Zadie Smith, Patti Smith and Mustafa are among the star names lined up to be interviewed by Dua Lipa, as the pop star reveals her curation of this year’s London Literature festival at the Southbank Centre.

The festival, now in its 19th year, will run from 21 October to 1 November, with the Brit award-winning singer shaping a programme of events in collaboration with her Service95 book club.

Lipa said curating the programme had been “a true joy”, adding that she wanted to bring together “some of the most exciting writers, poets and thinkers from around the globe”, alongside more familiar names.

Lipa will sit down with Zadie Smith on 24 October to discuss her 2000 debut novel, White Teeth, published when Smith was just 24. The pair are expected to reflect on “learning to live with an artistic legacy earned at such a young age”, and how the novel’s characters might fare in Britain today.

The night after, she will interview Patti Smith about her memoir Bread of Angels, which charts Smith’s life from childhood, through her marriage to Fred “Sonic” Smith, and her return to music after his death.

The programme will also feature appearances from the Sudanese Canadian poet and musician Mustafa, the Nobel peace laureate Nadia Murad discussing her memoir, I Choose My Beginning, and a conversation between Ta-Nehisi Coates and Tareq Baconi on Baconi’s new book about Palestine.

Other events include a translated fiction showcase, a poetry and music night with Kae Tempest, and Censorship Live!, a collaboration with English PEN examining threats to free expression.

Lipa has increasingly established herself as an advocate for reading. She launched her book club in 2023 as an extension of her wider cultural platform Service95, which sees monthly selections and long-form author interviews with writers including Margaret Atwood, George Saunders and Olga Tokarczuk. Last month, she opened a permanent collection of 100 banned, censored and challenged books inside the historic Livraria Lello bookshop in Porto, Portugal.

Mark Ball, the Southbank Centre’s artistic director, said Lipa’s “deep curiosity about the world” made her a fitting curator for the venue’s 75th anniversary. “It’s a milestone year and she’s the perfect curator to help us celebrate it,” he added.

The literature festival also includes free family events and a wider national programme, part of Southbank Centre’s efforts to reach a million people across the UK in 2026.

Last year, the festival was curated by Self Esteem, and previous headliners include Ai Weiwei, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Tom Hanks and Yulia Navalnaya.

Tickets go on sale to Southbank Centre members on 3 August, Service95 members on 4 August, and the general public on 5 August.

Brit award-winning pop star Dua Lipa is to curate this year’s London literature festival at the Southbank Centre, organisers have announced.

The festival, now in its 19th year, will run from 21 October to 1 November, with Lipa shaping a programme of events across the opening weekend and beyond in collaboration with her Service95 book club. The news comes as part of the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme and during the UK’s National Year of Reading.

Lipa, who launched the book club in 2023 as an extension of her wider cultural platform Service95, has increasingly established herself as a prominent advocate for reading. Through monthly selections and long-form author interviews, she has sought to spotlight established writers and emerging voices, including podcast interviews with Margaret Atwood, George Saunders and Olga Tokarczuk.

“Reading has anchored me through every chapter of my life – from being the new kid at school in a new country to finding quiet refuge on tour,” Lipa said. “Curating the Southbank Centre’s London literature festival is a dream come true. I’m thrilled to indulge one of my greatest obsessions: books and the brilliant minds behind them.”

“Dua Lipa is a global cultural force with millions of fans around the world, and her passion for the written and spoken word has inspired a new generation of readers,” Mark Ball, artistic director of the Southbank Centre, said. “We’re absolutely thrilled that Dua will take the reins of our flagship London literature festival.”

The 2026 edition will feature a mix of ticketed and free events. Organisers say the programme will highlight both “favourite writers” selected by Lipa and new literary voices.

Last year, the festival was curated by Self Esteem, and previous headliners include Ai Weiwei, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, Margaret Atwood, Philip Pullman, Tom Hanks and Yulia Navalnaya.

The Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary programme will also feature You Are Here – a large-scale site takeover conceived by Danny Boyle, Paulette Randall, Gareth Pugh and Carson McColl (3 May) – alongside Harry Styles’s Meltdown (11–21 June), Goalhanger: The Rest Is Fest (4–6 September), and a major exhibition marking Anish Kapoor’s return to the Hayward Gallery (16 June–18 October).

These events at the Southbank Centre will be complemented by a nationwide programme spanning art, literature and music, with the ambition of reaching more than one million people across more than 40 towns and cities in all four nations of the UK.

Ted Hodgkinson, head of literature and spoken word at the Southbank Centre, said that Lipa’s work had “sparked a global conversation around books”. “In the National Year of Reading, we’re delighted to be collaborating with Dua for the Southbank Centre’s London literature festival, to draw fresh audiences into our iconic spaces,” he added.

The full programme for this year’s festival is expected to be announced over the summer.

Helen Garner has praised Dua Lipa as a “serious and sensitive” interviewer after the British superstar added Garner’s nonfiction book This House of Grief to her monthly book club.

Garner’s 2014 courtroom drama will be the first Australian inclusion on the popular list, taking the Melbourne author’s work to the singer’s growing global audience.

Lipa said Garner’s book offered a “sharp and forensic analysis of the human condition,” announcing the selection in an Instagram post.

“Although Helen has been writing for almost 50 years, her work is new to me and it’s a thrilling discovery,” Lipa wrote.

“She’s one of the most fascinating writers I have come across in recent years, and I’m sure that, like me, you’ll find yourself diving into her back catalogue.”

Garner will join 23 high-profile authors championed by Lipa after the August publication of the interview, which the author described as “fruitful”.

“I found her an impressive person, serious and sensitive and deeply interested in the difficult questions that the book raises,” Garner said.

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Lipa foreshadowed Garner’s addition ahead of her interview series’ move to streaming on Spotify in June.

“It wouldn’t be my book pile without at least one harrowing story,” Lipa said at the time.

Garner won international acclaim for This House of Grief, a retelling of the trial of Victorian man Robert Farquharson over the murder of his three sons. Farquharson drove his three children into a dam in south-western Victoria in 2005.

The book received special mention in Garner’s 2016 win of the US$150,000 (A$207,633) Windham Campbell literary prize. The author first thought the award was hoax after an email in her junk folder from someone at Yale University who had “good news” and wanted her phone number, she said at the time.

Garner, 82, came to local prominence after the 1977 publication of Monkey Grip but has enjoyed soaring popularity outside Australia in the last decade.

New editions of several of Garner’s books, including This House of Grief, were republished in the UK and US in 2023 and 2024.

Lipa shared a preview of her analysis announcing This House of Grief’s selection on Instagram.

“[Garner’s] not looking for monsters – her interest lies with ordinary people who seem to have been pushed beyond their emotional limits,” Lipa wrote.

“As the trial progresses, I found myself questioning my own reactions, asking myself less, Did he do it? and instead, Is it possible to have empathy for this man, even if he did the worst thing imaginable?”

The 29-year-old singer has attracted more than 450,000 Instagram followers and nearly 100,000 YouTube subscriptions to her Service95 platform, which launched monthly book club picks in 2023.

Authors of each of Lipa’s monthly book picks have sat for extended interviews with the singer, analysing their work and sharing music recommendations. The lone exception is Gabriel García Márquez, author of 1967’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, who died in 2014.

Garner’s is the 24th book to be included and the first by an Australian author, in a list dominated by American books but spanning Patrick Radden Keefe’s Say Nothing to Guadalupe Nettel’s Still Born.

Lipa has previously singled out Albanian author Ismail Kadare as a personal inspiration, saying the novelist’s work encouraged her connection with her Kosovan-Albanian heritage in a keynote speech for the Booker prize 2022 ceremony.

“I often wonder if authors realise just how many gifts they give us,” she said.

• This House of Grief by Helen Garner (Orion Publishing Co, £9.99). To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.