I would just like to thank everyone who has joined us as we have sailed in and out of different literary worlds over the past 10 days.
At Litfest our ambition is to provide access to and the opportunity to engage with the best in contemporary literature, illustration and ideas. And even though this year has been so very different in the way we have delivered the festival to you, I believe we have achieved just that. However, you the audience will be the judge of that and we would very much welcome your feedback.
We have experienced superb illustrators, authors and poets from all over the world and we have enjoyed welcoming an audience who have travelled digitally to be with us from all over the world. We have celebrated local stories with our film project ‘How We Live Now’ and explored ‘How We Live Next’ with an expert cohort of writers and specialists. Next year, we hopefully will be inviting you physically to our beautiful city of Lancaster.
Throughout the festival we have been delighted that so many people have been able to donate towards our charity. We have been fortunate to have received funding this year from Arts Council England, Lancaster City Council and a range of sponsors including Achates Philanthropy. However, to develop more opportunities for events we do need your support, so please spread the word for us and donate or buy from our bookshop.
We still have more to look forward to over the next month. You can watch events you have may missed or revisit one you really enjoyed on our YouTube channel. We also have new projects, including the release of A.C. Grayling’s “Five Key Questions about Democracy “ — five 8-10 minute videos based on his book ‘The Good State’.
There is still time to sign up for The Litfest Big Read and enjoy one of our chosen books: ‘Boy Everywhere’ by A.M. Dassu and ‘The Midnight Library’ by Matt Haig.
There is the competition for 11-16 year olds to win the chance of a VIP tour of Leighton Moss.
Our New Writing North West writers have been creating some amazing work and we will be sharing this towards the end of April.
The online International Book Club continues in April with ‘Tram 83’ by Fiston Mwanza Mujila, translated from the French by Roland Glasser.
You can also visit our Poetry Map to see all the fantastic poems chosen and penned by people from all around the North West. The map remains open until 22nd April.
So there are still plenty of activities for you still to enjoy! We are hoping to bring you more events during 2021, so do keep watching our website and social media channels, and of course we will be back next March for our 43rd festival.
Thank you for support.
Julie Bell
The Chair, Lancaster Litfest.
