Past events
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SOLD OUT: Manchester Literature Festival presents An Afternoon with Elif Shafak
15:00 - 16:15 25 October 2026
Join us for a special afternoon with one of today’s most influential and much-loved literary voices. Internationally-acclaimed novelist Elif Shafak returns to celebrate her extraordinary new novel, In One Brief Moment All Eternity. Spanning decades and continents, from revolutionary 19th-century...
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SOLD OUT: Manchester Literature Festival presents Karen Solie: Rylands Poetry Reading
18:00 - 19:15 22 October 2026
This year’s annual Rylands Poetry Reading is delivered by Karen Solie. Her latest collection Wellwater, exploring the profound impact of economic and environmental crises on human culture alongside vivid childhood memories of growing up in rural Canada, won both the T.S. Eliot Prize and Forward Prize...
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SOLD OUT: Manchester Literature Festival presents Lady Hale and Lara Feigel
18:00 - 19:15 21 October 2026
Lady Hale, the first female President of the UK Supreme Court and author of the Women’s Prize longlisted With the Law on Our Side, joins acclaimed writer Lara Feigel, author of Custody: The Secret History of Mothers, for a compelling conversation on law, family and power. Drawing on real cases...
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Manchester Literature Festival presents The Observer Book Club with Min Jin Lee
18:30 - 19:45 21 October 2026
Acclaimed Korean American author Min Jin Lee, internationally celebrated for the bestselling Pachinko, discusses her long-awaited new novel, American Hagwon. Spanning decades and continents, this sweeping contemporary epic follows three generations of one family as they navigate migration, identity,...
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SOLD OUT: Manchester Literature Festival presents Sufiyaan Salam and Monika Radojevic
16:00 - 17:15 18 October 2026
Discover two fresh and uncompromising voices from Stormzy’s #Merky Books as Sufiyaan Salam and Monika Radojevic come together to discuss their acclaimed debut novels and the stories shaping a new generation of writers. Though radically different in style and setting, Wimmy Road Boyz and Strangerland...
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The Banners of Ed Hall: Art,Activism & Civic Action in Contemporary Britain
16:30 - 18:00 15 October 2026
Join us for an event on the history, politics and stories behind banners in art and activism. Ed Hall has been making trade union, campaign and gallery banners since 1984 when he worked for Lambeth Council as it launched a political campaign against cuts in local authority spending. Since then, Ed has...
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Manchester Literature Festival presents The Observer Book Club with Yann Martel
18:30 - 19:45 14 October 2026
Booker Prize-winning author Yann Martel, internationally acclaimed for the modern classic Life of Pi, visits Manchester Literature Festival for this exclusive North West event to discuss his remarkable new novel, Son of Nobody. Inspired by Homer's Iliad, Yann reimagines the Trojan War through the...
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SOLD OUT: Manchester Literature Festival presents Patrick Radden Keefe
18:30 - 19:45 12 October 2026
A gripping evening with Patrick Radden Keefe, bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing. Patrick joins us to discuss his new work London Falling - a riveting true story of wealth, lies and the dark currents running beneath modern London. When teenager Zac Brettler dies after falling from a...
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Manchester Literature Festival presents Paul Mason: Reds
13:00 - 14:15 11 October 2026
A decade after PostCapitalism, Paul Mason returns to Manchester Literature Festival to discuss REDS: A Global History of Communism, his provocative new book exploring one of history's most powerful and contested political ideas. In his bold and unsettling re-evaluation of communism, Paul traces the...
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Manchester Literature Festival presents The Observer Book Club with Deborah Frances-White
15:30 - 16:45 11 October 2026
Author, comedian and host of The Guilty Feminist podcast, Deborah Frances-White joins us for a lively and illuminating conversation about her latest book, Six Conversations We’re Scared to Have, exploring how to navigate polarisation, disagreement and the increasingly heated debates shaping public...
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