"Wimbledon BookFest can offer unique opportunities."
One of the UK’s most important literary festivals, Wimbledon BookFest is gearing up to return for its 2025 event.
Partnering with Lahore Literary Festival for a third time, the event will curate a vibrant atmosphere, highlighting South Asian voices and stories.
South Asian individuals range from Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Sri Lankan backgrounds.
In exciting news, the 2025 Wimbledon BookFest has also announced a new partnership with Seoul WOW Book Festival.
Designed to connect communities and light the embers of essential conversations, this event features remarkable and strong voices in fiction, art, and activism.
The speakers at the event will include:
- Reeta Chakrabarti – Broadcaster and Debut Novelist
- Salima Hashmi – Artist, Writer, Activist, and the daughter of the renowned Pakistani poet, Faiz.
- Pankaj Mishra – A writer focussing on moral and geopolitical ramifications of the conflict and crisis in Palestine. He also seeks to increase the context of colonialism.
- Jassa Ahluwalia – An actor who will join a conversation with the broadcaster and author Afua Hirsch, discussing mixed heritage identity.
- Saba Karim Khan – A writer and filmmaker exploring home and belonging, which are the subjects of her anthology, Home: It’s Complicated.
The programme will also feature the Women’s Prize shortlisted writer, Nussaibah Younis, who will discuss her novel Fundamentally with Kit de Waal.
Meanwhile, the acclaimed poet and writer Nikita Gill will shed light on her retelling of the Greek Goddess of Witchcraft, Hekate.
Aisha Hassan, Keshava Guha, and Dur e Aziz Amna are set to share stories from Pakistan and India.
Furthermore, the Wimbledon-based author Fiza Saeed McLynn introduces her debut book The Midnight Carousel, set in Jazz Age Paris.
The 2025 International Booker winner and translator, Deepa Bhasthi, who got the award for her book, Heart Lamp, will also grace the programme.
Deepa will discuss the transformative power and complex art of literary translation with the award-winning translator working from Korean, Clare Richards.
Wimbledon BookFest 2025 is also celebrating Korean culture with an exhibition of the art of Korean letter-writing.
A K-Lit panel will appear at the event featuring Juhea Kim, Park Seolyeon, and Ela Lee.
In partnership with The Southbank Centre, the festival also promises an unforgettable event with the International Booker Prize shortlisted writer, Bora Chung.
The internationally acclaimed artist Eunhye Jung will undertake an exclusive performance.
From the Seoul WOW Festival, Eunhye will perform a new work inspired by Jeanette Winterson’s A Gap In Time in the style of pansori.
Pansori is the ancient Korean opera style that weaves storytelling, drumming, and song.
Fiona Razvi, Festival Founder and Director, said:
“We are delighted to be expanding our global partnerships and collaborations this year to offer exhilarating events that connect communities, offer new perspectives and celebrate the power of storytelling to both understand others and ourselves better.
“Developing our audience reach is central to our work, and as our partnership with the Lahore Literary Festival, one of South Asia’s premier cultural events, goes from strength to strength, we are looking forward to working with Seoul WOW Book Festival and the Korean Cultural Centre to develop our links with Korean communities.
“In an increasingly divided world, we believe storytelling can be a bridge to foster understanding, and as a festival, Wimbledon BookFest can offer unique opportunities to bring people together, welcoming both established speakers and talented new voices to our community in October.”
Razi Ahmed, Festival Director of Lahore Literature Festival, said:
“In our third consecutive year of partnering with the Wimbledon BookFest, we at the LLF are thrilled to see a burgeoning mix of South Asian voices.
“Among those is that of the celebrated Pakistani artist and activist, Salima Hashmi.”
“Indeed, it is our shared joy that the first launch of Hashmi’s memoir will be taking place at the Wimbledon Book Festival, a not-to-be-missed event.”
Clara Hyounjin Lee, CEO of Seoul Wow Book Festival, enthused:
“We are proudly committed to continuing the global wave of K-culture in collaboration with Wimbledon BookFest, by bringing a unique pansori adaptation of The Winter’s Tale and The Gap of Time to London.”
The 2025 Wimbledon BookFest runs from October 16 to 26, in venues across Central Wimbledon.
You can find out more information here.
See the authors and artists at the Wimbledon BookFest 2025 in our special gallery:
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