Hawkesbury Upton in Gloucestershire will be celebrating its very first literature festival this year.
Hawkesbury Upton, a small Cotswold village which lies on the Cotswold Way, will be celebrating its first literature festival on World Book Night, Thursday April 23 2015, in The Fox Inn on the High Street.
The free event’s programme includes talks by authors, illustrators, librarians and booksellers, such as; Jean Burnett, Prof. William Fairney, Katie Fforde, Mari Howard, Christine Jordan, Andrew Lowe, Caroline Mockford and Orna Ross, among others. Many of the guest authors are either self-published or published by small independent presses, rather than by ‘the Big 5’ (Penguin etc.) who these days dominate the industry.
Aside from a platform for independent authors to share their work and passion, the festival is intended to celebrate all those who help bring readers and books together, in particular public libraries and high street bookshops, which are both ‘endangered species’ due to government funding cuts and the rise of online retailers respectively.
Doors open at 6pm, readings begin at 7pm, and the programme of talks and discussions run 8-10pm.
For more information, visit the Hawkesbury Upton Literature Festival website.
