Highlights include:

* The Love Lottery Games Night on Thursday 23 October
* The two-day Book Festival on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 October
* A night of lesbian music and comedy on Friday 24 October
* Club DIVA on Saturday 25 October
* Writing workshops on Thursday 23 and Friday 24 October with Stella Duffy and Therese Szymanski/ Stacia Seaman

Join in the festival atmosphere at one of the many activities and mixers taking place over four action packed days.

Try your hand at queerlesque (burlesque with a queer twist) and find your inner drag king/queen as a burlesque performer during the easy to follow workshop, 'Queerlesque – With Wotever World'. Then follow the workshop with an evening performance of the number created, practised and choreographed during the session. Make it something a little special by bringing sexy clothes, make-up, facial hair (moustache, beard etc) and any accessories you fancy taking to the stage.

Or if literacy is more your thing, take the rare chance to work with leading spoken word and theatre practitioner Mojisola Adebayo at a dedicated workshop, 'From Spoken Word to Performance'. Learn how to dramatically lift words from the page to the stage and explore how music can back the spoken word. To finish off, take to the stage in a performance of your own work at Wordslam and Open Mic at the Book Festival.

Tickets are on sale now! See www.ylaf.org.uk for details.

The Love Lottery Games Night on 23 October will be a hilarious evening of matchmaking and relationship celebrating games with prizes and surprises galore! Celebrity Blind Date, Ms & Ms, Singles Mingles, Romance Roulette and La Quiz d'Amour. Expect refined ribaldry and a lorra, lorra laughs with your delightful hostess, Jean T. Other guests to be announced. Come with friends, bring your partner or meet someone new...

The YLAF Book Festival is on Friday 24 and Saturday 25 October. Artists confirmed to date from the US are Radclyffe, Jennifer Fulton, Therese Szymanski, Kim Baldwin, Xenia Alexiou & Stacia Seaman. Plus UK-based writers and speakers Stella Duffy, Jackie Kay, Val McDermid, Manda Scott, Kelly Smith, VG Lee, Jane Fletcher, Sarah Broughton, Karen Mcloed, Kate North and more.

There will also be a marketplace of stalls, food, full bar service and plenty of free parking.

On 24 October, for the first time ever, YLAF are hosting a night of lesbian music and comedy at the Grand Opera House. Latest news is that we can expect appearances from Greymatter, Clare Summerskill and Jen Brister, with a 4th guest to be announced.
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The UK's biggest lesbian party night 'Club DIVA' returns to York Racecourse on Saturday 25 October with a Retro Lounge, Club Floor and Chill Out Zone. Sadie Lee and Claud Cunningham are already confirmed.

Workshops: Self-Editing for Writers
Editors and writers Stacia Seaman & Therese Szymanski will teach writers how to craft better stories from the get/go, while avoiding some of the pitfalls that drive editors insane and make them put books aside. This workshop will be useful for writers seeking publication, and for any writer keen to learn effective self-editing techniques.

Writing Without Sitting Down. (Much.)
Leading author Stella Duffy shares the improvisation and theatre techniques that taught her about writing, and – possibly more importantly after eleven novels – how to still enjoy it.

Venues:
York Racecourse and the Grand Opera House
Disabled access is good at the Racecourse. Women are being asked to fill in an access questionnaire to ensure YLAF can meet their needs.
The Book Festival is open to all women and men as guests of women. Club DIVA is women-only. Trans and intersex people are welcome.