Join us for the annual Keynote by award-winning writer Nii Ayikwei Parkes, sponsored by The Royal Literary Fund.
Join the hosts of book and pop culture podcast Mostly Lit, Raifa, Alex and Derek, for an exciting live session featuring Kayo Chingonyi, author of the poetry collection Kumukanda (2017).
Check out previous live sessions on twitter using the hashtag #MostlyLitLive
What is ‘development’ today? Journalists, novelists and academics discuss what it means from their differing perspectives addressing the concept itself as well as the challenges the industry poses to southern societies. Speakers include Meera Tiwari (Understanding Global Development, 2018), Guy Gunaratne (In Our Mad and Furious City, 2018), Kerry-Anne Mendoza (The Canary).
The grand political events in Euroamerica around the turn of the century have forever eroded Britain's illusion of an innocent past. What has the end of modernity meant for marginalised communities? The panel reflect on the past and present, and explore how people of colour have come to navigate the end of Britain's multicultural promise.
Speakers include Karma Nabulsi (The Invisible History: Prevent and the Persistence of Empire, 2019), Damian Le Bas (The Stopping Places, 2018), Yomi Adegoke (Slay in your Lane, 2018) and Lainy Malkani (Sugar Sugar, 2017), festival co-director Mend Mariwany chairs.
In this session we bring together writers to discuss how borders, migration and living in diaspora affect the way we connect, love and relate to others in a globalised world. The panel includes journalist Kiri Kankhwende (Go Home?: The Politics of Immigration Controversies), novelist Uzma Aslam Khan (Thinner Than Skin), theatremaker Naomi Sumner Chan and screenwriter and director of Cake (2018), Asim Abassi.
Readings and screenings from Stairs and Whispers (2017), a ground-breaking anthology examining UK disabled and D/deaf poetics, followed by a discussion with contributors Raisa Kabir, Kuli Kohli, Mark Mace Smith and Khairani Barokka, who is curator of this session and co-editor of the anthology.
With BSL interpretation. Film of Bea Webster in BSL with English captions and partial audio description.
Does fiction for young people need to play a pedagogical role? Which themes are suitable to be included? And what’s off limits? A conversation featuring young adult fiction and children's authors Rutendo Tavengerwei(Hope Is Our Only Wing, 2018), Bali Rai (The Harder They Fall, 2017), Candy Gourlay (Bone Talk, 2018).
Readings from award-winning poets Richard Georges and Pascale Petit and internationally-renowned fiction writer Preti Taneja that showcase the imaginary potential of superstitions and folklore. Followed by a conversation on re-appearing figures, beliefs and the role and aesthetics of the mystical in fiction.
Cultural criticism is hugely lacking in a diversity of experiences yet dictates what makes good or bad art, music, literature and food. We explore the role of the cultural critic with poet Bridget Minamore (Titanic, 2016) and author/travel writer Noo Saro-Wiwa (An Unreliable Guide to London, 2016).
Technological futures are the stuff of fiction and nonfiction, with both often taking sensationalist approaches to these topics. Does fiction inform or disrupt reality? A panel of commentators, journalists and novelists who write about technology.
Speakers include Marcus Gilroy Ware (Filling The Void: Emotion, Capitalism and Social Media, 2017), Kelly Foster (Afrocrowd), Yen Ooi (Sun: Queens of Earth, 2015), festival co-director Henna Zamurd-Butt chairs.
Join us for a session of live performance and readings of new works by international storyteller Mara Menzies, renowned novelists Diana Evans (Ordinary People, 2018) and Hamid Ismailov (The Devil's Dance, 2018) and award-winning playwright Naomi Sumner Chan (Foreign Goods, 2018). Followed by a Q&A with the audience.
Coach Mel Larsen leads a workshop in which you can fully focus on your creative goals.
Do you want to finally get that book written or do you have other ambitions? Take this time to pause and reconnect with your dreams. You will create an inspiring Vision and leave with an outline Action Plan.
Grab some lunch and come listen to some of the freshest new voices on the London poetry scene! This event is sponsored and curated by Apples & Snakes.
UK Black Pride leads a conversation about how a new generation of writers is giving literary voice to the experiences of LGBTQ+ refugees and asylum seekers. We ask what these experiences tell us about global struggles for equality.
Speakers include poet and LGBTQ+ human rights activist PJ Samuels (she/her), LGBTQ+ refugees advocate and academic, S Chelvan (he/his), founder of Cassava Republic Press, Dr Bibi Bakare-Yusuf and UK Black Pride’s head of communications and podcaster Josh Rivers (he/his).
Pitch your book idea to a panel of publishers! We're selecting four writers to present their work in five minutes for feedback from industry experts.
Email barelitinfo@gmail.com with a one page synopsis if you're interested in pitching (spaces are limited). Panelist names are to be announced.
Gather in the garden on Saturday and Sunday lunchtime to enjoy food featured in Preti Taneja's We Are That Young and Diana Evans' Ordinary People.
Hullabaloo, a Deptford-based Indian restaurant will be serving a selection of paranthas and other vegan and vegetarian food. Aloo parantha, a fried flatbread filled with spiced potato and ladoos, a spherical, syrupy sweet both feature in We Are That Young.
Long-running supperclub and pop-up, Tokunbo's Kitchen, will be serving a Nigerian menu that will include chicken stew and eba, a cassava-based accompaniment, as well as plantain and vegan options. Chicken stew and eba feature in Ordinary People.
Are you a writer looking for support developing your craft? Need some career advice? Spread the Word is London’s writer development agency. We’ll be here to discuss how we can support your writing career.
Suspenseful readings from award-winning crime writers Saeida Rouass (The Assembly of the Dead, 2018) and Rosie Claverton (Binary Witness, 2018), followed by a conversation that examines the role played by real-world places in this genre. With crime stories aligned so closely to the smallest details, to what extent do writers draw on these from reality?
Journalists and fiction writers explore who benefits and who loses out when free speech, hate speech and censorship are used as ideological tools. What might free expression and censorship look like in different contexts?
Speakers include Hamid Ismailov (The Devils Dance, 2018), Suman Gupta (Usurping Suicide, 2017), Winnie Li (Dark Chapter, 2017) and Maurice Mcleod (Media Diversified, The Guardian).
Join us for the launch of Bare Lit 2018, featuring a never-seen-before workshop performance of Gala Mae, a play by Annette Brook and in collaboration with Matchstick Theatre.
Set in a bustling night club in 1950s Soho and present-day London, the play follows the lives of two mixed-race sisters. Raised in a children’s home, when one of the sisters eventually ends up in an old people's home, the other decides to rescue her sibling, persuading her with memories of their colourful, spirited past.
All ticket holders, day or weekend, have free entry to the launch. Capacity is limited and admittance is first-come-first-served.
