The Black British Book Festival will return to London’s Barbican Centre on Sunday, 4 October, bringing writers, musicians, poets, scientists and publishers together for its fifth edition.

Founded by Selina Brown, the festival has grown since its launch in 2021 into one of Britain’s largest gatherings devoted to Black literature and culture. This year’s programme will feature more than 80 authors and cultural figures across more than 35 events, with conversations and performances covering everything from publishing and poetry to science, money and music.

The festival’s headline programme reflects that broad approach.

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Novelist Candice Carty-Williams will open the main programme at the Barbican Theatre at 1pm in a conversation centred on Queenie, her 2019 debut novel, and the themes of love, identity and contemporary Black womanhood that made it a defining work of recent British fiction.

At 3pm, musician Corinne Bailey Rae will speak with writer Emma Dabiri about sound, creativity and artistic freedom. Twenty years after “Put Your Records On” made her internationally known, Bailey Rae has continued to move between music and other creative forms, including children’s publishing.

Rapper Wretch 32 will follow at 5pm with a conversation about the relationship between rap and literature. The session, titled “Bars as Literature”, will examine the craft of writing lyrics and the literary possibilities of hip-hop.

The headline programme will close with the Black Poetry Shutdown, bringing together poets including Malika Booker, Jah Digga, SANITY, Kadija Sesay, Rachel Long, Casey Bailey and Nick Makoha for an evening of spoken word and performance.

But the festival's wider programme extends well beyond its headline names.

Among the day's conversations is “This Is Britain: Racism, Truth & Survival”, featuring Stuart Lawrence, Lee Lawrence and academic Keon West. Another session, “Black Girl in Space”, will feature space scientist Maggie Aderin, while a live book club led by NAO will invite readers to debate a selected book rather than simply listen to an author discuss it.

Publishing is another major focus. The festival will host a session on the women who helped build Black publishing in Britain, featuring Verna Wilkins of Tamarind Books, Bibi Bakare-Yusuf of Cassava Republic Press and Valerie Brandes of Jacaranda Books.

It will also launch the Black British Book Festival × Pan Macmillan collaboration, a new initiative intended to discover, develop and publish emerging writers. The programme will give prospective authors information about the scheme and how they can submit their work.

The festival's literary programme will move into speculative fiction as well, with sessions examining Black futures, imagination and the use of speculative storytelling to explore questions of power and history. Elsewhere, discussions will address wealth-building, relationships and building an audience online.

Children's programming will run alongside the adult programme, with storytelling, workshops and performances designed for younger readers and their families. The festival's organisers have positioned children's literature as an important part of its work, with activities spanning picture books, storytelling, puppetry and creative play.

Music will also have a prominent place. Heartless Crew, pioneers of British garage and grime, will perform a live set at the Barbican's Level G Freestage, adding a musical dimension to a festival that increasingly treats literature as part of a wider creative ecosystem.

That breadth is one of the festival's defining characteristics. Rather than separating literature from music, performance, science or popular culture, the programme places them alongside one another, reflecting the range of forms through which Black British stories and ideas are expressed.

The festival's emphasis on publishing also comes at a time when questions about the visibility and commercial success of Black writers remain part of the British publishing conversation. The Barbican said analysis reported by The Bookseller showed that only 14 Black authors appeared among the UK's top 1,000 authors by sales during the first 24 weeks of 2026, accounting for 0.9% of revenue generated by that group.

For Brown, the festival's role is therefore not simply to celebrate established authors. Its programme also seeks to create routes for new writers, introduce children to books and bring readers into conversations about the publishing industry itself.

The Black British Book Festival will take place at the Barbican Centre on Sunday, 4 October 2026. Doors open at 12:30pm, with the main programme beginning at 1pm and the festival running until 9pm.

Festival Passes cost £24, including fees, and provide entry to one headline event as well as the wider programme, subject to capacity. VIP passes cost £49 and include access to all four headline events and the VIP lounge.