A big welcome to the festivals who have joined us in the last few weeks – Pen World Voices Festival (USA), Bay Tales Live (UK), the Atlanta International Poetry Festival (USA) and Borderlines Carlisle Book Festival (UK) who becomes our 100th member!

This week its Catherine Platt, Executive Director of the Hong Kong International Literary Festival in the spotlight. Find out about her literary festival journey here.

The Brussels Planetarium Poetry Festival kicks off tonight at 7pm CEST with programming taking place at the same time on Saturday 11 September as well. What is special about this festival is that all performers have created a unique piece for the Brussels Planetarium dome, and their texts and recordings of their work are being translated by the Planetarium technicians into a dome projection “using existing – in some cases even specially acquired – images, 3D-projection models, photo’s and results of scientific research.”

Bournville Bookfest 2021 takes place this weekend September 10-12 with family-focused literary activities for children aged 0-12 including storytelling events and author performances with characters such as Pippi Longstocking and for older children, a workshop on ‘How to Rap’

The 2021 Brooklyn Book Festival is running September 26 – October 4 featuring Sjon, Paul Auster, Diane Cook, Joyce Carol Oates, amongst many others. Read more about it here.

The DESIblitz Literature Festival 2021, the UK’s leading South Asian Literature Festival, opens in Birmingham on 18 September until 1 October with free in-person and digital events, except for the headline events featuring Sathnam Sanghera and Nikesh Shukla and a panel event on cultural representation in literature.

Tickets have now gone on sale for The Stories Festival, in association with Netflix and the Evening Standard which will take place from 24-26 September featuring amongst many others, Ricky Gervais, Naoise Dolan, Candice Brathwaite, Robert Harris, Nikesh Shukla, Daisy Buchanan, Rob Biddulph, Holly Smale, Kate Moss, and singer Will Young.

The Bath Children’s Literature Festival (24 September to 3 October) will include Cressida Cowell, Sophy Henn, Kristina Stephenson, Dapo Adeola, Steven Lenton, Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet, Sophie Dahl, Laura Dockrill, David O’Doherty, Liz Pichon, Jasbinder Bilan, Stephen and Anita Mangan, Rob Biddulph, Pamela Butchart, Adam Kay and Joe Wicks.

Wigtown Book Festival is welcoming audiences and authors back to Scotland’s National Book Town this autumn following last year’s digital-only event. Taking as its theme, ‘Hello Stranger’, the 2021 festival from September 22 to October 4 will be two days longer than in previous years, with more than 140 events for adults and young people, around half the pre-Covid number. Authors attending in person include novelists Val McDermid, Francis Spufford and Salena Godden, philosopher AC Grayling, broadcaster Rory Cellan-Jones and biographer Emma Soames. The Wigtown Poetry Prize will also return.

Susanna Clarkewins the Women’s Prize for Fiction for ‘truly original’ Piranesi, her first novel in seventeen years. Judge Bernardine Evaristo commented that “She has created a world beyond our wildest imagination that also tells us something profound about what it is to be human.”

A writer reflects on the changes in book promotion and marketing since publishing his first book in 1994: “Google matters too. Most titles nowadays are chosen for search engine optimisation. If War and Peaceappeared today, someone at the publishers might insist on renaming it Dating Hot Russian Women.”

And while on the subject of Tolstoy, a delightful article in LitHub discusses Tolstoy’s decision to become a vegetarian and the recipe for mac and cheese ‘AKA Mac and Peace’ that comes from Leo Tolstoy: A Vegetarian’s Tale: Tolstoy’s Family Vegetarian Recipes Adapted for the Modern Kitchen.

Ahead of the anniversary of 9/11 NPR has released a list of books that can help children learn about what happened.

Another themed Top 10 book list from The Guardian – this time suggesting the best reads about long distance relationships, from The Time Traveler’s Wife to Paddington Bear’s letters to his Aunt Lucy.

A Kerala village has books available to read for free in ‘nests’ along the roadside. More info here.

Do you have a preferred reading spot? For Gabrielle Union that spot is the bathroom.

Here are 15 books The Washington Post wants you to check out this autumn. Return to the world of Wicked through the eyes of Elphaba’s granddaughter, and watch what happens when one of the world’s richest women fakes her own death to enjoy the glowing obituaries.

10 new crime, mystery and thriller reads coming out this week are compiled in this Crime Reads list.