ABOUT
Beautiful Words is a forty-day writing con, held from September to October 2026, that celebrates all things independent, alternative and underground writing.
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The first 27 days will be held in the beautiful Project 100 Makers’ Space in sunny WhakatÅ« Nelson, with a further ten days held online, accessible for anyone around the world.
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Our aim is to provide a safe, fun space for knowledge-sharing and networking for writers of all skill levels, be they authors, poets, songwriters, game writers, playwrights or writers for film and TV.
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Workshops, talks and events are designed to be entertaining, practical and affordable, with most operating on a koha (pay what you can) basis.
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Our philosophy is that we’re all in this together, so why not make each other’s lives a little bit more wonderful.
Independent Publishing & Writing Today
Independent (indie) writing & publishing is now seen as a legitimate means for writers to empower themselves both financially and creatively by distributing their work to their readers directly, through networks and retailers of their choosing, or through networks of their own creation.
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This could mean anything from an established author or independent publisher hiring a professional team to edit and produce their books, then selling them either directly on their website or through the big retail stores...
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It could mean a poet, publishing their poetry in zines that they distribute by hand, online or through independent retailers...
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It could mean a songwriter who produces their own albums independently and then sells them at their gigs, online, or at independent record stores...
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It could mean a playwright taking a play from first draft to production on the stage...
The ethos is always real people, from diverse backgrounds, doing the hard work to write wonderful, original things before going through the often momentous process of getting those things to the right audience.
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Indie writers of all makes and models have skill sets that are diverse, ever-changing and that are largely unconsidered and unseen by the world outside their close communities.
Our aim, with Beautiful Words, is to provide a space of recognition and the resources that make that invisible labour just that little bit more visible.
The Beautiful Words Team
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George Penney
Director
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George Penney is an internationally best-selling author & poet and is the co-director of the independent publishing company, Swashbuckler Press.
In her almost-twenty years in both traditional and independent publishing, she's seen pretty much everything the industry can concoct and is still--amazingly--relatively sane.
Her preferred brew is tea (earl grey, milk on the side) in a pot big enough to double up as a water storage facility for a small nation.
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Tony Johnson
Director
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Tony Johnson is an internationally best-selling author and is the co-director of the independent publishing company Swashbuckler Press.
In a past life he worked as an engineer, hammering a creative shaped brain into an analytic shaped career.
He loves astrophysics, particle physics, science fiction and fantasy, techno-utopianism, excessive complexity and 99.9% of cats.
His preferred brew is strong coffee in a very small cup.
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We’d also like to acknowledge the amazing creators who’re volunteering their time and experience to help make Beautiful Words possible. So often in the arts time is taken for granted, but we see you and we sure as hell appreciate you. You’re amazing. Thank you.
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