Deadline: Tuesday 7 December
Broadside Day: Saturday 20 February
Cecil Sharp House, London NW1
Organised by the Traditional Song Forum and the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library, the Broadside Day is the annual one-day conference for people interested in in street literature in all its fascinating aspects – broadsides, chap books, songsters, woodcuts, engravings, last dying speeches, catchpennies, wonder-tales, almanacs, fortune tellers, and all kinds of cheap printed material sold to ordinary people in the city streets, at country fairs, and from pedlar’s packs up and down the country in past centuries. The day consists of short papers, presentations, displays, discussions, and is suitable for beginners and experts alike.
We are inviting speakers who may wish to present a 20-minute paper. Suggestions for topics include (but are not restricted to):
The subjects of the material (songs, stories and news items)
- Street literature collectors
- Authors
- Printers
- Street-sellers
- Printing technique
The role that street literature played in spreading literacy, propaganda and dissent, and in keeping the poor entertained and informed
For more information contact Steve Roud via steveroud@gmail.com or Tiffany Hore via tiffany@efdss.org.
Anyone wishing to offer a presentation (20 minutes), please submit a title, synopsis (300 words) and brief biography (100 words), by 7 December 2026, to steveroud@gmail.com. Remote presentations will be considered.
