London's inaugural StoryFeast festival will debut September 13, with the aim of changing market perceptions and creating more opportunities for East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) authors in the U.K. publishing industry. The ESEA community, which is unique to the U.K., spans East Asia—including China, Japan, and Korea—and the 11 countries of Southeast Asia, but excludes South Asian nations like Bangladesh, India, Pakistan.

The grassroots literary festival was initially known as the ESEA Authors Lit Fest, but was rebranded earlier this year to differentiate itself from the ESEA Lit Fest and other events during the U.K.’s ESEA Heritage Month in September and to create what organizers call a more accessible identity.

"Story Feast is one of the first literary festivals set up or organized as a grassroots festival for East and Southeast Asian authors to amplify their voices, their books, the work that they do," Eva Wong Nava, children’s book author and cofounder of the festival, told PW.

The festival represents a small but growing community of authors. According to Wong Nava, approximately 100 ESEA creatives are part of "Bubble Tea," a writing network formed by author Maisie Chan that brings together East and Southeast Asian writers and illustrators across the U.K. The writers publish approximately 20 books per year.

Eric Huang, head of publishing partnerships for Story Feast, author, and a lecturer in the Publishing MA program at City University of London, emphasized that the festival's goals extend beyond celebrating authors.

"Story Feast and this group [aims] to be something that can impact the market to change perceptions," Huang said. "So whilst we're helping the creators, we also want to do that by changing perceptions on the business side to create more opportunities."

The organizers pointed to systemic issues within U.K. publishing that limit opportunities for ESEA authors. Huang noted that books by authors of ESEA heritage are typically only promoted during Lunar New Year, a practice Huang likened to the American tendency to confine promotions of Black authors to Black History Month.

Despite ongoing challenges, both organizers noted increasing representation of ESEA professionals within U.K. publishing houses. Huang, who previously worked at Penguin, recalled being "one of like three" ESEA employees at the company, but said the numbers have grown significantly.

The community now includes prominent figures such as Daphne Tonge and Anissa de Gomery, who run the book subscription services Illumicrate and FairyLoot, respectively. Huang called Tonge and de Gomery "the tastemakers for beautiful romantasy, sci-fi, speculative fiction hardcover books."

Festival programming and partnerships

This year's Story Feast will feature five panels with approximately 20 speakers across children's and adult literature. The festival is hosted by SOAS University of London and has secured sponsorship from numerous publishers including Walker Books, Penguin Random House, Pan Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster.

The festival has also launched a children's literature component running September 21 in partnership with the British Library. "This year, we started Little Story Feast, which is the kid lit version," Wong Nava said. "Because kid lit is still pretty underrepresented in the U.K., we're so small that we actually know everyone who is writing kids books in the U.K."

The 2025 festival includes a special focus on Vietnamese literature, marking the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Featured authors include filmmaker Chi Thai, whose picture book The Endless Sea is based on her childhood experience as a refugee, and actor-playwright Tuyền Đỗ, whose play Summer Rolls was the first British Vietnamese play staged in the U.K. It was published as a novel by Hachette UK.

Looking ahead, the organizers hope to gather more comprehensive data about ESEA publishing in the U.K. to better advocate for the community. "Our next step in terms of being able to affect the market and retailers and publishers is about getting these numbers," Huang said.

The festival represents what organizers see as a critical moment for ESEA voices to grab the attention of readers and the publishing industry at large, moving the community beyond niche categorization toward broader recognition and year-round promotion.

"This year, a lot of publishers have supported us financially," Huang said. "The festival is being embraced by publishers, but the next step is to get them to publish that way and to help change retail perception as well."