Southbank Centre – Your literature update
Soul-warming stories
The sun might be hiding behind a cloud, but our literature programme is shining bright with newly announced shows like Letters Live, freshly released tickets for Goalhanger: The Rest Is Fest and fiction heavyweights including Dave Eggers.
Upcoming highlights
Dave Eggers in Conversation with Nick Hornby
WED 1 JUL
Art, life and the complicated beauty of both – Dave Eggers celebrates the launch of his novel Contrapposto in conversation with author Nick Hornby.
This event is Speech-to-Text transcribed.
Anish Kapoor in Conversation with Darian Leader
WED 8 JUL
Enter the remarkable world of Anish Kapoor: the internationally celebrated artist shares rare insight into his work with author and psychoanalyst Darian Leader.
This event is Speech-to-Text transcribed.
Discover new writers
Indie Night: June
WED 24 JUN
Toast to independent publishers in our new quarterly events, as we share readings from – and conversation about – books that defy the ordinary.
Just announced
The Moth Mainstage Live in London!
WED 9 SEP
Be in the room as real people take the mic to share unforgettable stories from their own lives.
Brutal(ism) Love and Hate
SUN 27 SEP
Visionary design or concrete nightmare? A panel of experts tackle brutalism’s rise, fall and future.
Nussaibah Younis: Fundamentally
FRI 16 OCT
Bitingly original, wildly funny, wickedly sharp: the author discusses her debut with Pandora Sykes.
Vikki Heywood & Francis Spufford: Hidden London
SAT 3 OCT
Unearth the hidden lives and forgotten acts of resilience and rebellion in 20th-century Britain.
New Goalhanger events
Goalhanger: The Rest Is Fest
FRI 4 – SUN 6 SEP
Don’t miss tickets for our newly announced Goalhanger events, with Stanley Tucci: Film, Food & Me, The Real Housewives of Regency England, Ancient Myths: Mary Beard & Josephine Quinn and The Three Ayatollahs: An Unbreakable Dynasty?
Cross-genre treats
It Sounds Like Courage
FRI 26 JUN
An unforgettable night of spoken word, music, and comedy shaped by migration, featuring poetry from Inua Ellams, Nikita Gill and Salena Godden.
Red Sky at Sunrise: Laurie Lee in Words and Music
THU 16 JUL
Spellbinding music plus the words of the inimitable 20th-century poet and writer Laurie Lee equals one extraordinary story.
Neoprene Genie: Dream Jump
THU 30 JUL
A captivating mix of speech, music, poetry and visuals untangles what it means to wish for the lives we desire in a world where dreaming feels so hard.
Poetry International Festival
Maggie Nelson
SAT 11 JUL
Ambition, patriarchy, Sylvia Plath, Taylor Swift – revered author Maggie Nelson reads from her latest book The Slicks, which unpacks it all.
Batool Abu Akleen & Alice Oswald
SUN 12 JUL
Kim Hyesoon & Paul Muldoon
SUN 12 JUL
Books for the music fan
An Evening with Rough Trade Books
FRI 17 JUL
Drop by for a night full of surprises, laughs and emotional jolts with a bumper crop of authors and their friends.
Win a signed copy of Max Porter’s book
We’re giving away one copy of All of This Unreal Time, signed by both Max Porter and Cillian Murphy, alongside a random selection of Rough Trade Books’ pamphlet collection.
To enter the competition, send an email to competitions@southbankcentre.
From our friends
Project a Black Planet: Events & Gatherings
FRI 12 JUN – SUN 16 AUG | BARBICAN CENTRE
Featuring talks, listening sessions, workshops and performances, this series of events and gatherings brings together artists, thinkers and communities from across Black diasporas.