Festival News

The important role that festivals play in the publishing world will be the topic under discussion at Frankfurt Book Fair on 4pm on 7 October. Join Lavinia Frey ILB (International Literature Festival Berlin), Isobel Abulhoul Emirates Airline Festival of Literature, Julie Finch Hay Festival Global, Nermin Mollaoglu ITEF – Istanbul International Literature Festival and Govind Deecee Kerala Literature Festival for Literature Festivals in a Changing World: Culture, Community, and the Power of Stories

If you are going to Frankfurt and would like to join the GAoLF networking reception that follows the discussion, email carmel.rosato@emirateslitfest.com for an invitation.

Many thanks to Lavinia Frey at ILB for this opportunity at Frankfurt Book Fair.

The 26th International Literature Festival Berlin (ILB) began yesterday, running until 12 September.  Under the theme ‘You are born with your face turned everywhere’, the ILB celebrates the connection between literature and music, performance and dance. Highlights include readings and conversations with Nobel Prize-winning author Han Kang, Ben Lerner, Christian Kracht, Cornelia Funke, Christopher Clark, Adania Shibli and Dave Eggers. Patron Boualem Sansal appears in Berlin for the first time since his release from imprisonment in Algeria. Numerous actors perform German texts on stage, including Ulrich Matthes, Martina Gedeck and Charly Hübner. The Curator in Residence program, this year led by Indian writer, poet and musician Jeet Thayil, has developed into a ‘festival within the festival’. Described as a ‘jam session’ in which art forms and cultures collide, it features Tishani Doshi, Omar Musa, Mohammed Hanif and a specially assembled jazz trio, the ILB House Band, led by Diego Piñera, accompanying authors on stage.

New Zealand’s WORD Christchurch Festival 2026 is taking place 1-6 September, with the theme ‘Making Waves’. The international line-up includes Booker Prize-winning novelist Shehan Karunatilaka, acclaimed UK author and critic Olivia Laing (beaming in digitally), Australian writer Nam Le, and prominent international authors Richard Ford and Ben Macintyre. Kiwi icons and  literary figures include Māori activist and artist Tāme Iti, rock legend Jon Toogood, former Deputy Prime Minister Grant Robertson, and acclaimed authors Eleanor Catton, Charlotte Grimshaw, Ingrid Horrocks, Tina Makereti, and Elizabeth Knox.

The Open Book Festival in Capetown, 4-6 September, featuring 60 events with more than 100 local and international participants, has I.O. Echeruo, Gabeba Baderoon, Sue Nyathi, Kopano Matlwa, Krystle Zara Appiah, Mia Arderne, and Selali Fiamanya in the line-up.

Filba International Festival has announced its full programme. The festival takes place from 30 September to 4 October in Buenos Aires. Headliners include Claire Keegan, Emmanuel Carrère, and Camila Sosa Villada. Other highlights include panel discussions with filmmaker Lucrecia Martel, a live podcast recording with Lucía Lijtmaer and Isa Calderón, and writing workshops with Sebastiano Mauri. The festival has a main theme that focuses on habitat, ways of living and the city. See the full programme.

Montclair Literary Festival (New Jersey) has a one-off publication-day event on 8 September with Harlan Coben for his memoir Plot Twist, moderated by best-selling author Taffy Brodesser-Akner.

The Chiswick Book Festival (London) begins 9 September with Kate Mosse with her reflections on Autumn, Ben Macintyre with his new novel Redwood, Anthony Seldon with his latest book on Prime Ministers, plus Adele Parks, Tony Parsons, Nick Clegg and Charles Cumming.

The Read My World Festival takes place from 10 to 12 September at the Amsterdamse Tolhuistuin. The 14th edition of this international literature festival centres on the theme of “Oceanic Solidarity”. It features special guest writers, artists, and thinkers from Maluku and West Papua sharing stories of memory, resistance, and solidarity. Other key speakers are Samuel Yohanes Glenn M., Pierre Ajawaila, Dalilla Hermans, Isaiah Lopaz, Asmaa Azaizeh, Jessica Manuputty, Massih Hutak, BOI AKIH, and Oridek Ap.

Leading curator, broadcaster and editor Ted Hodgkinson is to join the Hay Festival Global team in the new role of Creative Director this autumn, moving from his post as Head of Literature and Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre in London, Europe’s largest arts complex.

The new Artistic Director at Sydney Writers Festival will be Tam Zimet, who joins from Edinburgh International Book Festival, where she was programme director.

Congratulations to Ted and Tam!

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Industry News

For Vanity Fair, Maxwell Adler investigates the ways in which AI is—or isn’t—changing the business of ghostwriting celebrity memoirs. Some of his sources point out that ghostwriters are more than just people who churn out pages; they are true collaborators, who might push their clients to get vulnerable or challenge aspects of a narrative that seem dubious. That’s not a role AI can easily fill. In fact, one source says that the demand for elite ghostwriters has risen in recent years. “In the end, some people don’t care how a story was written as long as what they’re reading is good and convincing,” Adler writes. “Others, however, still believe they have a right to know whether an author received help from AI or a ghostwriter. And a good amount are simply concerned that our increased reliance on AI will make most of us dumber, poorer, and more subservient.”

Last week, Google launched a licensing platform called Expert Intelligence which will allow users to ask an AI chatbot questions about a given book through the platform’s Gemini Notebook, Publishers Marketplace writes. The initiative is permission-based and over one hundred thousand books are currently available for Expert Intelligence, mostly nonfiction or academic titles.

Artist and musician Laurie Anderson has been selected as the thirteenth person to contribute a manuscript to the Future Library project, the Guardian reports. The Future Library Trust has commissioned writers including Margaret Atwood, Han Kang, and Ocean Vuong to contribute writing which will be locked away in a specially designed room at the public library in Oslo until 2114. At that time, the full anthology will be printed on paper made from spruce trees in the Future Library forest in northern Oslo. “I’m hoping to be able to write something useful about love for the people who will read this in 2114,” Anderson said. “My favorite books are the ones in which I can hear someone’s voice, which is why I’ll try my best to make myself clear to the people who come across these books in the next century.”

Emily Wilson isn’t letting herself relax despite the fact that her translation of The Odyssey (Norton, 2017) is one of the best-selling books of the summer, the Associated Press reports. Instead, she’s preparing to translate the whole thing again. Wilson told the AP that her translation methods have gotten more sophisticated and she sees problems with her first effort that she would like to address in a new, longer edition. Wilson “has poured so much of her life and scholarship into The Odyssey,” Peter Simon, her editor, said. “Her new approach is bound to be thrilling.”

Gloria Steinem, the American feminist and journalist whose activism helped push through greater rights for women around the world has died, aged 92.

The winners of the 2026 Hugo Awards—one of science fiction and fantasy’s most prestigious awards, decided by popular vote of all eligible WorldCon members—were presented at the 84th World Science Fiction Convention in sunny Los Angeles, CA. See the full list of winners.

The Caine Prize for African Writing, which awards £10,000 annually to the best short story by an African writer living on the continent or in the diaspora, has announced its 2026 shortlist. These five writers were selected from a record 407 entries from 27 African countries: Gladwell Pamba (Kenya) for “The Last Shop,” Jahazi Press (August 2024); Melara Mvogdobo (Cameroon) for “Dieu Merci!,” Literatur.Review (August, 2025);Akinwande Jordan (Nigeria) for “So Long Now It’s Starting To Look Like Eternity,” Naira Books (February 2026); Yasmine Zohdi (Egypt) for “The Absence of Stains,” The Republic (August 2025); and Simbarashe Steyn Kundizeza (Zimbabwe) for “The Blue Fighter,” The Shallow Tales Review, (June 2024). The winner of the 2026 Caine Prize will be announced at a ceremony in London in October and will then be presented with the Prize in their country of origin.

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