The 9th annual Hastings Book Festival
was a huge success!

 

It took place from 10th to 20th September 2026, with 40 events at 20 venues around Hastings.

More than 80 speakers and performers attracted an overall audience of around 1,500 people.

The directors would like to thank everyone involved in making the festival such a success: particularly our sponsors, patrons, committee members, volunteers, speakers, and everyone who bought a ticket or attended a free event.

 

The Festival comprised a fascinating programme of talks, workshops, children’s events and live performances for anyone with an interest in writing, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, the spoken word, books and all things literary. It's impossible to describe every event on this page, but our headline guests were: historian, writer and broadcaster David Olusoga; international bestselling author Kate Mosse; Roger McGough, 'the godfather of modern poetry'; prolific Pulitzer-nominated American author Thomas Hauser; and Robin Ince, comedian, broadcaster, writer and poet. The new Children's Laureate Patrice Lawrence spoke about her writing life, children's literature and her role as Laureate. Luke Kennard, currently longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize, discussed his brilliant novel Black Bag. Renowned historian Professor Tom Licence, whose revelatory research into the Battle of Hastings has made global news headlines recently, featured in a Norman Conquest double-bill with Sam Davey.

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Naomi Wood performed her amazing one-woman show Monster, and a great line-up of poets took to our stages: Luke Kennard, Henry Normal, Salena Godden, Andy Riley, John Osborne, James Domestic and others. Our annual Book Fair was a success, with 34 stallholders attracting 325 visitors. For the first time, some of our events were livestreamed, enabling anyone who could not attend in person to watch from a smartphone or computer.

 

Our next event will be a prizegiving ceremony for the short story, poetry and non-fiction competitions, which attracted hundreds of entries. Our judges are hard at work! Watch this space...

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Hastings Book Festival 2027!