Cin and Femi confirmed for Deptford Literature Festival 

Authors including Tice Cin and Caleb Femi have been announced as part of the line-up for this year’s Deptford Literature Festival.

Taking place on 18th March, the festival aims to celebrate the diversity and creativity of the south London areas of  Deptford and Lewisham through words, stories and performance.

Poet Femi, whose debut collection Poor (Penguin) won the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, will be hosting a “brand new experience” with the SLOGhouse Collective at the Albany, while local crime novelists Nadine Matheson, Adam Simcox and Lara Thompson will discuss crime fiction and place.

The inaugural Disabled Poets Prize will be announced at the festival by judge and Lewisham resident Jamie Hale who will invite the winning poets to read from their work. Local writers Daniel Sluman and Khairani Barokka will be hosting a reading and talk about disability poetics and local writers Carinya Sharples and Laurie Bolger will be offering drop-in creative writing workshops for adults, children and families. 

Inclusive children’s bookshop Round Table Books will host a day of free family activities for children and their parents and carers at Deptford Lounge children’s library, featuring a number of authors and illustrators, including Dapo Adeola, Funmbi Omotayo and Ebinehita Iyere. For the first time, the festival has programmed a number of events around the festival themes of nature, climate and food. Author of Keeping the House (And Other Stories) Cin, will, for example, host a workshop on writing and food.

Other programme highlights include an audio-walk tracing Deptford’s Black history by Lewisham resident and author Jody Burton, and Festival at Home activities for people to do in their own space and time. All festival in-person events will be British Sign Language-interpreted and the live-streamed events will be live-captioned. Most events are free while free tickets to paid events are being offered to local residents on low incomes.

Deptford Literature Festival is funded by Arts Council England and supported by the Albany and Deptford Lounge.

Co-chairs of Spread the Word Simon Richardson and Aimée Felone said: “Deptford Literature Festival is one of the most creative and innovative festivals of its scale. Far from the usual bussing in and out of a few named writers, it will showcase nationally recognised authors either from, or with a genuine connection to, Deptford. It’s a festival programmed with and by the local community that demonstrates—at a time of endless hand-wringing across the sector—that writers from this community can take their work to the highest level.

“Our almost entirely free programme of events will foster discussions about important issues like climate change, nature and food. The festival will feature a special strand exploring the art of disabled authors, including the announcement of our inaugural Disabled Poets Prize, alongside a host of community commissions and a children’s and families’ programme curated by Round Table Books.”

Spread the Word director Ruth Harrison said: “With over 30 events happening in-person and online across the festival day, we’re looking forward to coming together and celebrating the amazing writing talent we have and the creativity of Deptford’s and Lewisham’s communities.”