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Fast Foreword is back!

Our flash fiction competition, Fast Foreword, is back for the 2025 festival!

Text and an image of a typewriter against a bright green background. Text: Fast Foreword Flash Fiction Competition 2025. forewordfestival.uk

We’re looking for stories of 400 to 500 words – prose, not poetry. Quick, punchy narratives that you can sit and read in the time it takes you to enjoy a cuppa. Stories can be on any theme, in any genre. Just remember that this is a fringe literature festival, so weird and wonderful is encouraged, and more likely to be selected!

Taking part in the competition is FREE, and if you live in East Anglia (Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex and Cambridgeshire), you are invited to enter.

The winning stories, chosen by our panel of judges, will be read aloud to the public by professional actors in various locations around Stowmarket during the festival.

Check out photos and winning stories from the 2023 competition, and read a flash fiction sample to spark your imagination. We’re looking forward to reading your stories!

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We did it!

We had an amazing day at the Young Adult Book Festival on Saturday! A huge THANK YOU to Stowmarket Library for hosting the event, and to all the staff, volunteers and authors who spent the day making our celebration of Young Adult books and readers happen.

There are more photos on the YA Book Festival page, but here is our fantastic YA book recommendation board, with contributions from participants, authors, library staff – and even a couple from the Mayor of Stowmarket, who kindly gave the event an official opening for us.

Zoom in for some brilliant reading inspiration, and feel free to share your own Young Adult book recommendations in the comments.

Young Adult Book Recommendations from authors and participants pinned to a dark blue board.
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Young Adult Book Festival TODAY!

It’s TODAY!

Join us at Stowmarket Library, 10.30-4pm, for our very first Young Adult Book Festival – a day of meeting authors, author panels, interviews, activities and a YA book fair.

The Mayor of Stowmarket will be opening the event at 10.30 – don’t miss your chance to take part.

The festival is for readers aged 11-16 – tickets are FREE and available now!

Book your FREE ticket!

We’re welcoming eight Young Adult authors to Stowmarket, to bring you the best in YA books, author panels and discussions – plus a chance to meet the authors, ask questions and buy signed books!

If you’re outside the 11-16 age group, but you’d still like the meet the authors, the signing tables will be open to the public at Stowmarket Library all day. Don’t miss out!

Visit our YA Book Festival page for more information.

YA Book Festival

With thanks to our sponsors and supporters: Suffolk Libraries, Paul Wright Estate Agents, Harris & Harris Books, the East of England Co-op, and Taller Books.

Tell your friends! Pass it on! We’d love to see you there …

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Young Adult Book Fair – don’t miss out!

If you’re not in the target audience for tomorrow’s Young Adult Book Festival at Stowmarket Library, don’t despair! You are very welcome to join us in the library for our FREE Young Adult Book Fair, running alongside the festival events.

Meet our fantastic authors, ask questions, pick up signed books, and find your new favourite YA read! Our YA Book Fair will be running all day in the main body of the library, 10.30am to 4pm – no ticket required.

We’d love to see you there!

Young Adult Book Fair
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Young Adult Book Festival

We’re running a YA Book Festival TOMORROW!

Join us at Stowmarket Library, 10.30-4pm, for a day of meeting authors, author panels, interviews, activities and a YA book fair.

The festival is for readers aged 11-16 – tickets are FREE and available now!

Book your FREE ticket!

We’re welcoming eight Young Adult authors to Stowmarket, to bring you the best in YA books, author panels and discussions – plus a chance to meet the authors, ask questions and buy signed books!

Visit our YA Book Festival page for more information.

YA Book Festival

With thanks to our sponsors and supporters: Suffolk Libraries, Paul Wright Estate Agents, Harris & Harris Books, the East of England Co-op, and Taller Books.

Tell your friends! Pass it on! We’d love to see you there …

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Young Adult Book Festival – Activities!

Don’t forget to book tickets for our Young Adult Book Festival in Stowmarket THIS SATURDAY! Tickets are FREE, and the event is for readers aged 11-16.

We’ll have author panels, interviews, writing activities, and opportunities to meet the authors. It’s going to be a fantastic day!

Booking for the FREE tickets is now live on the Suffolk Libraries website.

If you know a reader aged 11-16 in Suffolk or beyond, please pass on the information. If you know a Scout or Guide leader, a teacher, a school librarian – please let them know about this opportunity for young people. We’d love to welcome them to Stowmarket library on Saturday September 14th!

Young Adult Book Festival activities
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Young Adult Book Festival – meet the authors!

Don’t forget to book tickets for our Young Adult Book Festival in Stowmarket ON SATURDAY! Tickets are FREE, and the event is for readers aged 11-16.

Today: Meet our YA Book Festival guest authors! As well as being one of the Foreword Festival co-organisers, Rachel Churcher is the author of the YA Dystopian Battle Ground Series, and the LGBTQ+ YA novel Angels.

Booking for the FREE tickets is now live on the Suffolk Libraries website.

If you know a reader aged 11-16 in Suffolk or beyond, please pass on the information. If you know a Scout or Guide leader, a teacher, a school librarian – please let them know about this opportunity for young people. We’d love to welcome them to Stowmarket library on Saturday September 14th!

Young Adult Book Festival – meet the authors
Posted on

Young Adult Book Festival – meet the authors!

Don’t forget to book tickets for our Young Adult Book Festival in Stowmarket ON SATURDAY! Tickets are FREE, and the event is for readers aged 11-16.

Today: Meet our YA Book Festival guest authors! Pam Smy is an author, illustrator and lecturer at Cambridge School of Art. Her YA books, Thornhill and The Hideaway are beautiful and haunting illustrated stories – half-way between a novel and a graphic novel.

Booking for the FREE tickets is now live on the Suffolk Libraries website.

If you know a reader aged 11-16 in Suffolk or beyond, please pass on the information. If you know a Scout or Guide leader, a teacher, a school librarian – please let them know about this opportunity for young people. We’d love to welcome them to Stowmarket library on Saturday September 14th!

Young Adult Book Festival – meet the authors
Posted on

Young Adult Book Festival – meet the authors!

Don’t forget to book tickets for our Young Adult Book Festival in Stowmarket ON SATURDAY! Tickets are FREE, and the event is for readers aged 11-16.

Today: Meet our YA Book Festival guest authors! Annaliese Avery has written several books for the mid-grade age range, but The Immortal Games is her first book for a YA audience. It’s a new twist on Greek gods and legends, and a brilliant read.

Booking for the FREE tickets is now live on the Suffolk Libraries website.

If you know a reader aged 11-16 in Suffolk or beyond, please pass on the information. If you know a Scout or Guide leader, a teacher, a school librarian – please let them know about this opportunity for young people. We’d love to welcome them to Stowmarket library on Saturday September 14th!

Young Adult Book Festival - meet the authors