Why we are launching Leeds children's literature festival in midst of national reading crisis

It’s a day-long festival that includes interactive family-friendly workshops by popular children’s authors and illustrators, a National Poetry Centre crafting session making poetry from recycled print, and intergenerational storytelling.

We created this children’s festival because we believe there’s a real need for it – to provide a platform that gives youngsters in the North more opportunities to be inspired by talented Black writers and illustrators to read and discover storytelling that they can relate to.

The festival, which we hope will be the first of many, comes amid talk of a national reading crisis in this country. Last year, a report by the National Literacy Trust warned that reading enjoyment among children and young people in the UK had fallen to its lowest level in 20 years.

The report, based on its Annual Literary Survey which surveyed 114,970 children and young people aged five to 18 from UK schools about their reading habits, follows a previous study from 2022 that found one in five children aged five to eight, didn’t have a book of their own at home.

This is heartbreaking, especially to us who grew up in the 70s and 80s when reading books was something we took for granted. Our parents read widely to us and with us, but we were also encouraged to go to the local library and experience for ourselves that frisson of excitement when you discover a new favourite story, or author.

If there is a crisis nationally today around reading and young people reading for pleasure, and the figures would suggest there is, then it is amplified for black youngsters and those from other marginalised groups and communities.

The UK is more ethnically diverse than it has ever been, and yet black storytelling is underserved in the publishing world. Sharmain Lovegrove, a literary agent, cultural activist and co-founder of The Black Writers’ Guild, said in an interview with the Guardian last year that it was tougher for new Black authors now than it had been pre-covid.

Similarly, Selina Brown, who founded the Black British Book Festival (BBBF) and is among the special guests appearing at our festival in Leeds this coming weekend, said in the same article that the number of Black authors being pitched to her had dropped dramatically in the previous 18 months, adding that she believed the number of books being published by Black writers had “plummeted”.

It’s against this backdrop that we established Likkle Lit Fest. We wanted to create a festival that is about black storytelling, told by black writers and brought to life by black illustrators – but also something that is for everyone, irrespective of colour or ethnicity.

A lot has been made of the fact that 2026 is the National Year of Reading, and rightly so, but perhaps we need a National Decade of Reading to address all the issues, including access to books, affordability and the impact of social media, because there isn’t a quick fix.

If we want to encourage more children to read then it will take a sustained and co-ordinated effort involving the government, schools, libraries, parents, arts organisations, publishers and authors.

We also need to look at how children and young adults engage with storytelling these days, through the likes of music, graphic novels, zines and spoken word, which speak to them in different ways.

That’s why at Likkle Lit Fest we have illustrators like Salomey Doku, Dapo Adeola and Ken Wilson-Max taking part, as well as popular authors such as Ashley Thorpe and music superstar Corinne Bailey Rae, who will be reading from her forthcoming debut picture book Put Your Records On.

We know that books are a great way of learning. They teach children not only about the world around them but also about themselves, helping them to understand their culture, history and traditions.

But simply telling youngsters that reading is a good thing and they must do it is counterproductive – any parent will tell you that doesn’t work. The key is encouraging children to find books that interest them, rather than trying to be prescriptive and turning it into a chore.

It’s important we get this right, because stories are for everyone. They enrich our lives and broaden our horizons and can help, if it doesn’t sound too airy fairy, create a better, more empathetic world. And surely, we all want that.

For more information about Likkle Lit Fest and to book tickets visit: Out of Many People CIC event tickets from TicketSource.

Susan Pitter and Dawn Cameron are founders of Out of Many People, a Leeds-based organisation that curates and promotes Black storytelling through arts, heritage and cultural programming in the North.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​