Tuesday 7 June 2011

Where can I find literary events in London?

A friend of mine recently asked me this question. She reminded me that I’ve been meaning to blog about this for a while. Whether you’re local or visiting from abroad, you might come across a visiting author you love and have always wanted to meet, but never had the chance to.
While doing my MA in Creative Writing, I attended author talks and publication industry events like the London Book Fair. The network of students and lecturers was a great source of information about what was going on, but there was so much more I could have gone to had I known. Three years on, I’ve narrowed everything down to the main literary festivals that I love and got a list of suggested websites and publications that one can refer to for more info on literary goings-on.

For what it’s worth, here it is:
Annual Literary Festivals that I love-
Kingston Readers Festival – April/ May
Literature and the Spoken Word festival – June
Hay Festival (the only non-London one I've been to)- May/June
London Literature festival- July
Richmond upon Thames Literature Festival – November
SW11 Literary Festival – September

The best sources for literary festivals and events are
- your local borough council website, the British Council Arts page and the following magazines –
Writer’s Forum
Writer’s Magazine
Time Out magazine – Books section.

Various cultural institutes also have literary events. Here are a few of my favourite sites:
Asia House
Somerset House
Southbank Centre
Keats House

Check your local bookstores for events, some of which are often free-
Waterstones Events
Foyles Events

And if you want to keep up to date with news from the world of Books, the Saturday Observer and the Sunday Times Culture supplement are great for reviews and stories. Also –
Guardian Books
Coffee haunts for Writers

If you’ve got any great websites on literary events in London to share, I'd love to hear from you.

No comments: