Previous Writeidea Festival events

Following the success of last year’s Writeidea, we were excited to be bringing the festival back to the beautiful Bethnal Green Library. 

For this, our 13th year, we are brought new and established writers and artists to Writeidea, with 27 separate events taking place over the weekend- and all free. As always, we had a great line up talking about everything from mudlarking to housing, health to restoration, politics to cookery. Speakers included Faiza Shaheen, Alex Wheatle, Robin Ince, Kate Hodges, Miki Berenyi and Lara Maiklem.

See photos from Writeidea 2023

We welcomed back the much-missed Writeidea Festival after a two year absence to a new venue at Bethnal Green Library - a fitting location, which has served the people of the East End for generations. New and established writers and artists entertained and engaged with audiences at 25 separate events over two days. Highlights included comedians Tez Ilyas & Eshaan Akbar, Ben Aaronovich, Siobhan MacGowan, Vivi Lachs and Sarah Lee.

See photos from Writeidea 2022.

See videos from Writeidea 2022

The eleventh edition of the Writeidea Festival, continued to provide a very diverse programme with a combination of well-known names with emerging writers, all bringing their own local, national and international perspective on fiction and non-fiction writing. We were particularly pleased to include writers suggested by the public. With over 40 events on offer over the weekend, our speakers covered a range of themes, genres and topics along with dance, music and spoken word poetry performances.

See photos from Writeidea 2019.

Writeidea 2018 was the 10th anniversary of the WriteIdea festival. When we organised our first Idea Store reading festival 10 years ago we just wanted to celebrate the wonderful pleasure of reading by organising some literary events for Tower Hamlets residents – we never imagined that over the years our festival would earn a reputation as an important date in London’s cultural calendar. Once again, we had over 40 events on offer. Our speakers covered a range of themes, genres and topics such as memoir, mystery, history, identity, cookery, politics, poetry and of course music. There were also dance performances and storytelling.

See the photos from Writeidea 2018.

With over 40 events on offer over the weekend, Writeidea 2017 opened with the return of the ever-popular Gentle Author and his latest illustrated talk on 20th century East End artists. On Saturday our team from the Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives on Bancroft Road brought us a choice of quality talks spanning the last 300 years. We were entertained with tales of music, archaeology, conflict, cultural identity, sexuality, family roots and even football! Our storytelling and comedy sessions brought magic and laughter.

See the photos from Writeidea 2017.

Writeidea 2016 was once again, truly a people’s event, with many authors suggested by local people, and others chosen from an ever wider range of fiction and non-fiction writers and performers. Highlights included

• Polari - London’s award-winning LGBT literary salon
• architectural historian and television presenter Dan Cruickshank
• novelist and screenwriter Catherine Johnson
• graphic novel pioneers Bryan and Mary Talbot
• Poet Dean Atta
• postpunk legend Brix Smith Start
• artist Peter Kennard and Ann Cleeves, the bestselling author behind ITV’s Vera and BBC’s Shetland.

See the photos from Writeidea 2016.

In 2015 we remained true to our aim of combining well-known names with emerging writers, all bringing their own local, national and international perspective on fiction and non-fiction writing. Speakers included the marvellous Iain Sinclair; Young Adult authors Holly Bourne, J james Dawson, Non Pratt and Dawn Kurtagich; global bestselling author Dorothy Koomson; Crime Writers Nicci French (Nicci Gerrard and Sean French); Award-winning and popular children’s poet Michael Rosen; music legend Viv Albertine and many more.

See the photos from Writeidea 2015.

In 2014, we had a wide range of international, national and local authors and performers covering novels and short story writing, history, journalism, poetry, music, comedy, photography and television writing. There were thought provoking and lively debates, riveting excursions into the past, fascinating journeys through the imagination, literary globetrotting, self-deprecating humour, satire and much more. Speakers included

• Writer and activist, Tariq Ali
• Jake Arnott
• Xiaolu Guo
• Comedic author Nikesh Shukla
• poet, spoken word artist and stand up Kate Fox
• historian Tom Holland
• Nadifa Mohamed
• journalist and writer Owen Jones and many more.