Spotlit Field Notes Issue 4
The literary festival newsletter
Spotlit Field Notes is the literary festival newsletter from Ilona, Mathew and Rina, the team behind Spotlit, a platform connecting festivals with brilliant new books and authors.
New books on Spotlit this week . . .
Shiver: The Lessons of the Lochs by Brigid Lowe (who lives in Edinburgh). Published by Eliott & Thompson on 23 September 2026. Contact: philip@greyhoundliterary.co.uk Memoir, Science & Nature, Travel Writing.
One woman swims her way back to sanity in Scotland’s icy lochs. After Brigid Lowe’s world is upended, Scotland becomes her home. Its icy, wild waters a place of a visceral relief. Baptising herself into this new life, she determines to swim the country’s thirty thousand lochs. To plunge into this landscape in the hopes of gaining a fluid sense of herself and who she might become.
Aftershock by Lauren Martin (based on London, comes from Glasgow) Published by Velocity Press 2 July 2026. Contact: info@velocitypress.uk. Non-fiction, music.
The definitive oral history of dubstep’s origins from seasoned music writer Lauren Martin charts the origins of one of the 21st century’s most innovative music genres in an oral history format. Aftershock chronicles the rise of artists like Skream, Mala, Coki, Loefah, as well as labels and parties such as Hyperdub, Tempa, DMZ, FWD>> and Skull Disco.
Hiding Under the Leaves by Various Published by The Slab Press on 3 November 2025 Contact: donna@theslab.press. Fiction, Horror, Anthology.
Hiding Under the Leaves is an anthology of original folk horror short fiction, seeking beyond the boundaries of this fascinating sub-genre. From lonesome moors to dark woods, and the mysterious ocean depths, these stories explore the ghostly and the savage. Contributors include Tim Major, Frazer Lee, LJ McMenemy, Rachel Henderson, Paul Crosby and many more. Most based in the UK.
Wonderland by Hanna Nordenhök (lives in Malmo but will be in the UK) translated by Saskia Vogel. Published by Héloïse Press on 21 September 2026.Contact: rina@tigerteamcreative.com. Literary Fiction.
Praise for Wonderland: ‘Hypnotic and unsettling… a fever dream of late capitalism and deception… impossible to shake.’ Lucy Rose, author of The Lamb
From the author of Caesaria (★★★★★ The Telegraph) comes Wonderland, a novel that follows three different characters, wandering an ominous contemporary world saturated with abandonment and false mirrors. Hanna Nordenhök’s work has been awarded and shortlisted for a number of prestigious literary awards including Swedish Radios Novel Prize, VI:s Literature Prize and The Eyvind Johnson Prize.
The Spotlit Interview
Robert Ashton is the founder of the Leiston Book Festival in East Anglia. He is also an author, and this spring sees the launch of his second book, Down to Earth, which follows his Wainwright Prize long-listed debut Where are the Fellows that Cut the Hay. Authors running festivals feels like a growing trend: we saw in the Guardian our friend and author Sophie Pierce got some great coverage for her recent Dartmouth Tors Festival.
You are an author who decided to start a literary festival. What was the motivation? I grew up in Leiston near the Suffolk coast, and returned to live here in 2022. My wife’s family have been here for more than 200 years, so I feel a strong sense of connection and quickly became involved in the life of the town. I am a trustee of the Long Shop Museum, which celebrates the town’s industrial heritage, clerk to the local Quaker Meeting, and now also chair Leiston Community Land Trust so I am helping steer the town’s regeneration.
But I also thought it important to bring something new to the town I love, and raise its profile on East Anglia’s cultural landscape. A book festival was something I knew I could deliver, and felt would make a difference here. The Town Council and Sizewell C supported my vision and helped with grants from the very beginning. In our second year, every one of the 240 seats at our venue, an Edwardian film theatre, was taken.
Can you tell us about the festival? The Leiston Book Festival runs for one day in September, with six authors whose books explore our evolving relationship with the landscape and environment. I felt it important to have a strong theme, and with a nuclear power station under construction on our doorstep, on a stretch of coast that is recognised as an area of outstanding natural beauty, it was an obvious theme to choose.
The festival is also involved with our local schools, and we’ve had authors visit both the primary school, and the high school, where next term, we are running a creative writing competition, with prizes sponsored by Sizewell C.
What have been the biggest challenges? Most book festival organisers will say that funding is their biggest challenge, but I’m very comfortable navigating the grants landscape. I have sat on several grant panels, so know how to write successful bids, as well as negotiate with sponsors.
For me the biggest challenge is to make the festival less reliant on my time and expertise. Last year we incorporated as a community interest company, so I now have a small team of co-directors, but running a festival takes lots of time. I am now 70 years old with my own career as a non-fiction author to consider. Succession planning is never far from the front of my mind.
What has been easier or harder than you thought? Building a successful book festival has been easier than I thought. Our third festival takes place in September; we have more than 400 subscribers to our mailing list, and because we draw a big audience, we get approaches from publicists working with authors who are household names.
What has been harder than I thought is the way the workload keeps growing. We’re planning some additional, single-author events throughout the year, starting this October with an evening with environmental guru Satish Kumar. A book festival is no different to any other business start-up, so innovation and growth are important, but time consuming.
Would you recommend that other authors do the same? A successful book festival, in my view, has to be more about the community within which it is held, than any individual writer, so to start one you need to have an ambition greater than self-promotion. That said, I am a great believer in taking control, and as well as speaking at other people’s events, I’m not slow to organise my own.
What advice would you give them? Perhaps it’s my entrepreneurial background, but authors need to appreciate that while their book’s success is crucial to them, for their publisher, they are one of a number on their list, and once the initial burst of publicity has passed, media support will dwindle. They need to be proactive, not in hassling the publisher’s PR team, but in finding their own opportunities to promote their book.
One author I invited to speak at the book festival I organised said no, explaining that the likely book sales on the day would go nowhere near delivering him the royalty income to cover his time and travel. Frankly, that’s rubbish, because only by getting out there and talking about your books, and your life as a writer, will word spread and then unexpected opportunities can come your way. Never ignore serendipity!
Promoting your last book, how did you find the process of talking at events? Some have been a joy, but I’ve also had an interviewer who tried to steal the show and talk about themselves, rather than as they should, focus attention on me and my book. Even when you’ve organised the event, interviewers can, however well briefed, lose their way when on stage with you under the spotlights. I sometimes wonder if it’s better just to speak to the audience, with no interviewer.
I’ve also driven 60 miles to find an audience of just five people, and had another where one annoying person insisted on trying to pull me and my book down. Speaking at book events can be wonderfully developmental, as with each one, your skin thickens and confidence grows.
Another tip to any author is to look beyond the obvious. Early in July I’ll be talking about my new book to an audience of 100 naturists, then later in the month, speaking at an event in a crematorium chapel. Promoting your book means being creative, and willing to leave your comfort zone – which in my case will mean standing naked in front of my audience.
What is your next book about ? I’m taking a break from nature writing and exploring my interest in entrepreneurship. My next book looks at the past, present and future of ethical business, from the 19th century Quaker businesses, through the last century when shareholder return was too often the sole aim, to today’s emerging ethical businesses such as those that are employee owned, cooperatives or social enterprises.
How can people book you? Easy, either via my website www.robertashton.co.uk or email me Robert@robertashton.co.uk
Making Hay . . .
Philip Gwyn-Jones of Greyhound Literary sent some photos from the Hay Festival
Ilona first went to Hay - the town not the festival - more than twenty years ago, and having visited at least once a year most years, has lived and shopped Hay’s overstocks era (a queasy oscillation between wanting every book when it’s at two quid a throw, and publisher-person horror that many of them had come out just months - months - before) and also its homewares era (wooden querns and artisanal enamel are all well and good, but didn’t there use to be an actual bookshop here?).
She recommends The Granary for lunch, unchanged for decades: she’s always in a panic that one day it will be gone.
We would love to see and post your photos from festivals and book events. Send them to ilona@tigerteamcreative.com.
Last week, on the rooftop at Carmelite House, Rina was honoured to join the Jacaranda Books team, friends and family to celebrate the late author, editor and publisher Sareeta Domingo, “There was so much love in the room. The speeches were heartfelt and deeply emotional, remembering the gifted, profoundly committed publishing star taken far too soon. Dorothy Koomson announced The Sareeta Domingo Prize a new, free-to-enter writing prize created to discover and support unpublished writers from Black and Global Majority backgrounds”.
Publishers and publicists please add your books to Spotlit! It is free and takes just a few minutes.
If you would like your event featured in the newsletter or would like to be interviewed about your festival drop us a line at: mathewclayton@gmail.com. This newsletter goes to over 700 people working in the sector.
Thank you for reading!
Ilona Chavasse, Mathew Clayton and Rina Gill xxx
Ilona and Rina can also be found at Tiger Team Creative.
Authors, try out Further Reading, a simple promotional tool built by Mathew.
Ilona is newly on Substack and at The Talking Cure for Writers.