It started with an innocent question: Why are there no fringe literature festivals? There’s fringe theatre, comedy, film. Why not books?
The place was Bury St Edmunds. The time was strange, just as restrictions were beginning to ease during a pandemic that feels like a dream now. The people discussing the question were two authors, properly masked, two metres apart, and dripping in hand sanitiser behind a book stall – Jackie Carreira (that’s me), and Rachel Churcher.
For twelve years, I’d made a living as a musician playing bass guitar with various alternative indie and rock bands. After retiring in my thirties, I started a second life as a playwright and created QuirkHouse Theatre company with my husband, AJ Deane. We focused on new writing and taking performances to alternative spaces, so I’ve always been drawn to unconventional ways of doing things. Now, in a third life, I found myself in an arts centre, trying to sell my novels with a fellow writer at a time when people were still nervous about visiting public spaces. That’s when the question arose. Why is there no such thing as a fringe literature festival?
To my delight, Rachel was equally keen to find an answer. Google didn’t have one. So, in a fit of madness, we decided that if you can’t find it, you have to make it.
Scroll down to 2025 and we’re about to unleash the second Foreword Festival on the people of East Anglia. The first was in Bury St Edmunds over two days in October 2023. Then we organised some smaller events, each one an exhausting amount of work, but people seemed to like what we did.
This time we’re going to Stowmarket. We’ve never played by the rules of running a Book Festival, mostly because we didn’t know what the rules were. So, after being part of Stowmarket’s Primadonna Festival last year, we were inspired to become nomadic champions of literature on discovering that the town didn’t have a bookshop. We would turn Stowmarket into one big bookshop for a week. It might sound like a crazy plan… because it is!
Going from two days in a town we both knew well, to a whole week in a very different place should have been daunting. Being naively optimistic by nature, we jumped in with both feet and started speaking to venues and organisations in Stowmarket. What we found was remarkable and hugely encouraging. Just about everyone we approached, from local pubs to town councillors, said, ‘Great idea, count me in!’ And we did.
As I write this, there’s one week to go before the first event. Venues are booked, author talks and book fairs are arranged, and there’s just a few sleepless nights to go before we find out if anyone’s going to turn up!
What can people expect? From the 9th to 16th of August we hope to deliver something for people of all ages, and a book for every kind of reader. There are three book fairs – one featuring authors from Suffolk and Norfolk, one especially for children and young adults, and one with authors and small presses on the literary fringe, like science fiction, graphic novels, quirky novels, non-fiction, and more. There’s performance poetry featuring Battle Rapper, teacher, and YouTube star, Mark Grist.
We have author talks, including a panel of bestselling Romance authors, Heidi Swain, Jenni Keer, Clare Marchant, and Rachel Hore. Our headliner is debut novelist and Gavin & Stacey legend, Larry Lamb, which is sure to be a treat. And I’ll be speaking about my latest book, Notebook Number Nine, which is the first novel set in Stowmarket for 120 years!
There are workshops for readers and writers of all ages covering everything from poetry to hedgehogs! There’s a special exhibition of word and typewriter-themed art from Colin Latter and Josh Sutton, and street art displays from Holly Nicoll. There’s even a Foreword Festival Ale created by Roughacre Brewery.
Venues hosting events include Stowmarket Library, the Regal Cinema, John Peel Centre, Fox Yard Studio, the Food Museum, St Peter’s Church Hall, the Royal Oak and the town’s Family Market. As if that wasn’t enough, on Saturday the 9th there’ll be a Storytelling Trail for Grown-Ups all around the town, and most events will be free.
It’s been a crazy amount of work, and I often question why I put myself through this when I could be sitting in a café writing the next novel. But there’s one thing that Rachel and I have had in common from the start: we both believe in the power of books to inspire creativity and change lives.
Whatever the future holds for the Foreword Festival, that sentiment will never change.
For more information and updates visit www.forewordfestival.uk
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