A celebration of storytelling, culture and ideas, featuring inspirational and internationally acclaimed novelists, poets, broadcasters and artists.
Manchester Literature Festival returns this autumn from 4 – 20 October 2024, presenting a programme of 50 events to inspire, move and challenge.
New perspectives and reimagining are at the heart of this year’s Manchester Literature Festival. Caroline Lucas asks us to reimagine a greener, more inclusive England. George Monbiot encourages us to reimagine the end of neoliberalism. Thomas Heatherwick invites us to reimagine our cities without soulless, boring buildings. David Peace reimagines the grief, heartbreak and resurrection of Manchester United after the 1958 Munich air disaster. Curator Ekow Eshun revisits and reimagines the lives of five extraordinary Black men in The Strangers and actor Harriet Walter (Succession, Killing Eve) reimagines what Shakespeare’s leading women were really thinking in She Speaks!
Elsewhere in the programme, Neneh Cherry shares her incredible memoir and adventures in music and creativity with Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo; Jackie Kay celebrates A Life in Poetry and Protest; Carol Ann Duffy pays homage to nature and mother earth and master storytellers Elif Shafak and Richard Powers explore how water connects and sustains us. We also welcome a multitude of brilliant novelists, poets, broadcasters and artists to the city including André Aciman, Rumaan Alam, Susanna Clarke, Juno Dawson, Imtiaz Dharker, Matt Haig, Lindsey Hilsum, Rebecca F. Kuang, Meera Sodha and Asako Yuzuki.
There’s also plenty of opportunities to entertain little ones in our special autumn programme of events and activities for Children and Families, combining immersive storytelling, fun and adventure. Featuring Waterstones Children’s Laureate Joseph Coelho, ex-Horrible Histories historian Greg Jenner, award-winning author and illustrator Rob Biddulph, a Skateboard Drawing Club with Ed Syder and Musical Storyland LIVE!