Manchester Literature Festival returns this autumn from 4 – 20 October 2024, revealing a programme of 50 events to inspire, move and challenge.
New perspectives and reimagining are 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. Thomas Heatherwick invites us to reimagine our cities without soulless, boring buildings. 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 (Succession, Killing Eve) reimagines what Shakespeare’s leading women were really thinking in She Speaks!
Elsewhere in the programme, Neneh Cherry shares her incredible memoir and adventures in music and creativity with Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo; Jackie Kay celebrates A Life in Poetry and Protest; Carol Ann Duffy pays homage to nature and mother earth and master storytellers Elif Shafak and Richard Powers explore how water connects and sustains us. We also welcome a multitude of brilliant novelists, poets, broadcasters and artists to the city including André Aciman, Rumaan Alam, Susanna Clarke, Juno Dawson, Imtiaz Dharker, Matt Haig, Lindsey Hilsum, Rebecca F. Kuang, Meera Sodha and Asako Yuzuki.
In this festival
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Manchester Literature Festival presentsAn Evening with Neneh Cherry
Swedish singer-songwriter, rapper and producer, Neneh Cherry joins us to discuss her beautiful and deeply personal memoir A Thousand Threads.
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Manchester Literature Festival presentsDavid Peace
In his utterly gripping new novel Munichs, David Peace (The Damned United) explores the grief, the heartbreak and the resurrection of a club, a city…
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Manchester Literature Festival presentsGeorge Monbiot on The Invisible Doctrine
George will discuss how neoliberalism became central to our societies and how we can push for changes that will lead to a happy, healthier and…
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Manchester Literature Festival presentsHarriet Walter
Dame Harriet Walter, one of Britain's most esteemed Shakespearean actors, imagines what Shakespeare’s women were really thinking in her fascinating new book She Speaks!
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Manchester Literature Festival presentsEarth Prayers with Carol Ann Duffy
Carol Ann will perform poems from the collection, alongside some of her own sublime nature poems. She will be accompanied by the musician John Sampson.
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Manchester Literature Festival presentsAn Audience with Elif Shafak
Elif is a bestselling Turkish-British writer and broadcaster. Her 20 books include The Island of Missing Trees and Forty Rules of Love. She will close…