From 10-13 October 2024, the festival will take over the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts with a range of panels, workshops, short film screenings, cabaret performances, storytelling events and more.

Click here for the full programme of events

The festival – a joint venture between New Writing South, Marlborough Productions and the Universities of Brighton and Sussex – was set up in 2019 to honour and celebrate queer literature. This is the second time that students from the universities have been asked to curate their own events.

Dr Vedrana Velickovic, Principal Lecturer in English Literature and an advisory board member for the festival, said: “We introduced this opportunity for University of Brighton and Sussex students to become co-curators at the festival last year. I was so impressed by their enthusiasm, professionalism and the quality of the events that they put together that we’ve decided to make this a regular feature of the programme. I am also delighted that our very own PhD student, award-winning spoken word artist AFLO the Poet, is our Poet in Residence this year.”

She added: “Working with a major literary festival helps the students to develop their employability skills and they also pick up plenty of transferable skills in event management. Every student taking my Queer Writing module will have a study trip to see both student-curated events and hopefully this will inspire the next generation of student curators to take this opportunity. I would like to think that we are also creating something bigger by fostering intergenerational queer conversations between students, lecturers and writers through our love of queer literature.”

In all, six students will be taking part: Nik Raspa, Dixon Turner and Maggie Swan from the University of Brighton, and Ari Williams, Annie-Mae Barker and Annie Kelesidou from Sussex.

Together, they have curated two events: Queer Fantastical (Re)-imaginings, which will see authors Saara El-Arifi, Lex Croucher and Dr Jean Menzies discuss the importance of Queer Fantasy in providing a space to explore the possibilities for queer life in our own world; and Suitable for All Ages (main image), in which young people’s diversity champion and award-winning, radical librarian Zoey Dixon will chat with children’s and Young Adult (YA) authors Susie Day and Tanya Byrne about the recent explosion of children’s books with queer themes.

Nik Raspa said: “As an English Language and Media student, I’ve really enjoyed working on the Coast Is Queer. I loved being able to contribute my ideas for the panels and getting to learn the practical side of organizing the event itself. I’m really passionate about queer fantasy as a genre, so I loved working on the Queer Fantastical (re)imaginings panel.”

Maggie Swan, Fashion and Design History BA(Hons), added: “I wanted to get involved in the literature festival because I felt it aligned perfectly with who I am as a person. As a queer book lover the festival means a lot to me and working on it has been incredible; the whole experience has made me even more excited for the festival, especially now I know how much love and work goes into it.”

A Queer Parent   Saturday 12 October, 1.30pm Dr Velickovic will chair this panel as podcasters Lotte Jeffs and Stu Oakley, and writer Ben Fergusson celebrate the highs and lows of queer parenting.

Writing the Night  Friday 11 October, 3.30pm Queer historian and Senior CMS Officer at the University, Alf Le Flohic will join a panel including DJ Paulette, activist Dan Glass and Brightonian Daren Kay to discuss how writers can translate the experience of queer nightlife to the page. Brighton’s nightlife Tzarina, Kathy Caton, will chair the discussion.