Mslexia and The Bookseller.

A passionate advocate for access and inclusivity in the arts, she curated the Curae Prize for writer-carers and campaigns for accessibility and young people's mental health. She is also part of a group supporting students in Gaza to access higher education. Her research explore intergenerational trauma, imagination and magical realism. She lives with chronic illness and caring responsibilities, and launches her teaching platform, The Alchemy, in 2026.

Isabelle Kenyon is the Managing Director of Manchester publishing house 'Fly on the Wall Press', and was named a Leader of the Year by the Bookseller in 2025. Founded in 2018, she has led Fly on the Wall Press to win Small Press of the Year at the British Book Awards 2024 (North), achieving finalist status five times in the years 2021-2025.

She is the MA Module Leader for 'Publishing in the 21st Century' at Arts University Bournemouth, and the author of psychological thriller 'The Dark Within Them', poetry collections including Growing Pains (Indigo Dreams) and one short story with Wild Pressed Books ('The Town Talks').