York Literature Festival
Early Bird Tickets
NOTE: Please note that our full programme will be launched in January 2026. While care has been taken not to clash these events with others, we cannot guarantee this until the full programme is finalised.
Your Life Is Manufactured: Tim Minshall in Conversation
28 February 2026
St Peter’s School
Doors 6:30pm for a 7pm start
£12 Tickets
Book-signing to follow the event.
Join Tim Minshall, Professor at the University of Cambridge’s Institute for Manufacturing, on an illuminating journey through the world of manufacturing and its transformational influence on our lives – and the world around us.
Tim will be in conversation with the York Literature Festival team to discuss the things around us and how they impact our world, be it the thousands of litres of water it takes to make a single pair of jeans or our smartphones that travel the world six times to reach us.
Tim Minshall is the inaugural Dr John C. Taylor Professor of Innovation at the University of Cambridge, the head of the Engineering Department’s Institute for Manufacturing and a fellow of Churchill College. His research, teaching and outreach are focused on the links between manufacturing and innovation. He lives in Cambridge with his scientist wife, Nicola.
Rónán Hession, in Conversation
14 March 2026
St Peter’s School
Doors 6.30pm for a 7pm start
£12 tickets
Following the success of Leonard and Hungry Paul (2019) and the 2025 BBC Series, join us as we welcome Rónán Hession and Colette Snowden for an inspirational talk about writing, adaptation and Hession’s recent novel Ghost Mountain (2024).
Ghost Mountain is a folk tale featuring a mountain that appeared yesterday, changing the lives of the local people; the town drunk, a retired teacher and her dog, a young soul and his wife, an old soul. It is a story about all that is unmistakable present yet never truly fathomable in our lives.
Rónán Hession is an Irish writer and musician based in Dublin. His debut novel Leonard and Hungry Paul, was published by Bluemoose Books in 2019. It was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, the An Post Irish Book Awards, the British Book Awards, the Books Are My Bag Awards, the Dalkey Literary Prize, the McKitterick Prize, and was longlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize. Leonard and Hungry Paul was selected by Dublin City Council as the 2021 One Dublin One Book. It was also chosen by the Sunday Times and the Irish Times as one of the 50 Great Irish Novels of the 21st Century. It is currently being adapted for a six-part BBC series. Ronán’s second novel Panenka, was published in May 2021. It was shortlisted for Novel of the Year at the An Post Irish Book Awards and the Books Are My Bag Fiction prize. His third novel, Ghost Mountain, was published in May 2024 to critical acclaim. It was a Book of the Year in Review 31 and The Irish Independent.
Rónán has been a judge for the An Post Irish Books Awards, the British Book Awards and the Society of Authors McKitterick Prize. He also reviews fiction in translation for the Irish Times. As Mumblin’ Deaf Ro, he has released three albums of storytelling songs. His third album, Dictionary Crimes, was nominated for the Choice Music Prize for Irish Album of the Year.
Laura Bates – The New Age of Sexism:
How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny
18 March 2026
St Peter’s School
Doors 6:30pm for a 7pm start
£12 Tickets
Activist, writer, speaker and journalist Laura Bates joins us at St Peter’s Memorial Hall to deliver an eye-opening keynote showcasing the subject of her latest bestseller, The New Age of Sexism: How the AI Revolution is Reinventing Misogyny.
Covering topics such as workplace sexual harassment to school sexism, women in tech to online abuse, Bates’ is an urgent and captivating voice against gender inequality. Do not miss this talk where Bates’ will present her stance on AI and what she deems sexism in “a new age”.
Please note that this talk will contain references to emotionally challenging material.
Laura Bates is an activist, writer, speaker and journalist. She is the founder of the Everyday Sexism Project, an ever-increasing collection of over 200,000 testimonies of gender inequality. The project raises awareness of sexism, provides a cathartic and empowering space for survivors’ stories to be heard and believed, and uses those stories to create real-world change in partnership with politicians, businesses and organisations from the United Nations to the Council of Europe.
Laura is a bestselling author of 9 books, which have been translated into 7 languages. Her first book, Everyday Sexism, published by Simon & Schuster in 2014, was shortlisted for Waterstones Book of the Year and Polemic of the Year at the Political Book Awards. Her second book, Girl Up, a survival guide for teenage girls, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Men Who Hate Women, a groundbreaking undercover investigation into the world of incels and the terrorism nobody is talking about, was named one of the best books of the year by The Guardian and GQ in 2021. Fix the System, Not the Women, was published in May 2022 and provided the inspiration for a national anti-misogyny advertising campaign.
Fantasy Fiction: Susanna Clarke in Conversation
20 March 2026
St Peter’s School
Doors 6.30pm for a 7pm start
£12 tickets
TICKETS SELLING WELL
Eighteen months after receiving her honorary Doctor of Letters from York St John University, bestselling Fantasy Fiction author Susanna Clarke will join festival chair Rob O’Connor in conversation on genre, writing and her celebrated works which are much loved across York and beyond.
In 1992, Susanna Clarke began working on Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, which was finally published in 2004 by Bloomsbury to widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell was filmed as a major BBC drama that aired in 2015. She followed with a collection of short stories, The Ladies of Grace Adieu (2006). Her short story Mr Simonelli, or The Fairy Widower, was short-listed for a World Fantasy Award in 2001. Her most recent novel, Piranesi, was published in 2020 and was awarded the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2021. Her short story, The Wood at Midwinter, broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on Boxing Day in 2022, was published by Bloomsbury as an illustrated book in October 2024. Susanna lives in the Peak District with her husband, the writer Colin Greenland.
Folk Horror and the Urban Wyrd
York Festival of Hauntology
Early Bird Weekend Pass – £50
SOLD OUT!
21 and 22 March 2026
York Medical Society, Stonegate
10am start
Over 21-22 March, authors from across the country will gather to celebrate Folk Horror & the Urban Wyrd. Including appearances from Ramsey Campbell, Dan Coxon, Lucie McKnight Hardy, Andrew Michael Hurley and Lucy Rose, the festival is to comprise at least 8 events with more to be announced.
This £50 weekend pass gains you access to the entire weekend of events, with individual tickets for each event to go on sale with the York Literature Festival 2026 programme in January.
Sponsored by York St John University
Our thanks go to those people and organisations that continue to support us every single year: York St John University, St Peter’s School, The Mount School, York Theatre Royal and Explore York Libraries and Archives.
Rob O’Connor, Festival Chair
VOLUNTEERS
PLEASE NOTE THAT WE ARE CURRENTLY NOT LOOKING FOR VOLUNTEERS FOR YLF 2026.
If you wish to volunteer as a steward for the York Literature Festival then please get in touch with us at info@yorkliteraturefestival.co.uk. Please be aware that volunteers may be required to carry out light manual tasks (e.g. moving chairs) and must have an enthusiasm for literary events. Volunteers will be asked to steward for 30-60 minutes before the start of each event and will be welcome to join the audience once the event has started.