Margate Bookie is back this October!
The friendly litfest by the sea, Margate Bookie returns this October with nine days of events celebrating the written word. Now in its tenth year, the festival has a packed line up, with speakers including Jay Rayner, Adam Weymouth, The School of Life, Jacqueline Crooks, Xiaolu Guo, David Whitehouse, Raymond Antrobus, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, and 14 Anthology.
The Bookie begins with Write Up, a series of practical workshops for writers of all levels, followed by Margate Week, which celebrates local talent, both at the Margate School. Then we have the Big Weekend and Children’s Bookie at the Turner Contemporary.
Schools Day engages local young people with the written word, plus there’s Bookie Pub Quiz at The Shakespeare pub and a local literary history walk to close the festival.
“I’m delighted to announce the line up for this year’s Margate Bookie,” says festival founder Andreas Loizou. “We’ve absolutely packed it out with sessions that will interest and inspire. There’s something for all fans of words, whether you’re a writer yourself or just love reading.”
Tickets are on sale now ranging between £5 and £12. There are also free events. See the full schedule here.
Passes for the Big Weekend are also available. Day passes for Saturday or Sunday cost £28 (a saving of over 20%) and a full weekend pass costs £42 (a saving of 25%). Passes give access to all Bookie events at the Turner and Margate School on 11-12 October.
4 Oct: Write Up
Venue: The Margate School
A full day of workshops for writers of all abilities. Our Write Up sessions will stretch your creativity and prepare you for getting your work to the wider world.
Speakers include creative coaches Nicola Wren and Sheryl Garratt, journalist Iain Aitch, author GD Wright, literary agent Katie Fulford, and commissioning editor Anna Nightingale.
Write Up line up and tickets
5-11 Oct: Margate Week
Venue: The Margate School
A week of literary performances, workshops, and talks spotlighting local authors.
Speakers include podcaster and author Rosie Wilby (The Breakup Monologues), poet Sarah Bowman, the founders of culture newsletter Strange Tourist, antique book expert Chris Maund and more. Events include a local writers showcase, literary pub quiz at The Shakespeare, Bee’s Bookshare, and the infamous Bookie Poetry Slam.
Margate Week line up and tickets
10 Oct: Schools Day
Venue: Turner Contemporary
A full day of events for local secondary school children at the Turner Contemporary, sponsored by Thanet Rotary. These sessions are not open to the public.
Speakers including young adult authors Felicity Epps (A Grave Inheritance) and Kathryn Clark (Things I Learned while I was Dead), and educator Paul Anderson.
Schools Day line up
11-12 Oct: Children’s Bookie
Venue: Turner Contemporary Clore Learning Studio
Two days of events for children with readings, activities and more from some of the UK’s best children’s authors and illustrators.
Speakers included The Dinosaur That Pooped illustrator Garry Parsons, Wolf and the City author Rachel Tilda Wolf, Lockett & Wilde’s Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries author and illustrator Lucy Strange and Pam Smy, The Pocket Book of Pocket Poems author AF Harrold, and Margate’s own Crab Museum with a session on their children’s book The Evolution of Bums.
Children’s Bookie line up and tickets
11-12 Oct: Big Bookie Weekend
Venue: Turner Contemporary
The heart of the Margate Bookie festival – a packed weekend of talks and workshops at the Turner Contemporary.
Speakers include restaurant critic Jay Rayner, Margate-based poets Raymond Antrobus and Victoria Adukwei Bulley, writer and journalist Adam Weymouth (Lone Wolf, Kings of the Yukon), authors Xiaolu Guo (A Concise Chinese-English Dictionary for Lovers, Once Upon a Time in the East) and Jacqueline Crooks (Fire Rush), crime writers GD Wright (after the Storm), LV Mathews (Silent Water, The Prank) and Naomi Williams (The Woman in Ward 9), The School of Life, poetry anthology 14 and Margate writer David Whitehouse (About a Son, Saltwater Mansions). We’ll close the festival with our always popular local history walk.
Big Weekend line up and tickets