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Interview / Festivals / Publishing
Rosie Goldsmith on Literary Festivals, Translation, and Cultural Risk
Rosie Goldsmith, curator of the European Writers’ Festival at the British Library, speaks to Litro about funding pressure, translation, programming risk, and what literary festivals are up against now.
Literary festivals are often judged by what appears on the surface: the programme, the names, the rooms, the atmosphere. But behind that sits a more fragile set of realities — funding pressure, rising costs, attention scarcity, and the constant tension between discovery and safety. Rosie Goldsmith, who curates the European Writers’ Festival, reflects on what has changed and where festivals still struggle.
“Smaller, local festivals are slower to invite foreign authors … I think they are often too fearful and parochial.”
On what makes a festival memorable
Eric Akoto, Litro
You’ve worked across books, translation and festivals — what makes a literary festival genuinely memorable rather than just well-programmed?
“Quality at every level. The authors, chairs, books, translators, venues, technology, partners and organisers must be the best, must collaborate and aim for the stars. With a short intense weekend festival like ours you need a team and curator with high energy, vision, incredible organisational skills and active on social media (especially when you have no money for publicity). Once you’ve done your bit though, you leave the rest to serendipity and magic.”
That answer is more revealing than the usual festival language. It suggests that what audiences experience as atmosphere is often the product of overwork, improvisation, and a constant attempt to hold standards in place while the resources underneath them thin out.
On what festivals are really building
Eric Akoto, Litro
When shaping a festival, what are you trying to create for the audience beyond a schedule of events?
“My idea is always to try to create a networking hub or community of readers, a kind of big party. The space needs to be right for this and we are lucky with the British Library in London. The festival themes must also reflect real events, which helps both authors and audiences engage with the literature. You want audiences to walk out feeling fired up, to have a great time and to read more books in translation.”
That is the useful distinction: a festival is not just a timetable. It is social architecture. People remember the feeling of contact, momentum, and discovery more than they remember the running order. The event succeeds when the programming opens outward rather than simply presenting finished names in finished slots.
On what has become harder
Eric Akoto, Litro
What feels harder now than it did a few years ago — audiences, funding, attention, or something else?
“When I first started chairing at festivals and hosting European events 15 years ago, there was much more money — as well as Arts Council and Creative Europe funding. Brexit has made printing costs, translation, distribution and author travel prohibitively expensive. Our festival runs on passion and goodwill to a large degree. It’s not a good time, and the political situation doesn’t help. On the positive side, readers are much more accepting of translated fiction, as the latest data proves.”
This is the point most festival coverage avoids. The problem is not simply “competition for attention”. It is structural. Translation, travel, distribution and live programming all cost more, while the public rhetoric around literary culture still assumes that goodwill can cover the gap. It cannot, at least not indefinitely.
“Our festival runs on passion and goodwill to a large degree.”
On where festivals still struggle
Eric Akoto, Litro
What do festivals still get wrong about presenting international writing to wider audiences?
“International authors appear mainly at the big festivals, like Edinburgh, Hay, Dublin and Cheltenham, where programmers are tuned to read widely and not only play safe. Smaller, local festivals are slower to invite foreign authors — it’s obviously more expensive but I think they are often too fearful and parochial. Of course the bottom line is that everyone wants the celebrity authors, like Olga Tokarczuk, Elif Shafak and Karl Ove Knausgaard, but why not programme them with a talented emerging author? Olga, Elif and Karl Ove were once unknown too!”
That is the sharpest part of the interview. The issue is not only cost. It is also caution. As Goldsmith suggests, international writing is still more likely to be embraced fully by larger festivals than by smaller ones, where risk, reach and expense are felt more acutely.
On what people underestimate
Eric Akoto, Litro
For someone building a literary event now, what’s the first thing they underestimate?
“The amount of work! But they also underestimate the need to create a whole ecosystem to make the event flourish: it’s not just about the author but all the other seeds you need to plant and nurture.”
That may be the plainest answer here, and also the most important. Festivals are not single acts of curation. They are ecosystems: editorial judgement, venue logic, publicity, partnerships, hospitality, technical competence, and enough coherence to make the audience feel the whole thing was inevitable rather than precarious.
About the festival
The European Writers’ Festival takes place at the British Library on 16–17 May 2026. If you want the programme details or tickets, use the official booking page rather than treating this interview as an endorsement or partner post: British Library booking page.
Goldsmith’s answers are useful because they resist the fantasy that literary culture simply happens. Festivals can still create real encounters between readers, writers and languages, but they do so under pressure, and often in spite of the conditions around them. The question is not whether literary festivals matter. It is whether the structures around them are still willing to support risk, translation and genuine discovery.
Rosie Goldsmith is a former BBC journalist and Director of the European Literature Network.
Eric Akoto is the founder of Litro Magazine (est. 2005), Litro USA, and The Sphere Initiative. Working at the intersection of publishing, culture, standards, and technology, he builds editorial platforms and practical tools that help creators protect, publish, and sustain their work. He also serves on British Standards Institution committees shaping standards relevant to digital, creative, and emerging technology contexts.
