Spread the word: the Hastings Book Festival is back in September

HOT’s resident bookworm, Chris Connelley, is beguiled by this year’s programme…

The long school holiday is sufficiently well underway for parents to look deeply stressed at the thought of filing yet another week for their little cherubs, and for the ‘back to school’ signs to be back up in the shops.

It’s a sure sign that autumn is on the horizon. The season of bonfire parades, shorter days, rich hues and, for the book trade, the time of year when serious money is made.

It is also a reminder that the Hastings Book Festival, an A-list event in the rich cultural life of the town, is about to go live. The last few years have seen an explosion of book festivals and  literature events, to the extent that it feels almost obligatory for every town to have its own.

Unsurprisingly, being Hastings, ours is rather different.

Over the last couple of years, the organising team under directors Isabel Sargent and Wayne Herbert  have actively tried to freshen up the standard formula of well known authors doing Q and As for adoring fans in a circuit of regional town halls by introducing new, different and distinctive voices, showcasing work from the growing lgbtqi+ and global majority communities living locally and running year round events in everyday settings like care homes and cafes.

This is all part of an active commitment to engage with readers and writers from all backgrounds and in every part of what is now a quite conspicuously booky town. It’s rare for a borough our modest size to have six independent  bookshops – the Hastings Bookshop, Printed Matter, Bookbuster, the Bookkeeper, Black Gull Books and Hare and Hawthorne- as well as high street staples, Waterstones and WHSmiths.

This year’s typically diverse and exciting festival programme will run from September 13 to 22 at the refurbished Observer Building in the town centre, and Hastings Library for children’s events.

It opens with a big name, Michael Rosen, the poet, academic and activist, who’ll be talking about his new book on language, Rosen’s Almanac.

The first weekend also sees morning events for children at Hastings Library with local authors Alex Milway and Patrice Lawrence, a workshop on nature writing from Craig Jordan-Baker, a turbo charge your verse poetry masterclass with John McCullough and, on Saturday evening, the well-regarded Open Mic session, allowing writers from all genres to share their work in what will be a magical mash.

The first Sunday sees the ever popular meet the literary agent session and a comedy workshop from David Quantick, ex-NME scribe and the penman behind many top tv comedies including Harry Hill’s TV Burp.

Local literary legend, V G Lee, will also be hosting Setting the Words on Fire!, another weekend workshop, this time on writing sensational short stories. The weekend concludes with a viewing of highly rated 1980s crime drama, For Queen and Country, followed by a Q and A with its screen writer Trix Worrell.

Though the Festival is mainly focused around two weekends, Thursday 19 September sees an evening salon at which three independent publishers – Epoque Press, Pros Publishing and Rough Trade Books – showcase works by their authors.

The programme for the second weekend is equally compelling. Monique Roffey opens proceedings on Friday night talking about her new novel Passiontide, leading into with what organisers are dubbing ‘Super Saturday’, when the Festival hosts sessions from Sarah P Corbett on the gentle art of protest through Craftivism, Karen McLeod on her experience as cabin crew back in the day when it wasn’t okay to be gay and musician Miki Berenyi on her memories of the murky world of the 1990s music industry when she played in the rock band Lush.

One of the nation’s most respected politicians, Caroline Lucas, recently retired as Green MP for Brighton Pavilion, joins us in a town which, since May, has its own Green-led council, to reflect on the concept of Englishness. And if that’s not enough, academic Clare Chambers discusses her new book, Small Creatures, before the day rounds off with Anita Rani and Salena Godden talking about books, writing and life.

There’s no slacking on the final Sunday, either, which presents tomorrow’s literary superstars in the Hastings Young Writers showcase, poet Henry Normal celebrating neurodiversity in a set drawing on photos, poems, humour and stories before a final expert panel session on the state of publishing and some end of Festival networking.

Proud Director Wayne Herbert commented, “we hope we’ve conjured up something for everyone and are especially pleased to have so many diverse voices on the 2024 programme. We try hard to do something distinctive and in addition to the usual workshops, talks and panels we will be hosting a live book fair on the first Saturday, which we like to think is our marketplace of the mind”.

If you like reading, or are thinking about writing, it sounds like there’s a treat coming down the line for you. To find out more, including full event details, ticket prices and how to book check out the Hastings Book Festival website.

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