Festival curators Lesley Webster and Maria de Souza have been at the helm of Off the Shelf Festival of Words for over 30 years. They spoke to Exposed about the festival’s origins, constant evolution and impact on the city’s vibrant literary scene.
Off the Shelf has been running for over 30 years, which is a remarkable achievement! Can you tell us about how the festival first started and what inspired its creation?
LW: Off the Shelf (OTS) started at Sheffield City Council, working with colleagues in Libraries. While smaller in scale, it was always about celebrating books, words and ideas! The festival name was about encouraging people to take a book off the shelf and dive in. Sara Unwin, Head of Cultural Engagement at the University of Sheffield, and I always argue about who came up with the name!
The first festival was mainly held in libraries across the city, with lots of workshops and events including a reading of Lee Miller’s War by the Crucible Youth Theatre and a Multicultural Book Fair. Maria de Souza joined the team for the second edition of the festival and, amazingly, after all these years, this original team is still together and passionate about the festival and the power of words!
Over the years, how has the festival evolved in terms of size, structure and the type of events you organise?
MDS: We were always ambitious for the programme and wanted to bring some of the best writers to Sheffield. We came up with inventive ways to persuade authors to visit, such as sending Valentine cards signed from “A city full of admirers”. Nick Hornby admitted that this approach was what got him to Sheffield. After successfully running the festival for a few years, we attracted the attention of national publishers and they began to trust us with their bigger name authors. From there, the festival has grown in reputation, scale and popularity. Funding from Arts Council England meant we could expand beyond libraries and into venues across Sheffield.
The University of Sheffield is dedicated to fostering culture within South Yorkshire. When Professor Vanessa Toulmin, the University’s Director of City, Culture and Public Engagement, noticed that OTS was at risk of being discontinued due to austerity measures, the University stepped in to preserve the valuable expertise and relationships associated with it. In 2016, the University of Sheffield assumed responsibility for delivering the festival. This decision aligned with the University’s commitment to cultural vibrancy in the city, enabling collaborations with academics and researchers and integrating the festival into the University’s research activities.
One of the unique aspects of Off the Shelf is its support for local talent. How do you go about identifying and supporting Sheffield writers?
LS: From the beginning, we felt strongly that the festival should showcase the wealth of literary talent in our own city. This continues, and the current festival has a rich line-up of homegrown writers including Sunjeev Sahota, Helen Mort, Matt Coyne, Holly Williams, Russ Thomas and many more. Organisations such as Hive, Writers Workshop, Sheffield Authors, Slambarz and Sheffield Novelists take part.
The festival also works with local publishers, including And Other Stories, The Poetry Business, Vertebrate and Longbarrow, with events featuring their authors. Publishers who have moved to Sheffield because of the vibrant writing and publishing scene here include the mighty Hachette group! Headline, part of Hachette, have created a series of special events in collaboration with us this year.
How do you choose the authors, poets and speakers for each year’s festival? Is there a particular vision or set of themes that guide your selections?
MDS: We’re good at spotting and supporting celebrated local talent. The team has vast experience of programming, expertise gathered over many years. We know what our audiences enjoy. Sheffield is a radical city and politics, journalism and history always go down well, as evidenced by our biggest-ever audience for campaigner Chris Packham last year. Reading trends and topics change, and we are always up to date with what is pertinent now, such as the climate emergency.
We’re always striving to attract new audiences. Our programming is bold, innovative and diverse. We work with Guest Curators to bring fresh perspectives and new ideas. Benjamin Zephaniah was our first Guest Curator and amplified work with young people, the readers and writers of the future.
We feel it is important to include events that might appeal to a smaller audience, such as poetry in translation, and we always feature international writers. This year, we are featuring Morgan Talty, Alexis Wright and Asako Yuzuki, author of the cult Japanese bestseller Butter. We want to attract the widest possible range of readers and introduce people to new work.
We don’t generally theme the festival. We offer a huge range of events designed to appeal to a wide audience. We do focus on anniversaries, such as this year’s 70th anniversary of the publication of Lord of the Flies and the 40th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike.
We work with national and local publishers. We visit publishers in London each spring to explore their autumn book releases. We receive hundreds of pitches from all over the world and keep our sector knowledge up to date. Choosing is a difficult task! Perhaps the best way to describe it is like making a cake: a lot of different ingredients with added flavour, zest and some surprise elements. The aim is to create something delicious that everybody wants a slice of!
Looking back at over three decades of festival history, which events or authors stand out as particularly memorable for you?
LS: We’re really pleased to have had some major literary names over the years – Poet Laureates and prize-winning writers – and it is really hard to pick favourites. For me, meeting my favourite author, Dame Hilary Mantel, was a huge thrill. Maria chose David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas, and Edwyn Collins, as music is a passion of hers.
For Sara, a Drive-In with Poet Laureate Simon Armitage, because of Covid restrictions, would be a top pick. We have to mention our unique Text in the City initiative, putting new words in public places. Writers include Jarvis Cocker, Carol Ann Duffy, Michael Rosen, Roger McGough and Warda Yassin, who at the time was Sheffield Poet Laureate. Seeing words written large across our beautiful city for everyone to enjoy is a lasting legacy we are all so proud of.
What are you most looking forward to at this year’s event?
MDS: It’s so hard to choose with more than 100 events, but we can’t wait to welcome historian David Olusoga with our colleague at the University of Sheffield, Yinka Olusoga, writer of bestseller One Day David Nicholls, politician Sayeeda Warsi, artist Conor Rogers, who has created the brochure cover illustration, comedian Sara Pascoe and Andrew McMillan with his novel Pity. We are excited about the whole programme and hope your readers are too!
After 30+ years of success, what’s next for Off the Shelf? Are there any exciting plans or changes you’re considering for the future of the festival?
LS: We want to keep doing what we are doing – we know it works. We will keep working with guest curators to increase the diversity of the programme and attract even more diverse audiences and participants. We will support talent development, making the city a great place to live, work and study. The University of Sheffield is committed to helping make the city a great place to live, work and study and the festival plays an important role in that ambition.
