Luke Kennard is a renowned poet, critic, novelist and lecturer. His novel Black Bag is currently longlisted for the 2026 Booker Prize. We are delighted that Luke has agreed to appear at this Hastings Book Festival event to talk about his work and read from Black Bag. The session will include an audience Q&A and Luke will be happy to sign copies of his book after the talk.
Luke will also be performing some of his poetry at the Sandy Arse seaside poetry event later on the same day.
Luke’s poetry collection Notes on the Sonnets won the 2021 Forward Prize for Best Collection. He won an Eric Gregory Award in 2005 for his first poetry collection ‘The Solex Brothers’. His second collection, ‘The Harbour Beyond The Movie’, was shortlisted for the 2007 Forward Prize for Best Collection, making him the youngest ever poet to be nominated. In 2014, he was named as one of the Poetry Book Society’s Next Generation Poets. His debut novel, ‘The Transition’, was published by Fourth Estate and was a BBC Radio 4 ‘Book at Bedtime.’
