DEPTFORD LITERATURE FESTIVAL ANNOUNCES 2026 PROGRAMME

The Deptford Literature Festival returns this spring with a week of events across Lewisham and South East London, culminating in a full festival day at Deptford Lounge on Saturday 28th March 2026. Now in its fifth edition, the locally rooted festival brings together discussions, workshops, interactive talks and spoken word, connecting established writers with emerging voices from the borough and beyond. Produced by London Writers Centre (formerly Spread the Word) with creative producer Tom MacAndrew, the programme is supported by the Albany, Deptford Lounge and Lewisham Libraries, with a mix of in-person and online events and selected sessions offering BSL interpretation.

Photography courtesy of The Space inBetween/Kashif Haque

Across the festival day, Deptford Lounge will host more than 30 events, ranging from craft-focused workshops for writers at different levels — including beginners — to panels and readings that take Deptford and South London as both subject and staging ground. Among the featured names in this year’s programme are Sarah Howe, Jimi Famurewa, Leone Ross and Francis Spufford, with events designed to reflect the creativity and diversity of Deptford and Lewisham through stories, words and performance.

A series of free pre-events runs in the lead-up to the main day, with Lewisham Libraries hosting Poetry in the Library with Fathima Zahra and Jack Underwood; Lewisham Writes workshops with Erica Hesketh; and a spoken word open mic session titled Lewisham Libraries Celebrates Local Writers. The week also includes a Goldsmiths Prize event at Goldsmiths on Wednesday 25 March, with an in-conversation featuring award-winning translator and novelist Kate Briggs. Festival pre-events take place on 21, 25 and 26 March ahead of the main festival day on 28 March.

Photography courtesy of The Space inBetween

On the Saturday programme, one of the headline discussions is South London in Fiction, bringing together Orlaine McDonald, Lisa Smith and Francis Spufford with Rachael Allen to discuss how South London has inspired and shaped their novels, presented in partnership with Goldsmiths Writers’ Centre and BSL interpreted. Another highlighted event, Navigating Culture: Black Male Writers on Britain Today, hosted by writer and broadcaster Natty Kasambala, convenes Jimi Famurewa, Derek Owusu and Aniefiok Ekpoudom to discuss building a life as a Black male writer in Britain and navigating a creative career in the contemporary cultural landscape; this session is also BSL interpreted.

Poetry has a strong presence across the festival, including Mother Tongue: Poetry, Family + Inheritance, hosted by April Yee, which brings together Sarah Howe, Erica Hesketh and Karen Downs-Barton for readings and reflection around matrilineage, family and motherhood through the lens of recent collections. Elsewhere, Jarred McGinnis and Joe Dunthorne will lead a conversation exploring family, relationships and love, touching on masculinity, care and intimacy through their work and wider cultural references.

Alongside the headline programme, the festival continues its emphasis on participation, access and local infrastructure for writers. A strand of Lewisham Borough of Literature events includes Lewisham Writers’ Link Up, hosted by local writer Tutku Barbaros, billed as a writer-focused networking event with an open industry clinic. The festival also presents a showcase connected to the Mouth Mek Fi Nyam Windrush Project, featuring readings and discussion with writers and scholars including Leone Ross, Joan Anim-Addo and Marl’Ene Edwin, alongside Caribbean elders who took part in the project. Younger voices are foregrounded through the Poetics Lab Anthology Showcase, with emerging poets from Lewisham, Bromley, Greenwich and Southwark sharing live readings that span personal narrative, social reflection and experimental expression.

Photography courtesy of The Space inBetween/MaddMann

The children and young people’s programme runs throughout the day at Deptford Lounge, including Putting it in a Letter with poet and author Stephen Lightbown for ages 8–11; an interactive story time for ages 4–6 with author-illustrator Rochelle Falconer based on her book How to Tame a Mummy Monster; and The Marvellous Myth Hunter, an interactive show by storytelling company Weird Folk that connects global myths to the history of Deptford Market and includes writing and recycled-material craft-making for ages 6–12. Teen audiences are also catered for through Writing Comedy, an interactive session with Nathanael Lessore exploring identity, internet personas and the role of comedy in teen fiction, with practical advice for aspiring writers; the festival notes that a parent or carer must accompany children attending these sessions.

CRIPtic Arts will present an online salon as part of the festival, with poet and founder Jamie Hale joined by artist and writer Abi Palmer for a special edition of the CRIPtic x London Writers Centre Salon. Framed as an imaginative, accessible workshop for disabled writers, the session explores what a sustainable creative life can look like, and concludes with a reading from Palmer followed by an open mic.

Photography courtesy of The Space inBetween/MaddMann

A festival hub at Deptford Lounge will also include a bookstall from the festival bookseller, The Word bookshop, with opportunities for author signings, alongside stalls from local publishers and literature organisations, Lewisham Libraries and the Lewisham Borough of Literature campaign. Ruth Harrison, Director of London Writers Centre, said the festival has always been about “sharing and hearing unheard and untold stories,” describing it as a space for conversations and community in “challenging times.” MacAndrew added that the festival is about celebrating the creativity already present in local neighbourhoods, bringing together established names, emerging talent and grassroots collaboration, with the aim of offering “moments of discovery, connection and joy.”

The Deptford Literature Festival takes place all day on Saturday 28 March 2026, with lead-up events on 21, 25 and 26 March. Some events are free, with tickets priced at £3 for others. Full programme details and booking information are available via London Writers Centre.