Past Events - Highlights

The Queen's Reading Room Festival is a literary festival like no other; uniting authors, experts, and literature enthusiasts for a weekend dedicated to celebrating the written word.

Emily will be appearing on her typewriter in The Poetry Room, alongside featured readings from Nussaibah Younis, Cecelia Ahern, Clare Balding, Louise Kennedy, Larry Lamb, Gyles Brandreth, and Oliver Rowse.​ Whether you’re a lifelong poetry fan or are discovering the joy of verse for the first time, this is a place to drop in, unwind, and enjoy something a little different throughout the day.

Join Emily for a day writing typewriter poetry on demand for John Lewis visitors in celebration of their 25th anniversary in Solihull. FREE poems all day.

Celebrating the opening of Stratford's new KFC in the home of Shakespeare himself, locals were invited to share their stories and receive a personal poem from local poet Emily Holtom. 

The Festival celebrates all things word – written, sung and spoken. With a diverse range of speakers and performers from near and far, it attracts book-lovers of all genres.

The Buckingham Literary Festival is for readers and writers, listeners and talkers & is set in summer in the beautiful town of Buckingham. Over five days in June it showcases some 35 writers and thinkers in a diverse range of talks, discussions, spoken word, theatre, workshops and foodie events designed to inspire, inform, entertain – and provoke. Emily will be appearing alongside writers such as Elif Shafak, Alison Weir and Saul David.

Stratford-upon-Avon Literary Festival is an exciting mixture of debate, ideas, celebrity author events, workshops and humour. With an extensive community programme, it has one of the biggest educational and outreach offerings of any literary festival.

The Civic Honours Awards are a way of recognising the local unsung heroes who go above and beyond to make Solihull a better place. Emily will be writing live poetry on demand for award winners and closing the evening with a poem written specially for the event and it's nominees. 

Don’t miss our new exhibition exploring what ordinary people think freedom means today – and what it meant in 1945.

​Developed by Future Arts Centres and Open Eye Gallery, it brings together stories of participants who took part in 60 locally led projects across the UK. The images were captured by 22 photographers who followed each project closely, and feature a diverse range of people aged 0 – 100, including schoolchildren, veterans and artists.

A month long festival celebrating bold, original voices by women and female-identifying playwrights and writers. Emily will be writing pop up poetry on demand throughout the day on Saturday 21st March.