Voices of Milton Keynes

The Raising Voices Project is curating writing inspired by places in Milton Keynes to present in our online, interactive StoryMap with over 70 original pieces by local writers, from teenagers to octogenarians, each showing a different perspective on an evolving modern city with ancient roots. Join us to hear live readings of some of our favourite pieces from the most recent submissions, and celebrate the project! Pay bar available.

Submit your poem, short story or piece of creative non-fiction by 30 March 2026, and you could be selected to take part in this special Festival event – as well as to see your piece added to the StoryMap along with a recording in your own original voice.

About Raising Voices

Raising Voices is a citywide multimedia project that is capturing people’s experiences or flights of imagination in relation and response to specific places – houses, streets, buildings, parks, trees, lakes, bars - across Milton Keynes, in poems, short stories or in creative non-fiction.

We’re curating a selection of your submitted pieces into a web-based StoryMap, where you can click on marked locations to read poems and stories that they've inspired, in many cases illustrated with images too. And you can hear the pieces too, as most of the poems and stories are accompanied by audio-recordings.

More about the Raising Voices project

• Web: https://www.mklitfest.org/raisingvoicesproject

About MK Lit Fest

Milton Keynes Literary Festival (MK Lit Fest) began in 2017, since when over 250 authors - ranging from international bestsellers to debut novelists, and including all kinds of fiction and non-fiction - have appeared at our in-person and online events. We also host children's events, literary walks, writing workshops, submission-based events for local writers, an annual writing competition and anthology, and more. Our next in-person festival is happening between 22 and 26 April 2026 in Central Milton Keynes, but our programme extends year round. Visit us online at  www.mklitfest.org or follow us as @MKLitFest on most social channels.