DUA LIPA REFLECTS ON HER CURATION OF LONDON LITERATURE FESTIVAL

Ted Hodgkinson, the Southbank Centre's head of literature and spoken word, praised her fresh curatorial vision.

By: Rachel Stone Nov. 02, 2026

DUA LIPA REFLECTS ON HER CURATION OF LONDON LITERATURE FESTIVAL

As the London Literature Festival wrapped up on Sunday 1 November, its curator Dua Lipa reflected on her stint at the helm of the capital's largest and longest-running literature festival, which celebrated its 19th iteration this year as part of the Southbank Centre's 75th anniversary programme.

The Grammy and Brit award-winning global superstar and founder of the Service95 Book Club curated a series of sold-out events across the two-week festival at London's Southbank Centre.

Curator of London Literature Festival, Dua Lipa said: 'Curating the London Literature Festival was a dream come true. Not only did I get to sit down with some of my all-time literary heroes, I got to share the experience with a full-house audience here in my hometown of London. This is why we created the Service95 Book Club - to bring together readers with authors for collective moments of joy, reflection and gratitude. I'm so grateful to the Southbank Centre team for being the perfect partners. To borrow from Patti Smith, these moments are my bread of angels.'

Ted Hodgkinson, Head of Literature & Spoken Word at the Southbank Centre, said: 'What a year for London Literature Festival, which has seen Southbank Centre come alive with some truly momentous and joyous events over the last 13 days, making it one of the absolute highlights of our 75th anniversary year. Dua has brought a fresh curatorial eye and a wonderfully wide-ranging sensibility to the programming, and it has been thrilling to see her vision translate to our stages and bring so many people of all ages together around a shared love of literature. I can't thank Dua and the wonderful Service95 Book Club team enough for this one-of-a-kind collaboration.'

Dua and her Service95 Book Club curated a standout range of programming featuring a mix of literary icons and dynamic emerging voices. The programme included three sold-out in conversation events in the Southbank Centre's iconic Royal Festival Hall, in which the founder of the Service95 Book Club sat down with international best-selling author Zadie Smith, poet, singer and songwriter Mustafa, and world-renowned artist and author Patti Smith for a series of intimate interviews, each one rapturously received by the 2,700 strong audience.

Other events from Dua's curation included an in conversation event with author, activist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Nadia Murad; an interactive, drop-in storytelling session created by Authors of the Estate, a community publishing and storytelling project; Translated Fiction Showcase, an evening dedicated to platforming today's finest fiction in translation; a meditation on the power of rhythm, form and sound in writing, in Fierce Sounds with Kae Tempest; a life-affirming evening dedicated to Re-Writing Male Tenderness, exploring the power of prose to hold complex emotions, and asking how masculinity and vulnerability might coexist; and a timely and urgent meditation from journalists, writers and activists on the rising threats to free expression in Censorship Live! with English PEN.

About the Southbank Centre

The Southbank Centre is the UK's largest multi-arts centre and engages the most diverse audiences of any performing arts organisation in the UK. Its biggest venue, the Royal Festival Hall (2,700 seats) is the lasting legacy of the 1951 Festival of Britain and the ambition and values of that project – that arts, ideas, innovation and culture can heal communities and should be available and accessible to everyone – are still its guiding principles today. The Southbank Centre is uniquely able to offer a wide-ranging, inclusive and world-class artistic programme spanning contemporary visual arts, music, dance, performance, literature, comedy and spoken word across the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, the Hayward Gallery and its free spaces. It is also home to the National Poetry Library, the National Academy for Social Prescribing (NASP), two resident organisations (Kinetika Bloco and Tomorrow's Warriors) and six resident orchestras (Aurora Orchestra, Chineke! Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, London Sinfonietta, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Philharmonia Orchestra). www.southbankcentre.co.uk

About the Southbank Centre's London Literature Festival

London Literature Festival is the longest-running literature festival in the city that celebrates prestigious authors alongside rising literary stars and cultural icons. The festival was previously curated by Self-Esteem in 2025, and headliners in prior years include Ai Weiwei, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Tom Hanks and Yulia Navalnaya. The festival – which is now in its 19th year and takes place across the Southbank Centre's iconic 13 acre site. It is made possible through the generous support of Bukhman Philanthropies.

About Service95 Book Club

Founded by Dua Lipa, the Service95 Book Club is the cultural and intellectual heart of Service95: a global cultural platform and community built around the belief that books, ideas, and the conversations they spark help make us more informed, more empathetic, and more alive to the world.

The Service95 Book Club is where Dua brings her personal reading life into public view: Monthly Reads chosen straight from her bookshelf, paired with reviews, contextual essays, and author interviews that go far beyond the surface of the page. Her conversations — with writers from around the world including Margaret Atwood, Olga Tokarczuk, and Ocean Vuong — have earned her recognition from The Telegraph as 'one of Britain's foremost literary tastemakers'. The Service95 Book Club podcast launched to critical acclaim, named among The Guardian's Best Podcasts of the Week and ranked as one of Spotify's Best Video Podcasts of 2025.

It is, at its core, a place where reading is treated as a community act — and where the right book, at the right moment, can change how you see everything.