Featured Creatives

Hear from national and local authors, poets and guests from the arts and creative space during readings, talks, workshops and other events as part of Rugby Literary Festival 2025.

Headline Guests

Shelley Wilson
Author

Ben Crystal
Author

Rosie Pickering
Illustrator & Author

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Donna Ashcroft

Donna is currently working on her sixteenth book. She writes seasonal romance novels set in warm communities where (almost) everyone gets a happy ending. 

Charlotte Ashman

Details to follow…

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Zena Barrie

Details to follow…

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Matt Black

Matt Black is an ex-Derbyshire Poet Laureate and well known for his entertaining readings, reads from his new collection Fishing Dentures out of New Potatoes.

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BusyMrFizzy

BusyMrFizzy is a Rugby based poet, blogger, and writer,

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Julie Caplin

Currently working on her 28th book, Julie is a no 1 bestseller in Germany, Iceland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia with her heart-warming, travel-based romances which focus on food, friendship and love. 

Ben Crystal

Ben’s Shakespeare on Toast: Getting a Taste for the Bard has been described as “A Masterclass for modern beginners and old hands alike.”

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Steve Davies

Details to follow…

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IJE

IJE (pronounced eejay) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a sensuous, nomadic arts practice.

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Jessica Hartshorn

Jessica Hartshorn is an illustrator and author of several children’s books, including the beloved SuperPanda series

Jo Howard

Details to follow…

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Michael Luntley

Michael is a local folk musician and retired academic.

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Tom Jenks

Details to follow…

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Bella Osborne

Bella lives in Rugby and has had sixteen novels published. Her stories are about friendship, love and coping with what life throws at you. 

Huyen Phan

Award-winning Vietnamese artist Huyen mentors prisoners through Community Arts UK. She wrote 'Mom's Away' to gently explain to young children the absence of a parent.

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Rosie Pickering

Rosie is a children's author and actress based in Warwickshire. She created and self-published her first book, The Socktopus, and founded Little Pixie Publishing during lockdown in 2020.

Connie Ramsey Bolt

Connie’s novel, Girl Without Skin, takes you to a lake in Michigan in 1965. Stories of the lives of both children and adults intertwine, through fear, tragedy, and self-discovery.


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Steve Redshaw

Steve is a Rugby based musician, songwriter, performer, former primary teacher.

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Marg Roberts

Marg’s novel, A Time for Peace is set in Serbia in World War One. Can Stefan, a Serb soldier, and Ethel, a British nurse succeed in rescuing 30,000 army cadets by taking them out of the country in the worst Balkan winter

Fat Roland

Details to follow…

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The B Road

The B Road (Keith and Kate) play songs about love, life, loss, smiles and tears. Guitars, banjo and occasional ukulele combine with the two gorgeous voices of Keith Nickless and Kate Vassalos.


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Ananditha Venkatramanan

Ananditha Venkatramanan is an up and coming talent on the local scene, winning Warwickshire’s Young Poet Laureate 2024/25,

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Dave Williams

Details to follow…

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Shiam Wilcox

Shiam Wilcox is author of Household Gods and other stories including Laundry Chicks, Memory Larvae and Mock Robins.

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Shelley Wilson

Shelley is a multi-genre author of YA fiction and motivational self-help titles. She is a solo traveller searching for stories and inspiration in her VW campervan called Snoopy and is obsessed with exploring castles, anything mythological or supernatural, and history.

Lindsay Woodward

Lindsay is a local author with 10 books to her name. She's had a lifelong passion for writing, starting off as a child. Knowing there was nothing else she'd rather study, she did her degree in writing and has now turned her favourite hobby into a career.