Cumbria Book Festival began as a silly discussion with friends one day on how they wanted to host a fantasy ball in Cumbria. In 2025 Kiera sat down and tried to work out how she could build that into reality and 6 months later Cumbria Book Festival was established.

What started as a fun idea has now developed into a small business where we host book festivals where you can meet local authors, get inspired in workshops and meet some amazing new people.

We have had the opportunity to work with local businesses across Cumbria and hope to continue to grow, and host more literary inspired events (maybe one day getting to that fantasy ball!).

Our very first event was Kiera and her best friend Leah hosting a stall at Calder Fest in Egremont, trying to get the word out and selling blind dates with books. We have since started hosting our own events in Whitehaven where we host local authors who have stalls to promote their books and meet their audiences and we only hope to grow bigger and move to more towns in Cumbria (check out our calendar for upcoming events).