Tickets have gone on sale for a new week-long book festival designed to strengthen Stoke-on-Trent’s cultural offer and help tackle the city’s literacy challenges.
The inaugural Stoke Book Festival will run from October 3 to 10, bringing together nationally recognised writers, local authors, workshops, performances and family activities at venues across the city.
Its newly launched website features appearances by authors including Sunday Times bestseller AJ West, acclaimed novelist Jess Kidd, art historian and comedian Verity Babbs and writer Helena Attlee.
Stoke-on-Trent crime writer Mel Sherratt, who has sold more than two million books, will discuss her career and recently published 26th novel. Writer and journalist Dave Proudlove will launch his latest book, Street Football: The Real Grassroots of the Beautiful Game, exclusively at the festival.
The programme also includes a concert by the City of Stoke-on-Trent Symphony Orchestra, creative workshops, events across the city’s libraries and a networking and publishing panel for North Staffordshire writers.
Many activities will be free, while tickets for the principal author events are generally priced at £10.
The festival is being presented by Stoke Minster in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council Libraries, Visit Stoke, YMCA North Staffordshire and the National Literacy Trust.
Festival director Simon Drakeford said the event would add to Stoke-on-Trent’s arts programme and help establish the city as a cultural destination.
The festival has also received the backing of children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson.
She said: “It’s great news that Stoke is launching its own very exciting Book Festival, appropriately in this National Year of Reading.”
Dame Jacqueline added that Stoke-born novelist Arnold Bennett would have been proud to see the city staging its own literary festival.
Alongside supporting cultural tourism, the organisers want the festival to address literacy inequality. National Literacy Trust figures show that 31 of Stoke-on-Trent’s 41 council wards recorded literacy levels below the national average in 2023.
The festival is also inviting businesses and other organisations to support its programme through sponsorship opportunities.
I’m so looking forward to thi!