We are proud to announce the launch of Brighton Book Festival in June 2022!
The festival will take place across three days from Friday 24th to Sunday 26th June 2022 and we are now actively seeking author submissions. You will find details of how to do this and the planned events below.
Brighton Book Festival will be a vibrant, inclusive and accessible festival aimed at making the marginalised mainstream. With a diverse range of writers and creators from both the local literary scene and around the UK and Ireland, we’ll inspire people at every stage in their career to share their work and champion the power of the written word to enrich lives.
The festival will comprise 15-20 events at select venues around Brighton from Friday 24 to Sunday 26 June 2022, with a combined audience of over 500. There will be panels on topics such as Masculinities and the Myth of the Mainstream, workshops on Pitching Your Novel and Adapting Book to Film, Children’s book events and interactive sessions on Graphic Illustration and Audiobooks aimed at young people.
The Brighton Book Festival was conceived and founded by two independent bookshop owners: Carolynn Bain of Afrori Books, the only bookshop in Sussex specialising in books by black authors, and Ruth Wainwright of The Feminist Bookshop. Both bookshops have fostered communities of socially engaged, innovative readers in their local area since they opened their doors in 2020 and 2019 respectively.
The committee includes Kate Appleton, Head of Publicity at publishers Head of Zeus; Amy Hall, co-editor of New Internationalist magazine; Dr Nicola Streeten, graphic novelist and director of LD Comics; Rose Tomaszewska, Editorial Director at Virago Press; and Emma Topping, owner of Viv Loves Film: a Brighton-based Literary, Development and Production Agency.
Please note: The festival will cover accommodation where required and speakers fees at the SoA recommended rates and we will be organising a networking event for all authors. We ask that any travel expenses be covered by the publisher.
You can follow all the action on Twitter @brightbookfest and Instagram: brightonbookfestival and on our website linktr.we/brightonbookfestival
To pitch your author for an event please email info@brightonbookfestival.co.uk with the following details:
Author name:
Publisher:
Books in print available in June 2022:
Name of the event you’re pitching them for:
Why they’re suitable:
Dates/times of availability:
In-house contact details:
FAMILY FESTIVAL: Please pitch authors of children’s books aimed at ages 5-12. We are particularly looking for writers and illustrators from marginalised backgrounds or who write on topics such as race, class and LGBTQ+ families.
RACE TO THE BEAT: Please pitch non-fiction writers of colour whose books explore their everyday lives or work.
AUDIOACTIVE: Please pitch British authors who write for the YA audience This event will be a workshop for young people on creating soundtracks books, based on one book to be chosen in advance, ending with a reading from the original book by its author.
FEMINIST FUTURES: Please pitch authors writing about intersectional feminism. We will be discussing the difference between tokenism and genuine change and welcome authors from diverse backgrounds, of both fiction and non-fiction.
BRITISH CULTURE IN BOOKS: Please pitch authors suitable for a panel examining what it means to write about British Culture today from a diverse perspective.
MASCULINITES: Please pitch authors of books that deal, either in fiction or non-fiction, with the modern complexity of masculinity across different experiences of race, gender and sexuality. We welcome writers from a range of backgrounds.
THE YEAR AHEAD: Please pitch authors of books coming out this year who tackle particularly current topics in fiction and non-fiction. We welcome debut authors especially who have a buzz building around their upcoming books.
QUEER BOOKS IN BRIGHTON: Please pitch writers based in Brighton or of books set in Brighton who deal with LGBTQ+ themes in fiction or non-fiction.
MYTH OF THE MAINSTREAM: Please pitch writers of popular commercial fiction who have subverted the typical expectation of ‘mainstream’ themes, characters and topics.
Fantsatic, looks really exciting…