Announcing Deptford Literature Festival 2025 – save the date!
Deptford Literature Festival is coming back! The next festival will take place from Thursday 27 to Sunday 30 March 2025.
Run by Spread the Word in collaboration with independent creative producer Tom MacAndrew, Deptford Literature Festival celebrates the diversity and creativity of Deptford and Lewisham through words, stories and performance, with the local community and accessibility at its heart.
Alongside a rich programme featuring emerging and established writers, performers and publishers from Deptford and Lewisham, there are a number of specially commissioned pieces of writing that will be published and distributed in our Festival Magazine. Winners of the Disabled Poets Prize will be announced, and the Young Writers Collective will perform. You’ll be able to meet the Advisory Group for the campaign to make Lewisham the UK’s first Borough of Literature, which was launched at the 2024 festival, and share your ideas on what a Borough of Literature could look like. The advisory group, chaired by Aimée Felone, includes celebrated local authors and local residents of Lewisham. There’s still time to join the group – applications close on Monday 11 November.
Deptford Literature Festival is a festival for our local community with events for adults and children of all ages. For those who can’t come in person, there will be a range of activities and events that you can take part in from home. If you are interested in stories, writing or reading, or just curious about the vibrant literary scene in Lewisham, you’ll want to save the date in your diary.
The following opportunities connected to the festival are currently open:
- We are looking for three to five local artists, writers, arts or literature organisations to propose events to add to this year’s festival programme. Each chosen event will have a budget of up to £750 to bring their idea to life. The open call, launched today, will close on Friday 29 November.
- Three pieces of new writing are being commissioned as part of our Borough of Literature campaign. All three pieces will be published in the Festival Magazine and distributed on Saturday 29 March for free to festival visitors. The open call for proposals, launched today, will close on Friday 29 November.
- The Disabled Poets Prize is open for applications until Monday 4 November. The winner of the prize, which looks to find the best single poem and best unpublished pamphlet created by UK-based deaf and disabled poets, will be announced at Deptford Literature Festival on Saturday 29 March.
The full programme will be announced and events open for bookings in mid-January.
We’re looking forward to seeing you at next year’s festival. If you are able and would like to support the festival continuing to be free and accessible, please donate here: https://www.totalgiving.co.uk/appeal/deptfordlitfest
Published: 29 October 2024