Alternatively, you can download a PDF of the programme here.

We are very excited to welcome to you to Litfest 2021, our fully digital and free festival! Packed full of exciting new initiatives alongside festival favourites.  Featuring Matt Haig, A.M. Dassu, Jackie Morris, Shaun Tan, Michal Marmot, Fatima Ibrahim, Johny Pitts, James Suzman, A.C. Grayling, Andrey Kurkov, Yvonne Battle-Felton, Karen Lloyd, Kim Moore, Daniel Hahn, Sarah Hall, Tim Birkhead, Paul Farley, James Clarke, Sarah Moss, Tara Bergin, Sean O’Brien, Raymond Antrobus, Colette Bryce, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Emma Rucastle and so much more!

All Litfest events will be free to access, although tickets must be booked in advance in order to receive the link to the event page on online streaming platform Crowdcast.

Events will be recorded and will then be available for a limited time on our YouTube channel. Whilst all events this year will be free, Litfest is a registered charity which relies on donations and fundraising to survive. Any donation, no matter how big or small, is gratefully received and will allow us to continue our work in the community. You can donate to Litfest here.

Litfest 2021 is also full of opportunities for our audiences to get involved, from competitions to book clubs, writing workshops to the #LitfestRedCarpet. We can’t wait to see what you do!

Supported by public funding from Arts Council England, we are delighted to announce four new flagship projects that will be running throughout the festival.

• The Litfest Big Read is our region wide reading challenge, encouraging everyone to come together to read one of the two most highly praised and enjoyable books published last year.
• How We Live Now is a specially commissioned series of films exploring ‘How We Live Now’ in Lancaster and the surrounding area. These films will take a look at the lives of members of our local community during a turbulent year.
• How We Live Next is a series of five events running throughout the weekend, including four online talks (with Q&A), by leading thinkers, writers, activists, politicians and business people. The event series will culminate in a panel discussion on Sunday afternoon with a more local focus.
• New Writing North West is a series of workshops in four genres for emerging writers in the Northwest region. The genres are fiction (led by Yvonne Battle-Felton), nature and environment writing (led by Karen Lloyd), poetry (led by Kim Moore) and translation (led by Daniel Hahn). We invite anyone and everyone interested to apply for a place.