Birmingham Literature Festival announces Guest Curators for 2022:

Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey, writer and editor Paul McVeigh and journalist and writer Otegha Uwagba.

Birmingham Literature Festival, which will run 6-9 October 2022, has today announced that Casey Bailey, Paul McVeigh and Otegha Uwagba will join the team as Guest Curators for this year.

With interests including poetry, politics, performance, journalism, short stories and education, the three Guest Curators bring an enormous range of creativity to the 2022 Birmingham Literature Festival.

As Guest Curators, Casey, Paul and Otegha will work alongside the Birmingham Literature Festival team to programme events which interest them personally, or speak to their areas of expertise and experience.

 

Casey Bailey said:

“It is a real honour to be asked to take the role of Guest Curator for this year’s Birmingham Literature Festival and particularly to share the role with two stunning writers. I can’t wait to turn the ideas that have been lighting up my brain into reality.”

Paul McVeigh said:

“I’m honoured to be one of the three authors guest curating this year’s festival. I want to shine a light on LGBTQ+ voices and some wonderful authors from Ireland.”

Otegha Uwagba said:

“I’m thrilled to have been asked to take part in BLF as a guest curator. Being given the freedom to explore some of the most challenging cultural conversations of our time – and to do so alongside writers whose work I deeply admire – is a real privilege, and I can’t wait to get stuck in.”

 

Birmingham Literature Festival has appointed a Guest Curator annually since 2018, when journalist and writer Sathnam Sanghera took on the role for the first year. He was succeeded by broadcaster and writer Stuart Maconie, then writer and activist Kit de Waal.

 

Jonathan Davidson, Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands – which runs Birmingham Literature Festival – said:

“As a literature festival in one of England’s most creative and diverse cities, the Birmingham Literature Festival will benefit enormously from the energy, talent and commitment of these three wonderful writers. Having had a couple of rather testing years, we are looking forward to bringing people to Birmingham to meet new writers, discuss great ideas and celebrate the written and performed word in all its many forms.”

 

Birmingham Literature Festival returns in October 2022 in venues across the city centre, for live in-person events. Some events will be livestreamed with captions available for those who require them, and some will then be released throughout the autumn as podcast recordings on the Birmingham Lit Fest Presents… podcast, available for free from all podcast providers.

The programme for Birmingham Literature Festival 2022 will be published in early August 2022.

For tickets and full details of events, see www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org.