Festival, Literature
Manchester Literature Festival at Various Venues
Manchester Literature Festival
Various Venues
6th October 2022 – 23rd October 2022
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Imagination, curiosity and great storytelling are part of the DNA of Manchester Literature Festival. Over the last five years, we have presented special events with some of the world’s finest writers including Isabel Allende, Margaret Atwood, Kazuo Ishiguro, Jhumpa Lahiri, Arundhati Roy, Zadie Smith and Colson Whitehead. We’re excited to be returning to a full programme of live events from 7-23 October and welcoming more unique storytellers to the city.
Award-winning American authors A.M Homes and George Saunders join us to talk about their brilliant new books The Unfolding and Liberation Day; South-African writer Damon Galgut discusses the personal and political change at the heart of his Booker Prize winning novel The Promise; Kamila Shamsie explores the pleasures and perils of friendship, power and citizenship in Best of Friends; Mexican writer Juan Pablo Villalobos and Brazilian writer Paulo Scott discuss the history of borders and the stories that flow across them.
Master storyteller Maggie O’Farrell transports us from Elizabethan England to Renaissance Italy; Jon McGregor takes us on a treacherous trip to Antarctica;
Natalie Haynes leads us to ancient Greece via a feminist retelling of Medusa; Ian Rankin and Jackie Kay follow Rebus around the streets and crime dens of Edinburgh; Mariana Enriquez makes a rare visit from Argentina to discuss her haunting new novel Our Share of Night; and Susanna Clarke and Max Porter come together to discuss the deeply immersive world of Piranesi.
Radio 5 presenter Nihal Arthanayake suggests how we can have more meaningful conversations; Rob Delaney talks about love, loss, grief and comedy; David Olusoga discusses his excellent work documenting Black British history; and we present special events with Ruth Jones, Sheila Hancock, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Edward Enninful and Bernardine Evaristo! We also have a feast of wonderful poetry events across the Oxford Road Corridor from Carl Phillips, Roger Robinson, Inua Ellams & Yomi Sode to our After Sylvia and More Fiya showcase events. We hope you can join us…
Cathy Bolton & Sarah-Jane Roberts,
Manchester Literature Festival Co-Directors
Part of this season
A.M. Homes joins Manchester Literature Festival to discuss her new novel ‘The Unfolding’ about how that night led us to where we are now.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
BBC Presenter Razia Iqbal hosts an evening with prize-winning writer Kamila Shamsie.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
The bestselling and much-loved author of ‘Brick Lane’, Monica Ali visits MLF to celebrate her brilliant new novel ‘Love Marriage’, her first book in a decade.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Kit de Waal discusses ‘Without Warning and Only Sometimes’ a memoir of a childhood of opposites and extremes.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Manchester Literature Festival is joined by two award-winning stars of Irish writing, Jan Carson & Louise Kennedy.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
In his captivating debut novel, ‘The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho’, actor Paterson Joseph tells a story hidden for 300 years.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Winner of the 2021 Booker Prize, Damon Galgut discusses his masterpiece ‘The Promise’, a gripping, beautifully written family saga.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Two electrifying performers, Inua Ellams and Yomi Sode return to MLF to share work from their acclaimed poetry collections.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Jackie Kay hosts and evening with Scottish crime writer with Ian Rankin at Royal Northern College of Music.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
For the 2022 Anthony Burgess Lecture, and in the centenary year of TS Eliot’s poem ‘The Waste Land’, we are delighted to welcome the acclaimed poet and critic Robert Crawford to deliver a specially commissioned talk on TS Eliot and literary biography. TS Eliot was a formative influence on Anthony Burgess, who returned to Eliot’s […]
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Award-winning BBC broadcaster Nihal Arthanayake brings a defibrillator to our ailing ability to connect through conversation.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
A special in conversation with David Olusoga, the British historian, broadcaster, presenter and author of ‘Black and British: A Forgotten History’.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
The history of walls – as a way to keep people in or out – is also the history of people managing to get around, over and under them.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
With wit, curiosity and deep admiration Nick Hornby traces the extraordinary lives of two artists who have shaped and inspired him.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Award-winning poet Roger Robinson and acclaimed photographer Johny Pitts rented a red Mini Cooper and went in search of Black Britain.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Jon McGregor is the author of two short story collections and five novels and he stops by The Anthony Burgess Foundation.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Manchester Literature Festival is delighted to present a special in conversation with Rob Delaney.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Join George Saunders in Conversation at Central Library as part of this year’s Manchester Literature Festival.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
Edward Enninful in conversation with fellow game-changer Bernardine Evaristo about his life, work, experiences in the world of fashion and commitment to inclusion and representation.
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
More Fiya brings together Jackie Kay, Malika Booker, Kayo Chingonyi, Jason Allen-Paisant, Rommi Smith & Keisha Thompson
Part of Manchester Literature Festival
