Roll on Autumn: Dua Lipa’s London Literature Festival
- L.S.
- 4 days ago
- 2 min read
From Wednesday 21st October to Sunday 1st November 2026, the Southbank Centre will continue its 75th birthday celebrations with a programme curated by one of contemporary pop culture’s most iconic figures, Dua Lipa.
The line-up celebrates writers, poets, and thinkers from around the globe. In conversation with headliners Patti Smith, Zadie Smith and Mustafa, Dua Lipa will lift the lid on artistic legacy, the healing potential of art and the power of artistic freedom.
With readings, showcases and live music, the wider festival promises to be an open space for public debate and discussion. Human rights activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad will share her powerful story of survival and reclamation as she presents her memoir, I Choose My Beginning, while prize-winning novelist, memoirist and filmmaker Xiaolu Guo will deliver the 2026 New Statesman Goldsmiths Prize Lecture on the creation of fiction in the age of artificial intelligence.
Dua Lipa has done a lot for literature. Her Service95 Book Club strives to amplify emerging voices and deepen discourse surrounding some of society’s most pressing concerns. Earlier this year, the singer opened a library in Porto, the Manifesto Library: a permanent collection of 100 books housed within the cultural auditorium at Livraria Lello. The collection includes titles tackling themes of Power, Control, Voice and Memory, including literary classics such as Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Satanic Verses and The Unbearable Lightness of Being.
Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature & Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre, said: “London Literature Festival has always been a celebration of the joys and pleasures of reading, and in Dua Lipa we have a curator who embodies that completely. Her programme reflects the full depth and breadth of her passion for books: from fierce new sensibilities pushing the boundaries of the form, to some of the most iconic writers at work today. This range and diversity reflects everything the Southbank Centre stands for, as we honour our roots and look ahead to the future.”
Tickets go on sale to the general public on Wednesday 5th August.
For the full programme, visit:
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