Lancaster's Litfest returns in March with a full programme of exciting events.
With author events, participation opportunities and drop-in activities, Lancaster’s 44th Annual Literature Festival returns to the city from the 17 to 26 March 2023.
This year the festival will explore how the past is shaping the decisions we make and the legacies we will leave for the future through fiction, illustration, poetry, history, nature writing, exhibitions, idea exchanges and storytelling.
After pioneering a hybrid festival in 2022 (available to attend in-person or view online), Litfest will again offer this flexible format, and even better, this year all tickets are FREE to access, to take account of the current cost of living and energy crisis. Donations for events are encouraged and will be gratefully accepted, enabling Litfest to go on creating accessible and engaging literature events for everyone throughout the year.
Co-creation projects will include ‘From Source to Sea’, a poetry and performance event. Born out of the Lancaster Arts and The Sewing Café Lancaster’s ‘River Tours’ project which saw a 10-metre sewn map of the River Lune created in October, this event will invite Northwest-based poets to submit poems inspired by the ecology, economy and history of the region’s rivers to the Litfest Poetry Map.
Our History strand is particularly strong this year, promising exploration of some challenging topics. Working once again with Will Pettigrew, Nick Radburn and Lancaster Black History Group, the Lancaster University’s Atlantic Slave Trade research project will explore the uses to which compensation paid to former slave owners was put in Victorian Britain. To mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, Peter Taylor will talk about his revelatory new book, Operation Chiffon, about MI5, MI6 and the secret road to peace in Ireland, and Jill Liddington will talk about Anne Lister, English diarist and inspiration for the TV series Gentleman Jack.
Drop-in events with our Writers in Residence include a Philosophy Café with AC Grayling; a session with naturalist Tim Birkhead at the City Museum; advice sessions on ‘What to Read Next’ with Reader in Residence Sophie Anderson at the City Library, plus an online workshop with Poet in Residence Katie Hale; there’ll also be a ‘making’ session for younger children with author Jake Hope and illustrator Genevieve Aspinall.
Authors’ events will explore sci-fi with Adrian Tchaikovsky and celebrate the launch of local author Eoghan Wall’s Gospel of Orla, whilst Litfest’s Wildlife Photography competition and the Slavery Family Trees exhibition will showcase some of the themes running through the festival. There will once again be the chance for our talented audiences to get involved in activities from reading to writing to photography!
And all this is just the main festival – they also have a great International Women’s Day event on 8 March as Catherine Simpson talks with humour and compassion about her challenging life journey and her book One Body. Later, in April, legendary reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson will visit Lancaster University, while the prestigious Lancaster Environment Lecture will be given by eco-campaigner George Monbiot in May.
For more information about what’s on, how to book and how to donate, visit www.litfest.org
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