9th-16th August 2025 – Stowmarket, Suffolk, UK
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About Us
Meet the team behind the Foreword Festival, and find out where it all started. Plus meet our sponsors and supporters, and find out what else we’ve been up to!
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Foreword Festival Beer
Don’t miss our limited-edition Foreword Festival Beer! It’s a zesty, summery pale ale, perfect for drinking while you sit and enjoy your new books in the sunshine.
Buy limited edition beer!
Find Our Venues
How to get to Stowmarket, where to park, and how to find the Foreword Festival venues.
Flash Fiction Competition
The Foreword Festival Fast Foreword Flash Fiction Competition winners have been announced! Winning stories were perfomed live on August 9th at the festival by actors from Quirkhouse Theatre.
Publishing Workshops
Our festival sponsor, Stowmarket-based Softwood Books, ran three publishing workshops during our book fair on August 9th. If you’re thinking about editing, publishing and publicity for your book, this is a great place to start!
Larry Lamb Author Talk
We welcomed Larry Lamb to the festival! The ‘Gavin and Stacey’ actor told stories from his career and talked about his new book, ‘All Wrapped Up’, live and in person at the Regal Cinema.
Romance Authors in Conversation
Four of East Anglia’s best-loved writers of contemporary, historical, and romantic fiction joined us, live and in person, at the Regal Cinema!
Author Talk: Dr Michael J Walker
Dr Mike Walker explained how an historian works, using a case study that brought to life the little-known but crucial local events of 1173 in Haughley and Fornham!
Author Talk: Russell Webb
Have you ever wondered what makes someone start writing a book? Retired firefighter Russell Webb as he told his personal story of writing, healing, and mental health in an inspiring free lunchtime talk.
Author Talk: Jackie Carreira
Jackie Carreira – writer, playwright, musician, co-founder of the Foreword Festival, and author of the first novel set in Stowmarket for 120 years (we Googled it!) gave an evening talk at the John Peel Centre Cafe.
Children’s Poetry: Elisabeth Sherriff
Elisabeth’s poetry workshop was all about creating your own wild and wonderful words, be it on your pet dog, doughnuts or your favourite dinosaur.
Children’s Talk: Lynda Brignall
Lynda visited Stowmarket Library to talk all about hedgehogs! Lynda volunteers at Suffolk Hedgehog Hospital, she will used some of the beautiful graphics from her second book about hedgehogs in her interactive talk.
Writing Workshop: Rachel Churcher
Award-winning YA author Rachel Churcher‘s writing workshop explored the power of person and tense in your writing, and using these tools to develop stories and engage readers.
Poetry and Spoken Word Night
A feast of performance poetry, this special event featured award-winning poet and Battle Rapper Mark Grist, plus James Domestic, Amy Wragg, Sam Marsh and Lorna Mackinnon, all MC’d by AJ Deane.
Love Your Local Authors Book Fair
This literary feast, celebrated East Anglian authors and small presses. Readers discovered their new favourite authors, picked up signed copies of their books, and enjoyed the pop-up cafe!
Fringe Literature Book Fair
A colourful and diverse host of amazing authors and small presses from around the country brought all kinds of fiction, non-fiction, Sci Fi, Fantasy, Poetry, Graphic novels to the Fringe Book Fair!
Children’s and YA Market Stall
Books for children and teenagers were featured at the free Family-Friendly Market in Stowmarket! Readers met the authors, found their new favourite stories, and took home signed copies of their books!
Writing and Art
Artists Josh Sutton and Colin Latter brought their distinctive styles and subject matter to the Old Fox Gallery for a fantastic exhibition of art inspired by writers, books, and typewriters.
Don’t miss out – join our mailing list for festival updates and news!
Our Sponsors
Sponsorship Opportunites
We’re looking for businesses in and around Stowmarket to support our not-for-profit, volunteer-led event. We’re a Community Interest Company, run by volunteers, and we believe in working together to make sure everybody benefits from their involvement in our events.
If you would like to add your logo to our publicity, and sponsor an aspect of the festival, we’d love to work with you!
Latest News
Thank you!
The Foreword Festival is over for 2025! We’ve sold our last book, performed our last poem, and waved goodbye to our final authors of the week. Before we all collapse[…]
Read moreNot Your English Teacher’s Poetry Night!
If you haven’t made it to any of the Foreword Festival events yet, don’t miss our punk and performance poetry night on Friday – it’s going to be amazing! Book[…]
Read moreForeword Festival Beer
We’ve teamed up with the wonderful Roughacre Brewery to produce a limited-edition Foreword Festival Beer! It’s a zesty, summery pale ale, perfect for drinking while you sit and enjoy your[…]
Read more
Foreword Festival UK C.I.C.
Company number 16233911