MK Lit Fest returns celebrating everything bookish or wordy

MK Lit Fest returns for an exhilarating Autumn Festival celebrating everything bookish or wordy, with a wealth of writer events and conversations, writing workshops, and fabulous children’s sessions. Join us to meet renowned authors, discover new favourites, get books signed – or develop your own skills in a workshop: we have in-person events on 13-14 October in MK Central Library and Waterstones Midsummer Place, and are online on 15 October with an expert Zoom workshop.

We explore big issues, with celebrated activist Dr Tony Juniper on the action we must take – now – to save our changing planet, and top sportswriter Carrie Dunn discussing Woman Up, the fantastic rise of England’s Lionesses, and the challenges still facing women’s football. And Kevin Jon Davies reveals and revels in the extraordinary work of Douglas Adams with 42 – a compilation of his never-before-published work.

This season’s New Voices session features Paul David Gould with his debut Moscow-set literary thriller, Last Dance at the Discotheque for Deviants, and for historical fiction fans, Alex Hay and Freya Berry join us with their dazzling new books, The Housekeepers and The Birdcage Library.

MK’s cultural godfather Roy Nevitt speaks about our new city’s cultural evolution, sharing the stage with exciting local writing talent as we launch the next MinK creative writing competition: ‘Tales from the City’. Meanwhile, poet-artist Gommie takes us on a search for hope, through performance and conversation, and unveils his newest piece, an homage to his MK childhood.

Our Children’s Lit Fest features interactive events for all ages, with award-winning illustrator and author Alex Willmore entertaining the littlest ones with the adventures of spy-dinosaur Spyceratops; Paula Harrison celebrating her latest book as her beloved cat-girl Kitty takes on the Snowball Bandit; and voice actor Lizzie Waterworth – the voice of Horrid Henry – bringing us exciting tips and tricks from her debut, How to Talk So People Will Listen.

For writers, we offer a workshop on satire with Charlie Hill, and another with Rosemary Hill aimed at instilling the confidence to perform your work. The Summer Creators programme for young people culminates at the festival as Lu Williams leads a workshop to create a collaborative zine, and our final event is an online workshop with flash fiction supremo, Jude Higgins.

MK Lit Fest: there’s a title for everyone, and they’re all page-turners! Tickets and full programme details: www.mklitfest.org