Fiction at MK Lit Fest!
'Home': MinK2025 Prizewinners Ceremony and Anthology Launch
Thursday 10 April 2025, The Parks Trust Pavilion, Campbell Park, 6.30pm; Free (donations welcome)
Celebrate the winners of our 2025 Creative Writing Competition – exploring the theme of 'Home' – as author Michael Stewart awards the prizes and introduces readings by the winning writers, and we launch MinK#5, our latest anthology of the best local writing.
Poetry in the Pavilion: Will Burns and Hannah Copley with Caroline Davies
Thursday 10 April 2025, The Parks Trust Pavilion, Campbell Park, 7.45pm; £10/£7
As a new wave of nature-writing in poetry explores our vital and threatened relationship with the environment and the flora and fauna with which we share it, two superb poets share their work and discuss how they address the natural world.
Free Speech and the Politics of Literature - Panel Event (in-person or livestream)
Friday 11 April 2025, Waterstones Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes, 6.00pm - 7.00pm; £10/£7/£Free
Literature has always been on the front line in debates about free speech – and never more so than today. Join a panel of writers (Aki Schilz, Henry Porter, Sabrina Mahfouz and Dónall Mac Cathmhaoill) whose distinct experiences and expertise on the issue of freedom of expression can help make sense of our paradoxical times.
Kaliane Bradley: The Ministry of Time with Eley Williams (in-person or livestream)
Friday 11 April 2025, Waterstones Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes, 7.30pm - 8.30pm; £10/£7/£5
In Kaliane Bradley’s astonishing debut novel, The Ministry of Time, a mysterious government ministry gathers ‘expats’ from history to test the limits of time travel. In this fabulous fusion of genre and ideas, she asks how you can defy history when history is living in your house?
Anna February: The Hive (Young Adult)
Saturday 12 April 2025, Central MK Library, 12noon - 1.00pm; £5
Anna February's debut YA novel is a thrilling dystopian murder mystery set in a ruthless future monarchy. Young bodyguard Feldspar awaits execution, guilty of living when her charge lies dead. With just one defender, a royal maverick, on her side, she has three days to uncover the truth…
Raising Voices: A Chorus of Local Writers (in-person or livestream)
Saturday 12 April 2025, Waterstones Midsummer Place, 5.00pm - 6.30pm; Free (donations welcome)
Tales from the city, from green spaces, from home. From Midsummer, Midwinter, Lammas, the future, the past and more... Join us for a medley of readings chosen from our #MinK anthologies and online events that celebrate the depth and quality of the local writing shared over the last eight festival years.
Mark Billingham: The Wrong Hands with Sarah Pinborough (in-person or livestream)
Saturday 12 April 2025, Waterstones Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes, 7.30pm - 8.30pm; £10/£7/£5
Multi-bestselling Mark Billingham – one of our most acclaimed and popular crime writers – brings his brilliant, twisty new detective novel The Wrong Hands to MK, in conversation with internationally bestselling author Sarah Pinborough. Join us for a criminally entertaining festival finale!
Dreams for Beltane: celebrating the First of May
Thursday 1 May 2025, Zoom, 7.00pm - 8.00pm; £3/£2 (selected writers enter free)
Whether you celebrate ancient pagan ritual, International Labour Day or any of the other anniversaries that 1 May marks, submit your poetry, flash fiction or creative non-fiction for our online event, Dreams for Beltane. Entries close on 12 April 2025.
You and Me: local writers mark International Day of Friendship
Wenesday 30 July 2025, Zoom, 7.00pm - 8.00pm; £3/£2 (selected writers enter free)
Friendship is one of the foundations of human experience. Young or old, male or female, single or married, straight or otherwise, our friends are a source of joy, comfort, support - and sometimes otherwise! Submit your poem, flash fiction or creative non-fiction for our online event, You and Me. Entries close on 30 June 2025.