UPDATE: With the continuing fallout of and recovery from the COVID-19 health emergency, I am still currently doing far fewer events than pre-pandemic. Watch this space or follow me on Twitter or Insta for news of upcoming events, or sign up here to receive invites via my occasional mailing list.

I am often invited to give readings and to talk about my books and other projects for audiences in all kinds of places around the world, from bookshops to literature and music festivals, in libraries, museums and galleries, in universities and at spoken word nights, in pubs and nightclubs and on the radio. For upcoming events, scroll down.

I enjoy giving live readings, and consider it an important part of my work as a writer. I would love to welcome you to forthcoming events. If you’d like to receive invites to future events and launches, you can subscribe to an occasional mailing list here.

I am always happy to hear from anyone about a reading or a talk. See below for a word about bookings.

2023 dates include:

June 11 2023: more info soon

May 6 2023: more info soon

March 9 2023: Modern Cockney Festival — the Evolving Language of Cockney. Tony White, Dr Johann Gerwin, Jonnie Robinson. ‘Is Cockney dying, with reports that it will disappear from the streets of London over the next 20 years? Or is it evolving, going from strength to strength, an evolving 660 year-old cultural identity of the “common Londoner”? A fascinating free online event at 12noon Thursday March 9th – brings together three experts and voices to investigate these questions and more…’ The Modern Cockney Festival 2023 is organised by Cockney Cultures, a partnership between social enterprise Grow Social Capital and the Bengali East End Heritage Society. Free to attend. Book via Eventbrite https://evolvingcockney.eventbrite.com

March 6 2023: Brixton Book Jam, Imbolc Special, hosted by Mik Artistik. Themed around diaspora and the Irish literary tradition, we’ll be hearing from William Ryan, Eamon Somers, Tony White, Dennis the Poet, Rose Servitova and others. The Hootananny, 95 Effra Road, Brixton, London SW2 1DF, 7.30pm. Admission free.

January 29 2023: Tony White — LIVE FROM 82 on RESONANCE EXTRA 12:00–7:00pm. A live radio event on Resonance Extra. Performances by Merlin Nova, Kate Carr of Flaming Pines, Steven J Fowler and Benedict Taylor, Miles Luko, James C Oldham, Milo Thesiger-Meacham, Sister Punch, Tony White, Travis Wu, Miles Lukoszeviese. Plus exclusive works by Neil Luck, Agnes Pe, Angela Wai Nok Hui, Trash Panda QC, Joe Wilson and Chanelle Collier, Bobby Jewell. TW start-time likely 14:25 approx.

January 26 2023: Literature Live on Resonance – NEW: London author Tony White presents an hour of readings and chat with some of the best novelists and short story writers around. Literature Live on Resonance is an occasional programme focusing on live literature, with the emphasis on authors reading from their own prose fiction. White invites authors to join him in the Resonance Studio in London to recreate some of the magic of the live literature scene live on the air, as they read short extracts from their fiction and discuss live literature, live. Guest authors Mona Dash and Courttia Newland. 26 January, 8:00–9:00pm, Resonance 104.4fm.

VISIT MY EVENTS ARCHIVE SINCE 2012…

A word about bookings:

I love doing live readings and consider it a central part of my work as a writer.

I’ve performed at festivals including Glastonbury, Port Eliot, Sheffield’s Off The Shelf Festival of Words, Manchester Literature Festival, Durham Book Festival, Richmond Literature Festival, TULCA Festival of Visual Arts in Galway, Festival Poligon in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and many more, as well as at universities including King’s College London, the Royal College of Art, The Slade, Westminster, UCL, and Brunel University London, at Macquarie University, Sydney and the Victoria College of the Arts in Melbourne, Australia. I’ve done solo events and panel discussions in bookshops including Waterstones in Oxford and London, and at celebrated independent bookshops all over the country, including the Golden Hare, Storytellers Inc., The Bookseller Crow, Bookartbookshop, and Housmans.

I’ve given masterclasses at The Guardian and for Nottingham UNESCO City of Literature. I’ve also spoken and given readings at museums and art centres including Turner Contemporary, The Whitworth in Manchester, The MAC in Belfast and the ICA, London, as well as galleries including Cabinet, PEER and The Approach. I’ve given readings in pubs, libraries, museums and nightclubs, in churches and at spoken word gigs, from Faber Social to Brixton Book Jam, and at performance art venues across the UK and around the world: from London to Lancashire, Soho to Split, from Sir George Gilbert Scott’s chapel at King’s College London to the Dissenters’ Chapel in Kensal Green Cemetery.

I am always happy to hear from anyone about a potential event or reading. If you run an events programme or festival etc. and are interested in booking me to read or participate in some way then please feel free to get in touch as far in advance as possible with as much information about your event(s) as you can. I need to know where and when it will be (venue, date, time etc), what kind of event it is, as well as information about travel and accommodation, and by when you would need me to send you any blurb and press photos. It would also be useful to know more about the audience and how you plan to publicise the event; how I might be able to add to that.

My technical requirements are very simple: at the most basic these would be a PA and a microphone on a mic-stand, enough light to read by, and a small table upon which I can place a glass of water and whichever books I am reading from.

You should also, ideally, let me know what the fee is. I mention money because this is what I do for a living. I think that writers should be paid and expenses should be covered. Too often it seems that everyone but the writer (the festival staff, the crew, the bar staff, the DJ, etc.) is being paid! FYI, the Society of Authors suggest a basic author appearance fee of £150.00 plus expenses.

However, I do know that some events, and arts projects of various kinds, can be run on less than a shoestring, and that payments are not always possible, especially if you’re trying to start something from scratch. I’ve done this myself; started things from scratch. I’m interested in the grass-roots live literature scene, and that there are other kinds of value than purely financial. So, long-short, artists and writers should be paid, but it is also true that if I need the warm-up or if I’m simply into what you’re doing then I still might. Just ask.