Luton Literature Book Festival will return next year.
Full details about our first book festival can been seen below.
Planned for September 2024
Luton Literature Book Festival will return next year.
Full details about our first book festival can been seen below.
Saturday 24 September
Our first Book Festival was a big success, allowing participants of all ages to unleash their creativity by getting involved in a number of workshops and talks, led by national renowned authors and illustrators. It was held at the Hat Factory Arts Centre in the heart of town.
As part of this literary celebration, we also held a local author and illustrator press fair in Luton Central Library, which celebrated its 60th birthday on the day of the festival.
Luton Literature Book Festival enabled visitors to discover the work of each author and illustrator and their love for storytelling, covering a diverse range of genres and cultures.
Funded by Arts Council England, with funding support from Luton Rising, Luton BID, and Flamingo Arts, Luton Literature Book Festival is supported by 1 Degree East, The Culture Trust, Luton Library Service, University of Bedfordshire, Clod Magazine and Utter: Lutonia.
See the 2022 line up below.
Funded by Arts Council England, with funding support from Luton Rising, Luton BID, and Flamingo Arts, Luton Literature Book Festival is supported by 1 Degree East, The Culture Trust, Luton Library Service, University of Bedfordshire, Clod Magazine and Utter: Lutonia.
Visitors were invited to attend the Hat Factory Arts Centre, Bute Street, Luton, LU1 2EY, or join virtually on a live stream
Creative writing and storytelling with Steve Cole
Want to kick-start kids’ creative writing and a love of books? Steve Cole – author of Astrosaurs, Young Bond, Doctor Who books, Swarm Rising (with astronaut Tim Peake) and many more – leads audiences on a laugh-a-minute, high energy, ukulele-accompanied master class in “chucking imagination at words” (aka telling stories).
Steve will teach children quick-and-easy ways to invent story ideas, share secret writing tips and what it’s like to work with real life astronaut, with time for Q&A too. Attendees will come away enthused and inspired to leap into new adventures in creative writing!
Immerse yourself in the adventures of Tom Mouse!
In this extra special show, you get to hear the exclusive interactive reading of both Tom Mouse stories by children’s author, Dicky Barr; You can do it Tom Mouse and Tom Mouse and the North Pole Mystery!
Children can find out more about Tom Mouse and his friends, have a go at some creativity around their own adventures and can ask loads of questions.
This is an in-person event.
Little Badman stories and illustrations with Humza Arshad and illustrator Aleksei Bitskoff
Humza Arshad introduces his Little Badman books and shares stories and pictures of his own family members who have inspired his characters and tell you how he became a famous You Tuber and comedian before he started writing books with his friend Henry.
Humza will read from his new book and get you thinking about how you can make your own stories inspired by your own funny families! Have your pencils and paper ready for a Little Badman draw along with illustrator Aleksei Bitskoff. There will be time for a Q&A at the end.
(Illustrations ©Aleksei Bitskoff)
Planet Poets! Create your own spoken word poem, ready to perform! A Poetry Workshop for children with Sidney Belony
Come along to the spoken word poetry workshop and create spoken word poems, celebrating our planet/the natural environment. We will explore what are our favourite things in nature? What do they look like/sound like?
The workshop includes:
– Fun, interactive word games (encouraging creativity, finding fun vocabulary for our poems)
– Movement/performance (using movement to support poetry creation, thinking about sounds/words that describe sounds)
– The chance to share our poems, at the end of the workshop
Sidney Belony is a playwright and poet, from Luton. Sidney’s writing has been performed at venues including Bunker Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Hat Factory Arts Centre. She has also written for live online performances. Sidney was part of the Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab 2020/21. Recently, she wrote for Hear Me Now: Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour, Volume 2 (published by Methuen Drama, August 2022).
Sidney believes that storytelling is powerful and that writing can be fun. Sidney is workshop leader for the Writers’ Collective at Next Generation Youth Theatre.
Interactive reading with Luton’s High Rise Mystery author Sharna Jackson
Luton born award-winning, bestselling author and World Book Day author for 2022, Sharna Jackson – author of High Rise Mystery series – reads from her latest book, The Good Turn.
Set in Luton, where Sharna is from, we’ll meet Josephine, Wesley and Margot in this sharp, funny middle grade adventure with themes of real-life activism.
Flash Fiction workshop: A taste of creative writing with Dr Timothy Jarvis
Dr Timothy Jarvis, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at The University of Bedfordshire delivers a workshop for aspiring writers in the style of Flash Fiction; defined as a very short story.
You’ll be guided through the exciting process of letting your imagination run free and putting words to paper, whilst gaining invaluable hints and tips on what makes great writing. You’ll also be given an idea of options there are – both as a career or just for pure enjoyment – for using literature as your own creative outlet.
Magic and Unicorns with Sibéal Pounder
Think you know all there is to know about unicorns? Think again! Join bestselling and much-loved author Sibéal Pounder (author of Bad Mermaids and Witch Wars) and step into a zany world where magic is made with goo and the possibilities are endless! There will be props, there will be GOO and there will be belly laughs!
Writing for performance Workshop: Making a scene
Setting, character, story… What makes a scene?
In this workshop we focus on playwriting/scriptwriting, exploring the key elements that writers use to create great scenes. How can we express our ideas in a play/script?
Through writing activities, we would create our own short scenes in the workshop.
The workshop includes:
– Fun, interactive writing tasks (encouraging creativity, finding fun ideas for our scenes)
– Focus on performance (writing characters, dialogue, settings)
– The chance to share our scenes, at the end of the workshop
Sidney Belony is a playwright and poet, from Luton. Sidney’s writing has been performed at venues including Bunker Theatre, Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Hat Factory Arts Centre. She has also written for live online performance. Sidney was part of Soho Theatre Writers’ Lab 2020/21. Recently, she wrote for Hear Me Now: Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour, Volume 2 (published by Methuen Drama, August 2022).
Sidney believes that storytelling is powerful, and that writing can be fun. Sidney is workshop leader for the Writers’ Collective at Next Generation Youth Theatre.
Planet Omar comes to Luton!
Join Zanib Mian for an event centred around her laugh-out-loud Planet Omar series, with amazing cartoon-style illustrations.
Omar and his friends are taking part in a national rocket building competition. With a little help from Omar’s scientist mum and dad and some fart power too, they come up with a rocket that’s ready to blast off.
But when someone starts sabotaging the rockets, the boys find themselves on a new mission to reveal the culprit…
A Talk with fantasy artist illustrator Tony Hough
Tony specialises in fantasy art for books, games, magazines and more. In this session, Tony talk’s about his career as an illustrator and will answer questions from the audience in a Q&A session at the end.
“I create strong figurative art and illustrations of odd and fantastic things: Warped reality, myth and fable, future visions and imagined horrors, in a variety of media for private collectors, games and publications; album covers, posters and backdrops for bands and nightclubs; murals and community art, concept designs for film and TV projects. I have even had some training as a tattooist! My original works have been exhibited and sold in London, Scunthorpe, Nottingham and Birmingham.”
WELCOME TO GAY CLUB! With Simon James Green
GAY CLUB! is a landmark comedic novel by Simon James Green, about a group of queer teens at their worst – and ultimately their best – from one of the UK’s leading writers of LGBTQ+ teen fiction.
Simon James Green will be talking about his inspiration for the book, which includes elements of LGBT history, and why we should all take inspiration from the characters of GAY CLUB! Featuring comedy anecdotes from his own hapless teenage years, this event contains a positive message and a rallying call to action for anyone who wants to make the world a more open, accepting, and kinder place.
Over at Luton Central Library we are also hosting a writers and illustrator‘s press fair.
This fair will showcase local artists and authors, and those with links to Luton, celebrating Luton’s contribution to the literary world.
Those looking for advice, guidance, hints, and tips will be able to talk to those at all levels, from hobbyist, to self published, to those who have been published by major publishing houses.
Arts and crafts will also be available for younger visitors to enjoy.
Luton Central Library celebrates it’s 60th birthday on the same day.
Line-up
Alex Saunders- Illustrator
Camilla Chester – Harpenden kids books
Claire Foskett and Sarah Edwards – Mums’ Psychology
Clive Gresswell – Experimental poet
Clod Magazine – South Beds ephemera
Darrel Gregory – Army memoir
Dee Bailey – Books and merchandise
Ed Smith – Illustrator
Helen Ingham – Illustrator/prints
Jacqueline Farrell – Nurse memoir
Jennifer Bibby – Simon and Schuster author; womens and romance litertaure
Jeremy Williams – Children and adult books
Karl Brown – Hitchin dark themes, comic books
Little CG Reads – Children’s books
Next Generation Youth Theatre
No Ordinary Bookshop
Paul B Rainey – Self-published comics
Paul Eccentric, Caffeine Press – Poetry
Samantha Hough – Imajica
Luton Literature Book Festival is Funded by Arts Council England, with funding support from Luton Rising, Luton BID, and Flamingo Arts.
Luton Literature Book Festival is supported by 1 Degree East, The Culture Trust, Luton Library Service, University of Bedfordshire, Clod Magazine and Utter: Lutonia.
Both The Hat Factory Arts Centre and Luton Central Library are a short walk from Luton Station Interchange, for local and national bus and train connections, offering access to London in 22 minutes as well as the North, the Midlands and international destinations via the airport.
Nearby, there is also a large car park – Bute Street Shoppers car park – e-car charging stations, bike racks, and good road access to the M1 and A6.
There is also a car park at The Mall, Luton – The Mall Central car park