We ran our first Foreword Festival in October 2023 in Bury St Edmunds. Since then, we’ve run book fairs and mini-festivals, and we’ve taken part in other events to promote our festival.
Here’s what we’ve been up to!
2024
We had an amazing day at our Young Adult Book Festival on Saturday 14th September! A huge thank you to Stowmarket Library for hosting the event, and to the Friends of Stowmarket Library for making the whole day possible. Check out our photos and book recommendations from the day!
Our Pay it Foreword event in August, raising money and awareness for charities and great causes, was a success! Thank you to Bury St Edmunds Library for hosting us, and to everyone who came along, met the authors and bought books. Every book made a difference!
Our authors and good causes:
Lynda Brignall – Suffolk Hedgehog Hospital
Jackie Carreira – Suffolk Libraries
Rachel Churcher – PTSD UK
AJ Deane – Inside Out Community
Elisabeth Sherriff – Autism Anglia
Urban Pigs Press – FIND
Russell Webb – The Fire Fighters Charity and Cancer Research UK
Thank you to everyone who came and said hello to the Foreword Festival team at the Primadonna Festival in July! We had a fantastic weekend, meeting authors, readers, and festival-goers. Special thanks to everyone who took part in our ten-word story challenge – you can read the amazing entries here!
Our Love Your Local Authors Valentine’s event in Bury St Edmunds was a fantastic showcase for Suffolk authors, and a great place to buy gifts – and treat yourself! Thank you to the Constitutional Club for hosting the event. Here’s the coverage from the Bury Flyer:
2023
The Constitutional Club in Bury St Edmunds was the venue for Festive Foreword, our 2023 Christmas Book Fair, bringing together readers and authors, and offering a warm place to sit on a very cold day, along with a full festive bar.
August 2023
We did it! It happened! The first literary fringe festival in the UK was an adventure, and a fantastic bookish weekend. A huge THANK YOU from your hosts, Jackie Carreira and Rachel Churcher, to all our authors, visitors and supporters. We couldn’t have done it without you!
We invited authors, independent publishers, and speakers from around the UK for a celebration of literature that’s outside the mainstream. We’ve played host to authors of graphic novels, SF and fantasy, comedy, poetry, children’s books, non-fiction and more, as well as offering workshops for writers, and help with getting your work into print.
We held our festival book fair, workshops, author panels and children’s storytelling in the gorgeous Guildhall in Bury St Edmunds – a building with 1000 years of history.
In addition, actors from the QuirkHouse Theatre Company gave FREE live readings of stories from our Fast Foreword flash fiction event on Saturday 7th October, at various venues in Bury St Edmunds.
