EVENTS

York Literature Festival 2025

NOTE: ONLINE TICKET LINKS CLOSE A FEW HOURS BEFORE THE EVENT STARTS.

Announcing our FULL line-up for the 2025 York Literature Festival, running from 6 to 29 March, with a final event on 29 April. The full programme is now available for you to consider and download, or continue scrolling for the relevant links to tickets for each event. 

Dylan Thomas: The Life Versus the Legend

6 MARCH, 6PM
York Explore
£8

Join John Goodby, professor and Dylan Thomas scholar, for a discussion of the relationship between the life and the legend—just how true is the hard-drinking, womanizing image? In what ways does it distract from the writing— and what does a biographer do about that? Did Thomas really say ‘I’ve just drunk eighteen straight whiskies—I believe that’s the record’ before lapsing into the coma from which he never recovered? Would it be true to say that the image Thomas created, while fiction, became a kind of Frankenstein monster that finally destroyed him?

International Women’s Day Poetry Showcase

7 MARCH, 7PM
Theatre@41
£15

You are invited to join us for our second annual poetry showcase to celebrate International Women’s Day. The evening will feature performances from a series of female poets including local talent Lillian Akampurira Aujo, celebrated ecopoet Isabel Galleymore, and Forward Prize winner Kim Moore. Headlining this event is the widely acclaimed poet and ally Mary Jean Chan.

Women in Science Fiction

11 MARCH, 6PM
York St. John University, Creative Centre
Free—Tickets are required

A panel of writers featuring Abi Curtis, Alexandra Grunberg and Pippa Goldschmidt discuss women in science fiction and their own new work. It will be headed by Una McCormack, Editor of the ground-breaking feminist science fiction press Gold SF. There will be books available to buy and a book signing after the event.

An Introduction to Folk Horror and Pop-Hauntology

8 MARCH, 1-2.30PM
The Black Swan, Peasholme Green
Free—Booking required

Join members of the Hauntology and Spectrality Research Group for a talk on folk horror, hauntology, and pop-hauntology. Professors Adam Smith and Robert Edgar will outline some of the key theories and ideas associated with these critical concepts and will set up some prompts about how these might be used in writing your own ‘haunted’ fiction. Bring a pen and paper!

Olivia Isaac-Henry, in conversation: Sorrow Spring

8 MARCH, 3-4PM
The Black Swan, Peasholme Green
£5

Olivia Isaac-Henry is the author of the 2024 folk horror novel, Sorrow Spring, which is set in the 1970s, and the forthcoming novel, Hallows Hill. Join us to hear more about Olivia’s writing career, how to write folk horror, and why the 1970s provide such a good historical setting.

York Society of Hauntologists

8 MARCH, 4:30-5:30PM
The Black Swan, Peasholme Green
Free—Booking required; Donations welcome

Join Lowen Frampton and the York Society of Hauntologists for this special York Literature Festival Reading Group, focusing on Thomas Hardy’s short story ‘The Withered Arm’, a tale informed by Hardy’s childhood memories. Please read the story in advance, which is available in The Wessex Tales, and can be accessed here.

Bob Fischer—The Haunted Generation

8 MARCH, 7-9:30PM
The Black Swan, Peasholme Green
£10

Why did the kids in the opening titles to Bagpuss make the four-year-old Bob Fischer feel so strange? Who was the little man called Fred who peeped around his bedroom door at night? And did the Devil really leave a hoofprint beneath a bridge on the outskirts of Middlesbrough? In this intimate show, Bob Fischer takes a gentle look at the weirder side of his 1970s and ‘80s childhood. Tall tales, jumbled memories, urban folklore and maybe even the odd song or two. And they will be very odd songs.

Bob is a writer and broadcaster from the North-east of England. His 2017 Fortean Times feature ‘The Haunted Generation’ looked at the effect of the weird 1970s childhood on a generation of British kids, a subject he has continued to explore on his own Haunted Generation website and online radio show. He is also the co-host of the touring Scarred For Life theatre shows.

Pity with Andrew McMillan

11 MARCH, 7PM
The Crescent
£12

Pity is the debut novel from award-winning poet Andrew McMillan exploring community, masculinity and postindustrialisation in Northern England. McMillan will be discussing the novel at this event.

Set across three generations of a South Yorkshire mining family, Andrew McMillan’s magnificent debut novel is a lament for a lost way of life as well as a celebration of resilience and the possibility for change.

What is a Classic?

12 MARCH, 7PM
York St John University, Creative Centre
Free—Tickets are required

What is it about some literature that gives it the capacity to endure? Why do we re-read A Christmas Carol every Christmas? Why do audiences still flock to see Hamlet after thousands of stagings and productions, or return to reread Pride & Prejudice every year? In this discussion, Prof Vybarr Cregan-Reid, Prof Jennie Batchelor, and Dr Sarah Dustagheer (all of whom writers, academics, and university department heads) will discuss the enduring nature of Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, and Shakespeare, unpicking what it is about their best works that make them last.

Sophie Hannah—How to Be a Happy and Successful Writer

13 MARCH, 5-6PM
St. Peter’s School
£10

Join internationally bestselling writer Sophie Hannah, for an inspiring and game-changing masterclass in which you will learn how to massively increase your chances of success, how to change incorrect, unhelpful and limiting beliefs and how to be your own best and most powerful ally and advocate, throughout your writing life.

Sophie Hannah—Agatha Christie, Poirot and Me

13 MARCH, 7PM
St. Peter’s School
£12

Bestselling writer Sophie Hannah will be giving us all the news about her new Poirot novel The Last Death of the Year, the recent movie made of her musical The Mystery of Mr. E, and even her self-help book The Double Best Method. Also, Sophie will be introducing her new novel, No One Would Do What The Lamberts Have Done, and giving away very early bound proof copies as prizes in the exclusive ‘Guess What The Lamberts Have Done’ competition.

Atlas, the Story of Pa Salt, with Harry Whittaker

13 MARCH, 6PM
York Explore
£8

Join local author Harry Whittaker as he discusses his latest work and the completion of a legacy. Described as the epic conclusion to the internationally best-selling series Seven Sisters, Whittaker draws to a close the much-loved series left open-ended after the death of his mother, Lucinda Riley.

Howl Owt

13 MARCH, 7:30-10PM
The Blue Boar
Free

For the second year running, two forces of the local poetry scene will collide for the ultimate spoken word showcase! Join Chloe & Steph from Howlers Open Mic and Henry from Say Owt for an evening of performances from local poets and writers with a special guest feature. However, this time their roles will be reversed with the Say Owt crew taking over the open mic, and Chloe & Steph welcoming the guest poet. Sign up for an open mic slot on arrival. There is a 3-minute performance recommendation.

York Literature Festival Presents: A Workshop with a Difference

14 MARCH, 6-8PM
St. Peter’s School
£10 adult, £7 student (ID needed to access event)

A workshop with a difference. Real Writers Circle will host a 2-hour deep-dive into how to write a compelling short story with a master of the craft, prize-winning author Naomi Wood, winner of the 2023 BBC National Short Story Prize with ‘Comorbidities’. RWC founders Cindy Etherton and Victoria Robson will set the scene by facilitating connections between participants, introducing and interviewing Naomi, and hosting a writerly Q&A. Participants will have the opportunity to try their hand at a writing exercise, discuss their work and problem-solve as they explore short form fiction.

David Almond

14 MARCH, 6PM
Joseph Rowntree School
£10 adult, £5 children (12 years or under)

At this special event for both adults and children, celebrated author David Almond will be talking about his latest books PUPPET, The Falling Boy and Kevin and the Blackbirds, as well as his other work. In what will be an inspirational event, David Almond will talk about his life, his writing career and provide insight into his own creative process. He’ll also be answering questions from the audience.

Guilty by Defintion, with Susie Dent

15 MARCH, 2PM
The Citadel, Gillygate
£12

When an anonymous letter is delivered to the Clarendon English Dictionary, it is rapidly clear that this is not the usual lexicographical enquiry. Instead, the letter hints at secrets and lies linked to a particular year. For Martha Thornhill, the new senior editor, the date can mean only one thing: the summer her brilliant older sister Charlie went missing. When more letters arrive, and Martha and her team pull apart the complex clues within them, the mystery becomes ever more insistent and troubling. It seems Charlie had been keeping a powerful secret, and someone is trying to lead the lexicographers towards the truth. But other forces are no less desperate to keep it well and truly buried.

Susie Dent is a writer and broadcaster on language. She recently celebrated thirty years as a copresenter and the resident word expert on Channel 4’s Countdown and also appears on the show’s comedy sister 8 out of 10 Cats Does Countdown. Susie comments regularly on TV and radio on words in the news and is the author of several non-fiction books on words and language. Guilty by Definition is her first novel.

Fantasy Fiction: Susanna Clarke in Conversation

15 MARCH, 7PM
St. Peter’s School
£12, £7 student (ID needed to access event)

Acclaimed author Susanna Clarke will be in conversation with Rob O’Connor, Chair of York LIterature Festival, at this very special event. Not only will Susanna be discussing her work but also literature and fantasy fiction more widely, especially the genre’s enduring popularity and roots in folklore and mythology.

Susanna Clarke’s debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell was first published in 2004 in more than 34 countries and has now sold over 4 million copies worldwide. It won British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year, the Hugo Award, and the World Fantasy Award in 2005.

The Ladies of Grace Adieu, a collection of short stories, some set in the world of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, was published by Bloomsbury in 2006. Her second novel Piranesi was an international bestseller and won the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2021, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel of the Year Award. The Wood at Midwinter a short story by Susanna set in the world of Jonathan Strange, was published in October 2024.

The Brontës and Contagion: Book Launch with Jo Waugh

16 MARCH, 2PM
York St. John University, Creative Centre
Free—Tickets are required

Join author and academic Dr Jo Waugh, who will be discussing the significance of contagious disease in a critical and biographical assessment of Charlotte Brontë’s work. Waugh argues that contagion, infection, and quarantining strategies are central themes in the novels Jane Eyre, Shirley, and Villette. This book establishes the ways in which Charlotte Brontë was closely engaged with the political and social contexts in which she wrote, extending this to the representation and metaphorical import of illness in Brontë’s novels.

Angela Ranson—A Glittering Peril

17 MARCH, 5PM
The Black Swan, Peasholme Green
Free—Tickets are required

Join us for the launch of A Glittering Peril, which is the latest installment in the Catrin Surovell Tudor mystery series. Set during the 1561 summer progress of Elizabeth I, it follows one of the queen’s ladies of the bedchamber as she investigates suspicious deaths, a mysterious figure who haunts the travelling court, and the theft of the queen’s most precious possession: Anne Boleyn’s infamous pearl necklace with its golden ‘B’ pendant.

In this book, author Dr Angela Ranson skilfully weaves historical fact with fascinating fiction to create a compelling narrative. She will be interviewed by Dr Louise Hampson of the University of York about this book and the two previous novels in the series, Shades of Death and Death Foretold.

Beyond the Walls Student Showcase

17 MARCH, 7PM
York St. John University, Creative Centre
Free—Tickets are required

Join us for exciting readings of creative pieces written by the talented students and staff of York St John University. The event is celebrating the annual Beyond the Walls anthology project and is hosted and organised by York St John University creative writing students.

Ukrainian Poetry in the North

18 MARCH, 7PM
Theatre@41
£12

Forward Prize nominee, and author of Food for the Dead (Cape, 2024), Charlotte Shevchenko Knight joins artist and author of Skin of Nocturnal Apple (Good Press, 2022), Misha Honcharenko, for an evening of poetry and discussion in celebration of their Ukrainian heritage. As York-based writers, the poets will engage in a discussion on poetic craft, relocating to the North of England, and the success of their latest works.

Say Owt Poetry Slam

19 MARCH, 7PM
The Crescent
£15

Following the smash hit success of his Silver Jubilee show, Luke Wright returns with a new set of poems that get to grips with the idea of JOY. Is it possible, as a 42 year old, to feel pure unbridled happiness, and what does it look like? Presented by Say Owt

How to Build a Superhero: A Workshop with Helen Comerford

20 MARCH, 4:30PM
Joseph Rowntree School
Free—Tickets are required

Join Marvel-nut Helen Comerford for an interactive session where participants will write their own superhero. The workshop will include; research, analysis, creative writing, and even some drawing. Helen will break down her process for creating characters, share a sneak peek of her new novel, and give participants the tools to create characters in any genre.

Literary Enemies: Authors Hating Authors in the Olden Days

20 MARCH, 6PM
York Explore
£8

Friends of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu were surprised to discover that following her very public dispute with Jonathan Swift years earlier, she kept his collected works beside the toilet. They were no longer fully intact. When Alexander Pope fell out with Edmund Curll, things escalated so far that Pope allegedly poisoned the offending bookseller. In fact, Pope’s Dunciad was essentially a long list of authors he hated. As the poetic responses of Anne Ingram and Mary Leapor demonstrated, the feeling was often mutual. William Makepeace Thackery despised the works of Swift, Virginia Woolf scoffed at the success of Stella Gibbons and Charlotte Brontë hated the novels of Jane Austen. Samuel Johnson, a man proud to boast that he had more enemies than friends, even claimed that the best writers were always “good haters.” The history of British Literature is bursting with stories of literary feuds and spats.

Join Drs Jo Waugh and Adam James Smith, co-hosts of the Smith & Waugh Talk About Satire podcast and directors of the York Research Unit for the Study of Satire, for an entertaining and enlightening examination of literature’s best bust-ups and most fruitful grievances.

raw content: Book Launch with Naomi Booth

20 MARCH, 7PM
York St. John University, Creative Centre
Free—Tickets are required

Join author Naomi Booth for the launch of her latest novel, raw content. Naomi will be in conversation with Professor Abi Curtis about the book.

Set during an atmospheric Yorkshire winter, raw content is the dark, tender, and troubled story of a young mother afflicted by compulsive thoughts, whose past has taught her that love and fear are two sides of the same coin.

Angharad Hampshire: The Mare

21 MARCH, 6PM
York St. John University, Creative Centre
Free—Tickets are required

The Mare is based on the true story of female concentration camp guard Hermine Braunsteiner, the first person to be extradited from America for Nazi war crimes. How did she descend so quickly into evil and why did her American husband stay with her despite discovering what she had done?

Angharad Hampshire is an academic and journalist. She has a Doctor of Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Sydney. The Mare is her first novel.

Content warning—The novel covers difficult and confronting content related to concentration camps and the Holocaust

Abdulrazak Gurnah in Conversation: Theft

21 MARCH, 7PM
St. Peter’s School
£12

Abdulrazak Gurnah, the winner of the 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature, will be in conversation with Professor Sarah Lawson Welsh from York St John University at this very special event. They will be talking about Gurnah’s latest novel Theft, in which he explores the intertwined lives of three young people—Karim, Gauzia, and Badar—as they come of age in postcolonial East Africa. Theft has been selected as a book to look out for in 2025 by the Guardian, Observer, Irish Times and BBC.

Abdulrazak Gurnah is the winner of the Nobel Prize and the author of ten novels: Memory of Departure, Pilgrims Way, Dottie, Paradise (shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the Whitbread Award), Admiring Silence, By the Sea (longlisted for the Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times Book Award), Desertion (shortlisted for the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize) The Last Gift, Gravel Heart, and Afterlives, which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Fiction 2021 and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize. He was Professor of English at the University of Kent, and was a Man Booker Prize judge in 2016.

Literary Walk, with David Holt

22 MARCH, 11AM
Museum Gardens, Museum Street entrance
£10—Pay the guide on arrival, cash only

Join Blue Badge Guide for Yorkshire David Holt on a literary themed tour of York. David has outstanding knowledge of York and Yorkshire as well as having taught History for almost 30 years. Advanced bookings are encouraged by contacting David on 07803 605037 or greatyorkshiretours@gmail.com

Olivia Mulligan—Reggie from the Heggie

22 MARCH, 11AM-12PM
York Explore
Free—Tickets are required

Storytime with poet Olivia Mulligan. Get ready to follow a kitten’s adventure, beautifully illustrated and all in rhyme. This event is aimed at 3-6 year olds.

Catherine Jacob—Doctor Fairytale

22 MARCH, 1-2PM
York Explore
Free—Tickets are required

Join author Catherine Jacob for a magical trip around Fairytale Land as Doctor Fairytale and her sidekick, Nurse Pup, rush to help a whole host of well-known, poorly patients. Can you guess who’s fallen down the chimney, has sore feet from hobbling home in just one shoe or has a headache from people climbing up her hair? And what happens when the doctor herself falls ill?

Find out in this interactive storytime for fans of traditional fairytales, with a twist!

Feeding the Monster: Why Horror Has a Hold on Us

22 MARCH, 2PM
The Crescent
£10

Zombies want brains. Vampires want blood. Cannibals want human flesh. All monsters need feeding.

Horror has been embraced by mainstream pop culture more than ever before, with horror characters and aesthetics infecting TV, music videos, and even TikTok trends. Yet even with the commercial and critical success of The Babadook, Hereditary, Get Out, The Haunting of Hill House, Yellowjackets, and countless other horror films and TV series over the last few years, loving the genre still prompts the question: what’s wrong with you? Implying, of course, that there is something not quite right about the people who make and consume it. In Feeding the Monster, Anna Bogutskaya dispels this notion once and for all by examining how horror responds to and fuels our feelings of fear, anxiety, pain, hunger, and power. Anna will be in conversation about the book.

Emma Morgan—WriteNow

22 MARCH, 3PM
York Explore
£5

Emma Morgan is the recipient of a Northern Writers’ Award for Fiction and was part of WriteNow—Penguin Random House’s scheme for writers underrepresented in publishing. Her first novel, A Love Story for Bewildered Girls (Viking, 2019) was longlisted for the Polari First Book Prize, and her second novel, Beggars Would Ride, will be published by Northodox Press in May 2025. Emma was born and brought up in Guernsey but now lives in Liverpool and both of these locations are central to her writing.

At this event, Emma will be reading and discussing the exploration of LGBT relationships and identity, as well as the experiences of becoming a bestselling author from under-represented communities through Penguin’s WriteNow pathway.

The Wheel of Nouns

22 MARCH, 7PM
Theatre@41
Price TBC

The Wheel of Nouns is a queer, cabaret comedy, exploring gender identity in a light-hearted and mischievous way through audience interaction and cabaret-style games.

Stevie Hook is a York-based trans, non-binary, neurodivergent mythical creature, writer, and cabaret artist. They are currently an Associate Artist with Roots Theatre and use the pronouns they/them and hehe/hym. At the heart of everything they create is a passion for subverting expectations, and using games and audience interaction mechanics to invite audiences into silly, unapologetically trans worlds. They believe empowering audiences to participate and play in these worlds with them can open doors for meaningful change.

Reasons to Stay Alive and The Life Impossible: Matt Haig in Conversation

22 MARCH, 7PM
St. Peter’s School
£12

Celebrated author Matt Haig will be in conversation with Rob O’Connor, Chair of the York Literature Festival, at this very special event celebrating the 10th anniversary revised edition of Reasons to Stay Alive. Matt will also be discussing the connections between Reasons to Stay Alive and his latest novel, The Life Impossible. Join us for what will be an insightful event.

Matt Haig is the number one bestselling author of Reasons to Stay Alive, Notes on a Nervous Planet, and several highly acclaimed novels for adults, including How to Stop Time, The Humans, The Radleys, and The Midnight Library. Haig also writes award-winning books for children, including A Boy Called Christmas, which has been made into a feature film with an all-star cast. He has sold more than a million books in the UK and his work has been translated into over forty languages.

Connection is a Song: Coming Up and Coming Out Through the Music of the 90s

24 MARCH, 7PM
The Crescent
£8

Connection is a Song is a poetic, funny, and relatable coming-of-age story set to the sounds of the 1990s. It travels from Sinead O’Connor’s impossibly mournful ‘Nothing Compares 2 U’ to the delirium of the KLF’s ‘3 a.m. Eternal’ via the guitar heart of the decade where Elastica’s ‘Connection’ beats Blur and Oasis in Anna Doble’s own Battle of Britpop.

Punch Porteous, written by Robert Powell

26-29 MARCH, 7PM
29 MARCH, 2PM
Friargate Theatre
£15

Punch Porteous is a man in a predicament—he’s lost in time in York! Dazed and confused, he’s catapulted into different eras of York’s past while the city shapeshifts around him. Now an ancient prophecy says that this mysterious time-traveller will appear at the site of the old jail on Friargate in search of his long-lost love. Are you ready to meet him?

Join us for this imaginative journey in words, music, film, and sound!

The Three Dads

29 APRIL, 6:30PM
Lady Chapel, York Minster
Free—Tickets are required

In memory of their young daughters—Sophie, Beth, and Emily—who took their own lives, three dads set out on a 300-mile journey across Britain, from the windswept Lakeland fells and Peak District dales to the open plains of the Eastern fens. Putting one foot in front of the other, they captured the hearts of the nation. Join Mike Palmer, Andy Airey, and Tim Owen for this very special event. They will be in conversation in the Lady Chapel of York Minster with Canon Tim Goode, as they talk about the power of speaking out, of friendship, hope, and blisters.

The Three Dads ask for donations to be made at the event to their charity PAPYRUS. Book signings will take place in the Minster, but no book sales. Therefore, please purchase the books before the day from the Little Apple Bookshop or their website.

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 2025.

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.