Manchester Literature Festival returns this autumn 4 – 20 October 2024, revealing a programme of events to inspire, move and challenge. The festival will bring new writers and more established names to the city, celebrating literature in all its forms.
The festival gets off to a bold start when singer-songwriter and artist Neneh Cherry (‘Buffalo Stance’, ‘Raw Like Sushi’) talks about her beautiful and deeply personal memoir A Thousand Threads with Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo. Sponsored by Weightmans.
Manchester Literature Festival audience favourite Elif Shafak closes the festival with a special event discussing her superb and critically acclaimed new novel There Are Rivers in the Sky.
In between, this year’s guests include David Peace, Lemn Sissay, Rebecca F. Kuang, Rumaan Alam, Paula Hawkins, Matt Haig, Alan Hollinghurst, Andrew O’Hagan, Jackie Kay, Carol Ann Duffy, George Monbiot, Caroline Lucas, Harriet Walter and Thomas Heatherwick.
In addition to the main festival there are also three “Bookend” events: Taffy Brodesser-Akner (29 October), Greg Jenner (3 November) and Richard Powers (8 November).
A vibrant city-wide event, the festival takes advantage of a variety of venues in Manchester with events at Central Library, Martin Harris Centre, John Rylands Library, Manchester Poetry Library, HOME and Contact.
Cathy Bolton & Sarah-Jane Roberts, co-directors of Manchester Literature Festival said: “Reimagining is 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. 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 reimagines what Shakespeare’s leading women were really thinking in She Speaks!
“Elsewhere in the programme, Jackie Kay celebrates a life in poetry and protest; Carol Ann Duffy and Gillian Clarke pay homage to mother earth and master storytellers Elif Shafak and Richard Powers explore how water connects us. We also welcome a multitude of other brilliant novelists, poets and artists to the city.”
The full programme of 2024 events can be found on the Manchester Literature Festival website. https://manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/
