States of Independence IV

The programme for States of Independence is available now on www.statesofindependence.co.uk. This year there is more of a fiction focus, with guest speakers including Kerry Young, Alison Moore and Sarah Butler. Kerry was shortlisted for the Commonwealth Literature Prize, Alison for the Booker while Sarah makes a return to her old stamping ground in Leicester.
There's the usual range of the sensible and the weird, the comic and the highbrow, and, this year, more stalls than ever, forty, and from further afield.
The joy of States is that it is free, and you can come for an hour or the whole day, spend time in events or just look round the bookstalls. A highlight of the region's literature scene and a splash of colour in the middle of mainstream grey publishing.
A Five Leaves project with the Creative Writing Team at De Montfort University, supported by Creative Leicestershire.