Wole Soyinka and Sally Rooney will headline the Southbank Centre’s autumn season, while the organisation has also announced its London Literature Festival, which this year takes its theme and title from Rooney’s novel Conversations With Friends (Faber).
The season will see Nobel-Prize winning author Soyinka launch his first novel for 48 years, to be published in the UK by Bloomsbury.
The London Literature Festival is back at the Southbank Centre after a hiatus last year with the theme of friendship for 2021. There’ll be a whole host of talks, debates and performances over the 11-day event, with speakers including Tracey Thorn, Caleb Azumah Nelson, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Naomi Ishiguro, Kate Clanchy, Kate Mosse, Michael Rosen, Romalyn Ante, Christie Watson, Daisy May Cooper, Tolani Shoneye, Audrey Indome, Milena Sanchez, Jade LB, Candice Carty-Williams and Aniefok Ekpoudom. Ai Weiwei will also be in conversation about his new memoir, Elizabeth Day and Johny Pitts will record a live version of their BBC Radio 4 show Open Book, there’ll be a premiere performance of Heaven by Mieko Kawakami, live spoken word and poetry, and a whole lot more.
