Spring 2023
Lit Fest Springs Back!
Sinclair McKay - 50 Codes That Changed the World...
Friday 14 April, Waterstones Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes, 6pm: £8
.... and your chance to solve them. Sinclair McKay (bestselling author of Bletchley Park Brainteasers and Secret Britain) will reveal uncrackable codes, secret cyphers and hidden messages, from the spectacular achievements of Bletchley Park to a thousand years of codebreaking history.
John Grindrod - Iconicon
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library Event Space, 10am: £8
Join MK-based writer John Grindrod in conversation about his witty and diverting architectural odyssey Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain. Looking at what has been built since 1980, John will be exploring what that tells us about our dreams and reality as a nation.
The Art of the Short Story - Masterclass with Tom Conaghan
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library, Community Learning, 11am: £15
Tom Conaghan, the editor of Scratch Books, talks us through the methods and processes of the most brilliant short story writers (including Sarah Hall, Tessa Hadley, George Saunders, and Jon McGregor) to explore what makes good openings, strong escalations and breathtaking endings. We'll learn how different writers decide what's 'good enough'.
Kit de Waal - Without Warning and Only Sometimes
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library Event Space, 11.30am: £8
Kit de Waal's memoir, Without Warning and Only Sometimes, is the story of an extraordinary childhood. Join the award-winning writer in conversation about how a girl who grew up in a house where the Bible was the only book on offer went on to discover a love of reading that inspires her to this day.
Pick a Story - Sarah Coyle [Children's Event: Age group 5 - 9]
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library, Children's Library, 1pm: £5
Join author Sarah Coyle for a unique Pick A Story event where the audience decides what happens every step of the way! Do you want to fight the pirates? Bake with unicorns? Pick souvenirs for aliens on their holidays? The choice is all yours.
Lizzie Damilola Blackburn - Yinka, Where Is Your Huzband?
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library Event Space, 1pm: £8
Discover MK's bestselling author and her sparkling debut. Lizzie won the Literary Consultancy Pen Factor Writing Competition with the early draft of Yinka, Where is your Huzband?, now a Times bestseller and one of Marie Claire’s Books of 2022. She has been at the receiving end of the question in the title of her novel many times.
Schooling the Strange - Poetry Workshop with John McCullough
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library, Community Learning Classroom, 1.30pm: £20 (Places limited)
Hawthornden and Polari Prize winning poet and MK Lit Fest favourite John McCullough, returns - in-person at last! - to run a workshop that will help you to surprise yourself - as well as your readers - by trying new approaches and techniques in your poetry.
Jennifer Saint - Atalanta
Saturday 15 April 2023, Central Milton Keynes Library Event Space, 2.30pm: £8
The no. 1 bestselling author of Ariadne and Elektra joins us with her brand-new novel, Atalanta. Discover how Jennifer Saint brings the formidable heroine and her adventures amidst the Argonauts to vibrant life in her vivid reimagining of Greek mythology.
Rhian Tracey - Secrets and Spies [Children's Event: Age group 8+]
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library, Children's Library, 3pm: £5
Rhian will share her inside knowledge about what really went on at Bletchley Park during the war, and the inspiration behind her team of spies in her new book, I, Spy, inspired by true events. You will also get the chance to learn how to create a Codebreaking Character when you put your own spying skills to the test.
MinK 2023 Anthology Launch - Green Spaces in the City
Saturday 15 April, Central Milton Keynes Library Event Space, 4pm: £Free
Join us and the winners of our 2023 Creative Writing Competition, Green Spaces in the City, as we hear them read their winning poems and short stories and launch the publication of our third anthology of local and regional writing.
Russell Jones - The Decade in Tory
Saturday 15 April, Waterstones Midsummer Place, Milton Keynes, 6pm: £8
Join Russell Jones on The Decade in Tory, his inglorious, rollicking and entirely true account of ten years of demonstrable lies, relentless incompetence and epic waste oozing from 10 Downing Street. With his signature scathing wit, it will leave you gasping and wondering: can things possibly get any worse?
Write about Walking A/Way - free creative writing workshop with walk•listen•create
Sunday 16 April 2023, Zoom, 4pm: £Free
Our partners at walk•listen•create invite you to a free online creative writing workshop to inspire you to submit written pieces in their Write About Walking A/way competition, launching at the workshop, and to help you see the wide range of ways in which you could interpret this theme.