Birmingham Literature Festival

BIG NEWS! We are very pleased to announce Clive Judd as Festival Programmer for Birmingham Literature Festival 2026. CLIVE JUDD is an award-winning writer, theatre director, literary curator, and bookseller originally from Worcester, now based in Birmingham. His debut play HERE—winner of the Papatango Prize—was staged at the Southwark Playhouse in 2022 & is published by Nick Hern Books. His second play SABRINA—longlisted for the Bruntwood Prize in 2025—is currently in development with Emmerson & Ward Productions. Clive is the co-owner of Birmingham-based independent bookshop Voce Books, co-curator of the experimental prose night STORIE, & Festival Programmer for the Birmingham Literature Festival 2026. When appointed, Clive said "I am hugely looking forward to being a custodian for the next twelve months of the work of Shantel Edwards, the inspirational Festival Director & a curator I admire greatly, & to work with the @writingwestmids team to devise a festival that speaks directly to the city: a festival for readers & writers, that will no doubt lean into the interests that have stood me in good stead so far; working-class writing, translated & world literature, & work that tracks in ways unusual the spaces & places that make us." Clive joins us as a guest curator of the festival, while our festival director is on maternity leave. 📸 Jay Mason-Burns #bhamlitfest2026 #literaturefestival #authorevents #birminghamUK

“Thank you for your wonderfully organised festival; you and your team create a miracle every year that brings together writers and readers” - feedback our Festival Director received after last year's festival. We are so excited to return for 2026! Save this post, jot the dates down in your calendars and help us spread the news. #BLF2026 #literaturefestival #Birminghamevents

And that's a wrap for Birmingham Literature Festival 2025! A huge thank you from our team at Writing West Midlands and supporting members to everyone who attended the talks and workshops lined up for this year. We hope you went back with fun memories, interesting debates and a lot of books! We can't wait to see you all again next year! 📸 @leeallenphotos #BLF25 #booksbab #literaturefestival #bham

Thank you to all the wonderful people who attended this year’s festival and to all those who have joined us over the years, both at in-person events and online. Your support means so much - not just to us but to the whole literary community. Keep reading, keep supporting your local libraries and bookshops and we hope to see you at BLF 2026. #bhamlitfest #BOOKSBAB #bbcnews

♦ 🗣 STORIE: EXPERIMENTS IN WORKING-CLASS PROSE FEAT: UTTARAN DAS GUPTA, SOPHIE HUCKFIELD, SAM HUNT JULIE IRIGARAY & SHARONA KENWRICK - THURSDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2025 🎤 Wow! What a night this was!? With a line-up selected from our first ever open submissions window, it meant the world to present this incredible evening of EXPERIMENTS IN WORKING-CLASS PROSE @kilder_bar as part of this year's wider @bhamlitfest programme! ✍️ Five incredible working-class writers stepped up to the mic to deliver some of the most eclectic & diverse work we've ever seen at STORIE—every one a unique & specific take on what it is to be working-class & what it is to write working-class work. Respect & love to @uttaran_dg @sophiehuckfield @samhrhunt @julie_irigaray & @sharonakenwrick The night belonged to you! 🙏 As always, we thank our partners @kilder_bar & @vocebooks as well as Shantel, Jonathan & the team @writingwestmids & @bhamlitfest for partnering with us once again for this special event & helping us give a wider platform to working-class writers & writing here in the Mids! And, of course, to everyone who came along to absorb it all! Two years down & it still thrills us so much to see so many of you! 🎟️ We're back to bi-monthly events now so season three will continue on THURSDAY 11TH DECEMBER when we'll be seeing out 2025 in customary style with writer & translator POLLY BARTON, novelist & publisher TARIQ GODDARD, spoken-word artist & musician KESOMI & writer & performance artist SOPHIE SLEIGH-JOHNSON. Only a few tickets left so snap them up while you can, link in bio. ♦ TAYLOR BURNS & CLIVE JUDD co-curators, STORIE 📸 @lyndon.lenses . . . . #storie #storiebrum #experimentsinprose #experimentalprose #vocebooks #kilderbar #newwriting #newwritingnight #prose #birmingham #digbeth

A massive shout-out and thank you to all our BLF volunteers! We might not have gotten enough photos but we sure got a lot of support from them. It was lovely to see new faces each day of the festival, helping to make every event smooth and memorable for our audiences. #birminghamliteraturefestival #writersbooksideas

Working with @punksandchancers and having festival merch for the first time has been unbelievably fun and we have loved spotting people in books bab t-shirts, carrying books bab totes and writing in books bab notepads all over Birmingham (and beyond!) #birminghamliteraturefestival25 #booksbab

BLF 2025 may have come to an end but our never ending supply of books from @vocebooks keep us occupied till next year! Thank you Clive and Maria (and Taylor) for organising all the featured books and curating a fantastic selection of extras for this year's festival, and for being excellent company throughout the early mornings and late nights! #birminghamliteraturefestival #vocebooks #booksbab

#BLF25 Saturday afternoon we dived deep into historical places, the feeling of belonging, and remembering the legacy of Malcolm X. We ended the day with performances in celebration of Palestinian writings at the Voices of Resilience event. #birminghamliteraturefestival #booksbab

#BLF25 After an interactive start to the day with workshops, we had intriguing discussions from extinction of species to travelling the world as a means to heal trauma. It's always lovely to connect with old and new participants at these talks! Photos by @leeallenphotos #birminghamliteraturefestival #booksbab

#BLF25 On Saturday, 11th October, we hosted the Regional Writers Meet-up with Lisa Blower, who shared her journey as a writer, and insights into the industry. Photos by @leeallenphotos #birminghamliteraturefestival #regionalwritersmeetup #booksbab

#BLF25 is for both readers and writers! What an enthusiastic crowd we had for our workshops on Crime Fiction, Editing, Short Stories, and more. We hope you had a lovely time trying your hand at different genres of writing. Photos by @leeallenphotos #birminghamliteraturefestival #booksbab #creativewriting #workshops