On 13th September 2025, Tuyen Do, actor, playwright and author, delivered a powerful keynote at the School of Oriental and African Studies to open the afternoon session of StoryFeast, a literary festival now in its third year celebrating East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) authors. Her words resonated deeply with the audience and set the tone for the day: “I’ve been waiting for the moment for someone to ask, for someone to see me and make me be seen… Because until someone asks – until someone shows you that your story is worth sharing – you maybe don’t believe that it is.”

StoryFeast featured panels on food and memory, mixed-race identities, home, and memoirs and family histories – and for the first time spotlighted British-Vietnamese authors to mark 50 years since the end of the American war in Vietnam.

September is ESEA Heritage Month and it has become a hub for cultural activity thanks to initiatives like besea.n, whose 2021 campaign inspired a wave of events.

In 2023, hoping to make the most of the ESEA Heritage Month and spotlight British ESEA children’s books, a group of children’s writers came together to create a literary festival. We called ourselves ESEA Authors Lit Fest and pooled our networks to secure a venue and curate speakers. The programming quickly expanded to include adult authors like AY Chao, Ella King, Zen Cho and poet L Kiew. Crowdfunding enabled honoraria for speakers in 2024, and in the same year, Inclusive Books for Children sponsored a panel on diverse children’s literature, chaired by editor Wendy Tse Shakespeare.

By 2025, the festival, rebranded as StoryFeast Lit Fest, secured Arts Council funding, and attracted sponsorships from multiple publishers and partners. Participants included Do Re Mi, Oxford University Press, Simon & Schuster and Walker Books, with its festival bookshop, The Children’s Bookshop, reporting exceptional sales. Illumicrate founder Daphne Tonge’s participation added further industry weight. These attendees alone demonstrate the festival’s value as a venue for showcasing new ESEA titles, driving book sales, and offering publishers and retailers a direct connection to readers.

Recognising the need for family-focused programming, the team successfully pitched the British Library to host Little StoryFeast on 21st September – the UK’s first ESEA children’s festival, sponsored by Inclusive Books for Children. Tickets sold out immediately, confirming British readers’ demand for ESEA stories. Emma Farrarons, winner of the 2025 Klaus Flugge Prize, conducted a workshop for young readers – among many other workshops that day. More than 200 attendees participated in the events, and more than 70 joined activities led by illustrators Sharon King-Chai and Mina Ikemoto Ghosh. British-Vietnamese debut author Chi Thai and Walker Books art director Nghiem Ta also inspired families with storytelling based on Thai’s picture book The Endless Sea, the first UK title to explore the Vietnamese refugee experience. Linh Dao, illustrator for The Endless Sea, was nominated for the 2026 Carnegie Medal for Illustration.

Books of the featured authors sold like hot cakes at the British Library Bookshop. “This event brought so many people together as never seen before,” said Rebecca Campbell-Gay of the British Library.

StoryFeast and Little StoryFeast sit within a growing ecosystem of events and festivals in September that aim to uplift and highlight the various ESEA talents, voices and experiences in the UK. They have become more than celebrations – they are interventions, with Little StoryFeast addressing the near-absence of British ESEA voices in children’s publishing in the UK. Despite ESEA communities making up 2.6% of the UK school population, the 2025 Excluded Voices report revealed that only 0.8% of children’s books featured ESEA characters, often through US co-editions. These festivals create an informal pipeline connecting emerging authors and illustrators to publishers, offering market insights and networking opportunities for industry professionals. They provide a space to engage with the ESEA community, discover new talent and join the conversation on diversity and representation.

Preparations for StoryFeast and Little StoryFeast 2026 are under way. For publishers and booksellers, events like these are essential. They offer a platform to showcase titles, meet aspiring creators and build meaningful connections. Come join us in shaping a more inclusive publishing landscape because, as Do reminded us, our stories are worth sharing.