Stoke Book Festival: the complete guide - Everything you need to know about the city's first ever book festival

Stoke-on-Trent is getting a book festival, bringing author talks, creative workshops and free family events to the city from 3 to 10 October 2026. Here is your complete guide.

Stoke Book Festival is a new, city-wide literary festival, and the first of its kind for Stoke-on-Trent. Over eight days it will host somewhere between 40 and 45 events, from headline author talks at Stoke Minster to free toddler rhyme sessions in every one of the city's six libraries.

The festival is presented by Stoke Minster, working in partnership with Stoke-on-Trent City Council Libraries, Visit Stoke-on-Trent, YMCA North Staffordshire and the National Literacy Trust, with further support from Made in Stoke and the office of Gareth Snell MP. It launches during the National Year of Reading, the Government-backed campaign to get adults and children alike back into books.

Its stated mission is simple enough: make literature and culture more accessible, champion literacy, inspire creativity, and give people across the city more confidence with words.

Where and when?

Saturday 3 to Saturday 10 October 2026.

The main stage is Stoke Minster, which hosts all of the ticketed author events and the closing concert. Around it, events are spread across:

• Stoke Library (talks, storytelling, family sessions)
• City Central Library, Smithfield (family sessions)
• Tunstall, Longton, Bentilee and Meir libraries (family sessions)
• YMCA North Staffordshire (free workshops)
• Spode Museum (film screening)
• Stoke Market (free drop-in creative sessions)
• Online (the Nick Sharratt schools event and Take 10 to Read)

The decision to use every library in the city, rather than concentrating everything in one venue, was deliberate. As Amy Capewell, senior librarian for Stoke-on-Trent Libraries, told the launch briefing, spreading events across multiple venues is itself an accessibility measure: there is something within reach no matter where in the city you live, and no matter your budget.

Who is behind it?

The festival is, by the organisers' own admission, a labour of love run largely in people's spare time.

Simon Drakeford, Festival Director, is the Communities and Arts Manager at Stoke Minster in his day job. The idea grew out of his own passion for books and for access to them, and a frustration with the tired line that there is "nothing to do in Stoke". His original plan was something small and simple, three days and a couple of author events. It grew.

Olivia Thackstone, Visitor Economy Manager for the city council under the Visit Stoke-on-Trent brand, was the other half of the founding conversation. Stoke has had book festivals before, she says, but the city needed a new one and needed people willing to take it on. She has been doing much of the work on a voluntary basis, including the nine o'clock at night "is this author confirmed?" phone calls.

Amy Capewell and the Stoke-on-Trent Libraries team have built the family and community strand, and Amy described the festival as "a dream come true".

Behind them sit a group of patrons and supporters: author and bookseller Dale Headington, Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent, and Gareth Snell MP, who between them have offered advice, encouragement and introductions.

The festival also picked up a notable endorsement from Dame Jacqueline Wilson, who welcomed the news that Stoke was launching a festival in the National Year of Reading and pointed out that one of her favourite writers, Arnold Bennett, was born here. He would, she said, be proud.

Why does it matter?

This is the part that turns a nice cultural event into something with a point.

Literacy in Stoke-on-Trent is a problem, and the numbers are stark. According to the National Literacy Trust, 31 of the city's 41 council wards had literacy levels below the national average in 2023. Only 70 per cent of the city's children reach the expected reading level by the end of Year 6, against 75 per cent nationally, which puts Stoke-on-Trent bottom of the West Midlands.

The festival is designed to sit alongside the literacy work already happening here, including the National Literacy Trust's Story Quest, Stoke 100 Reads and Tales in the Park, and the year-round programmes run by the libraries and by the city's bookshops. Several of the visiting authors, including Nick Sharratt and Christopher Edge, have titles on the Stoke 100 Reads list, so the festival amplifies what schools and libraries are already doing rather than competing with it.

There is a cultural argument too. Dave Proudlove, the Stoke-on-Trent author and former Sentinel columnist who is launching his sixth book at the festival, grew up devouring books from the library at his primary school and a small branch library on the next street. Books, he told the launch, allow you to dream and to aspire, and in a city like Stoke that matters enormously. He also made the case for the city's writers: there are a lot of them, they deserve to be heard, and a festival gives them a platform.

That last point runs through the whole programme. Stoke-on-Trent's writing community is bigger than most people realise, and one of the festival's quieter ambitions is to connect it. Writing is a lonely business, and the local author networking event on the final Saturday is intended to leave a legacy that outlasts the week itself.

The programme

Events fall into three broad strands. Tickets and full details are at stokebookfestival.co.uk, and the organisers have said new events are still being added, so it is worth checking back.

Author events (Stoke Minster unless stated)

• Helena Attlee, Sat 3 Oct, 4pm, £10, 14+. The festival opener. The author of The Land Where Lemons Grow talks about her new book on Sicily, Etna and the people who live in the shadow of Europe's biggest volcano.
• Go All In with Nick Sharratt, Mon 5 Oct, 10am, online, free. A live draw-along and Q&A for Stoke-on-Trent schools and youth organisations, delivered with the National Literacy Trust.
• Book Club with Jess Kidd, Mon 5 Oct, 6pm, Stoke Minster Book Lounge, £22.50, 18+. A book club format with the author in the room, and a copy of her latest novel included in the ticket.
• Dave Proudlove book launch, Tue 6 Oct, 6.30pm, free, 14+. The festival-exclusive launch of Street Football: The Real Grassroots of the Beautiful Game.
• Mel Sherratt, Wed 7 Oct, 6.30pm, £10, 14+. The Stoke-on-Trent crime writer, in conversation with Simon Drakeford. Twenty-six novels, more than two million copies sold, and a CWA Dagger shortlisting.
• Verity Babbs: Art History's Funniest Bits, Thu 8 Oct, 7pm, £10, 14+. The art historian, comedian and ceramics advocate on 500 years of artists behaving badly.
• Ben Aitken: Sh*tty Breaks, Sat 10 Oct, 3pm, £10, 18+. A celebration of the UK's most unfashionable city-break destinations, from the man who chose Preston over Manchester. Expect some language, in a church.
• AJ West, Sat 10 Oct, 6pm, £10, 14+. The closing event. The Sunday Times bestselling author of The Betrayal of Thomas True, in conversation with Dale Headington about his new historical mystery and his advocacy for LGBTQ+ bookshops.

Workshops and events

• Iconic Book Food Cooking Session, Mon 5 Oct, 10am to 12pm, YMCA, free, 16+. Recreate dishes from famous books with a chef.
• Literature Arts and Crafts, Mon 5 Oct, 3pm to 4.30pm, YMCA, free, all ages. Drop-in book-themed crafting.
• Creative Writing Workshop with Emma Fitzsimmons, Tue 6 Oct, 6pm to 7.30pm, YMCA, free, 16+.
• Story Tea with Pyn Stockman, Tue 6 Oct, 7pm, Stoke Library, £5, 14+. Traditional storytelling for adults, drawn from British myth and folklore, while herbalist Arlene Burnett guides you in brewing your own tea from elements of the tales. Amy Capewell's personal tip for the week.
• Arnold Bennett's Amazing Women, Wed 7 Oct, 12pm, Spode Museum, free, drop in. Archive film screening with the Arnold Bennett Society and Staffordshire Film Archive.
• Take 10 to Read, Thu 8 Oct, from 10am, online and Stoke Library, free. A Guinness World Records attempt for the most people reading online in 12 hours, part of the national Take 10 campaign around World Mental Health Day.
• Music and Words: An Evening of English Song, Fri 9 Oct, 6.15pm talk, 7pm concert, Stoke Minster, £10. The City of Stoke-on-Trent Symphony Orchestra and vocalist Jordan Harding.
• An Evening with Steven Beattie, Fri 9 Oct, 6.30pm, Stoke Library, free. The city's Poet Laureate reads, talks and hands out prompts. Adult themes.
• Letters to My Future Self with Kate Leake, Sat 10 Oct, 10am to 12pm, Stoke Market, free, drop in. Write to yourself and the festival posts it back in a year. Kate is the city's Creativity Laureate.
• Local Author Networking and Publishing Panel, Sat 10 Oct, 12pm to 2pm, Stoke Minster, free, 16+. Meet other North Staffordshire writers, then hear from indie publishers and from Mel Sherratt on self-publishing versus the traditional route.

Family events

Free, drop-in sessions run in libraries across the week:

• Sat 3 Oct, Stoke Library: Lego Club (10.30am), Story and Craft (12pm), and a session with local children's author Christine Johnson (1pm).
• Singing Dragons (ages 0 to 5) and Bouncing Dragons (ages 2 to 5) run on rotation at Stoke, Tunstall, Longton, Bentilee, Meir and City Central libraries from Monday 5 to Friday 9 October, mostly at 10.30am or 11am.
• Thu 8 Oct, Stoke Library: Christine Johnson returns at 10am.
• Sat 10 Oct, Stoke Market: Paige Turner Takes 10 (10am to 12pm), a story time with the "literary fairy", led by Jessica Simm.

What does it cost?

Not much, and that is the point. Most of the author events are £10. Olivia's comparison at the launch was "two pints at the Glebe". The Jess Kidd book club is £22.50 with a hardback included, Story Tea is £5, and everything else, which is the majority of the programme, is free.

The economics are worth understanding. Ticket income from the £10 events is what pays the visiting authors a fair fee. Sponsorship is what keeps the community workshops free, and keeping them free is the first thing any new money goes towards. So buying a ticket to see Mel Sherratt or AJ West is also, indirectly, paying for a toddler in Bentilee to have a free morning of songs.

Who is paying for it?

Sponsors so far include Starbots Creative, the Newcastle-under-Lyme agency that designed the festival's branding and website (the logo is two open books, though the team admits it was initially mistaken for a Slinky!), and YMCA North Staffordshire. Further conversations are ongoing.

The organisers are still actively looking for sponsors, with packages available at different levels: you can sponsor a single author event, a venue, or a community event. Enquiries go to hello@stokebookfestival.co.uk.

The volunteering response has been striking. Inspired Film, celebrating 20 years in business, has offered its full team to help run the week as a way of giving back to the city. Students from the city's sixth form college will film events across the festival. A public call for volunteers is due out imminently, with tickets offered as a thank you.

What happens next?

The team is clear that this year is a foundation. Everyone involved has a day job, the festival's social media accounts started from zero followers, and the aim is to establish an annual fixture that grows from here.

If it works, Stoke-on-Trent gets what plenty of smaller cities already have: a week each year when the place fills up with writers and readers, when local authors get a platform, and when children in a city with some of the worst literacy figures in the region get to meet the people who make the books.

How to get involved:

• Tickets and the full programme: stokebookfestival.co.uk
• Sponsorship, volunteering and general enquiries: hello@stokebookfestival.co.uk
• Follow @stokebookfestival for new events, which are still being added