MANI LIT FEST
The seventh Mani Lit Fest is being held on Friday 3rd and Saturday 4th October 2025.
History of the Event
The first Mani Lit Fest took place in October 2018, and expanded to a two day event in October 2019. Unfortunately the 2020 event was cancelled due to the difficulty of planning and arranging travel during that exceptional year, but continued in September/October of 2021, 2022 and 2023 and 2024.
Where are we?
The Mani is a peninsula in southern Greece, the middle 'finger' of the three fingers of the Peloponnese region. The Lit Fest takes place at Patriko Cafe-Bar in the village of Stoupa, approximately 50km away from the city of Kalamata, the regional capital, where the nearest airport (KLX) is located.
How it Began ...
The idea for a free literary festival began one day in summer 2018, with a cup of coffee in the shady garden of Patriko Bar in Stoupa, and a conversation between Theresa Stoker, Melanie Wicks and Carol McGrath. A part-time resident of the area, Carol had previously done a 'Meet the Writer' event at the bar, where she had talked about her first novel 'The Hand-Fasted Wife' (book one of her Daughters of Hastings trilogy). Carol having just published her fourth novel, 'The Woman in the Shadows', she was interested in doing another similar event at the bar. Less than an hour later, the idea had grown into a full day event of workshops, talks and performances, and that October the first Mani Lit Fest took place.
How do I Book?
Mani Lit Fest is currently a free event open to everybody, so just check our programme (which will be on this website when available) and come along to the venue. No need to reserve, except for the creative writing workshops.
Due to the nature of the writing workshops, we do have to limit the number of participants.
Workshops are finalised in the couple of months before the event. Once announced, simply send an email to manilitfest@yahoo.com, telling us which workshops you would like to attend.