Zadie Smith, Patti Smith and Mustafa are among the star names to be interviewed by Dua Lipa, as the pop star reveals her presentation of this year’s London Literature Festival at the Southbank Centre.
The festival, now in its 19th year, will run from October 21 to November 1, with the British award-winning singer shaping a program of events in collaboration with her Service95 Book Club.
Lipa said that curating the event was a “true pleasure”, adding that she wanted to bring together “some of the most exciting writers, poets and thinkers from around the world” as well as more familiar names.
Lipa will sit down with Zadie Smith on October 24 to discuss her 2000 debut novel, White Teeth, which was published when Smith was just 24 years old. The pair are expected to “learn to live with the artistic legacy acquired at such a young age” and consider how the novel’s characters might be portrayed in Britain today.
The following night, she would interview Patti Smith about her memoir Bread of Angels, which describes Smith’s life from childhood to her marriage to Fred “Sonic” Smith and her return to music after his death.
The program will also include Sudanese Canadian poet and musician Mustafa, Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad discussing her memoir, I Choose My Beginning, and a conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Tarek Bakoni on Bakoni’s new book about Palestine.
Other events included a translated fiction showcase, a night of poetry and music with Kay Tempest, and Censorship Live! Including, which, together with the English PEN, is investigating the threats to free expression.
Lipa has quickly established herself as an advocate of reading. They launched their book club in 2023 as an extension of their broader cultural platform Service95, which features monthly selections and longer author interviews with authors including Margaret Atwood, George Saunders and Olga Tokarczuk. Last month, she opened a permanent collection of 100 banned, censored and challenged books inside the historic Livraria Lello bookshop in Porto, Portugal.
Mark Ball, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, said Lipa’s “deep curiosity about the world” made her the perfect curator for the venue’s 75th anniversary. “This is a milestone year and she is the perfect curator to help us celebrate it,” he said.
The literary festival also includes free family events and a wider national programme, part of the Southbank Centre’s efforts to reach one million people across the UK by 2026.
Last year, the festival was organized by Self Esteem, and previous headliners included Ai Weiwei, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Tom Hanks, and Yulia Navalnaya.
Tickets go on sale on August 3 for Southbank Center members, on August 4 for Service95 members and on August 5 for the general public.
