Photo by Leah Kelley at Pexels.
It’s June already folks, meaning the year is either half full or half empty. We were planning on slipping off somewhere fancy for a bit of sun but there’s so much going on we’ve decided to stay in this neck of the woods and enjoy the lit blitz.
Top of the bill is the Lowdham Book Festival, running from 18 – 29 June with its usual bag of randomness. You can go out for snap with Deborah Moggach, share Caribbean stories with Kerry Young or meet former BBC Radio Notts broadcaster Simon Mayonnaise.
In their quest to stage literary festivals in the un-sexiest areas of Nottingham, New Writers UK are following on from their previous stint at Barton’s Bus Station and taking over Arnot Hill Park on the weekend of 12-14 July with the inaugural Gedling Book festival. What next? Beechdale Swimming Centre? Colwick Woods? (Mmmm)
The 4th Bold Strokes Book Festival at Waterstones on June 8-9 sees eleven LGBTQ authors from across the globe celebrate a weekend of queer fiction. The event is partly sponsored by Starbucks, meaning Nottingham is one of the few cities in the UK who will benefit from the coffee giants legal tax avoidance.
If you can’t commit to a festival and prefer one-off flings then pop down the Playhouse on 15 June for Say Sum Thin 5 featuring Lemn Sissay. The event is created and performed by Mouthy Poets, an urban youth collective who have become ambassadors for their generation and don’t want to ‘shaat up’.
This feature was published in LeftLion 53