Lancaster Literature Festival - Litfest

How would you describe your world? Your stories, your family, your community? How would you talk about the things which are important to you? Lancaster’s annual literature festival, Litfest, is back on the 7–17 March with the theme ‘The World Into Words’ – making sense of our heritage and our environment via powerful words and stories.

And this year, thanks to our Crowdfunder, we are able to bring you a FREE three-day Children’s Festival as part of Litfest 2025. There will be lots of activities, workshops and writer events for children and teenagers, including Big Read author Phil Earle with his gripping Blitz story When the Sky Falls.

For International Women’s Day (8 March), Eleanor Levin will talk about the incredible ‘Historical Women of Lancaster’, followed by two walks tracking the lives of these remarkable women through Lancaster landmarks. Leading historian Helen Castor joins us to give the 2025 Lancaster History Lecture, exploring the struggle between Richard II and his cousin Henry Bolingbroke - son of John O’Gaunt. 

Amy-Jane Beer is this year’s Naturalist in Residence and she will join us to share her passion for the region’s springs, streams and rivers and how we can use creative solutions to environmental problems. Philosopher in Residence, Julian Baggini, will discuss How the World Eats: A Global Food Philosophy – how to overcome the challenges presented by changes in food culture and growing ecological crises.

We’re excited for this year’s poetry strand - with Paul Farley and Jake Hawkey presenting a Poetry Double Bill on 13 March; Poet in Residence Malika Booker reading from her first collection, Pepper Seed, a celebration of Caribbean culture; and Ian Duhig and Jane Routh join us to present their new collections.

The festival also offers nature writing, philosophy, storytelling, fiction, including local ‘master of menace’ Andrew Michael Hurley, and we’ll also delve into the legacies of the Lancashire Cotton Famine of 1861–65.

Most of festival events will be available to attend in-person (tickets £5) or view online (tickets £3). Find out more and book now: www.litfest.org