Marcia Hutchinson: Memoir Workshop

In this interactive workshop, author Marcia Hutchinson will help participants answer the question: what is memoir? What counts as memory and what as musing? How does memoir differ from autobiography? How do you find your own voice, and decide what to put in and what to leave out? And how do you deal with ‘family secrets’! The workshop will include a reading from Marcia’s autofiction, The Mercy Step, and you will have an opportunity to write and share your own work if you wish to, and to receive feedback. 

After attending Oxford University and working as a lawyer in the City, Marcia Hutchinson relocated back to Yorkshire where she founded and ran educational publishing company Primary Colours from 1997-2014. She was awarded an MBE for services to Cultural Diversity in 2010. 

Her debut novel The Mercy Step will be published in July 2025. She has also been included as one of the best debut novelists of 2025 by The Observer. Working with Kate Griffin under the pen name of Lila Cain, she has written The Blackbirds of St Giles, a historical novel published in January 2025. Marcia discusses The Blackbirds of St Giles with co-author Kate Griffin, chaired by author Sean Lusk, on Friday 5th September.