Litfest, Lancaster

31/05/2026

Back in print ! . We’ve bought a copy of the fascinating Literary Lancaster booklet from the lovely shop in Lancaster City Museums. Follow in the footsteps of Dickens, Binyon , Alan Bennett and Jo Baker on a literary tour of Lancaster . Look out for Penny Bradshaw’s Literary Lancaster guided walk in September . https://www.lancaster.gov.uk/sites/museums/whats-on/talks Cumbria Uni English Love Lancaster BID Lancaster BID Lancaster and Morecambe Bay Litfest, Lancaster Jo Baker, writer

11/05/2026

‘After living for nearly 100 years on this planet,' says Sir David Attenborough, 'I now understand the most important place on this planet is not on land, but at sea. For if we save the sea, we save our world.’ And who better to address this theme than marine biologist and author Dr Helen Scales in her Lancaster Environment Lecture 2026 – 'The Future of the World's Ocean': https://dukeslancaster.org/whats-on/theatre/litfest-the-lancaster-enviroment-lecture-2026

04/05/2026

FREE EVENT Next week!

Get ready for the final event of our Spring Season - The 2026 Lancaster Environment Lecture! Book now and join us on 12th May, in person or online: https://litfest.org/events/environmentlecture26/

Drawing on her book What the Wild Sea Can Be, Helen Scales’ lecture, entitled ‘The Future of the World’s Ocean’, shows how a healthy ocean matters to us all, from the food we eat, to the weather we experience and the air we breathe. Yet the ocean is changing faster than any point in human history – hotter, more polluted, its vibrant life fading. Reflecting on more than twenty years of exploring the seas around Britain and further afield, Helen Scales sees there’s still much to fight for and good reason to be hopeful.

Helen's entertaining and accessible talk will last about 25 minutes, followed by a conversation with John Childs, Senior Lecturer at the Lancaster Environment Centre at Lancaster University, and will conclude with an extended audience Q&A, providing everyone with the chance to ask questions about the talk and about the science of oceans and marine life and their importance for understanding our world.

28/04/2026

There's only a few days left to sign up to Litfest's 2026 Big Read!

In the , as we do each year, we encourage children and schools from across the region to read the same book and to join us in events to explore and talk about it. This year’s Big Read is a detective story with a difference: M. G. Leonard's bird-watching mystery, TWITCH, which launched the prize-winning Twitcher series.

We invite individuals, families, schools and reading groups to come together and share this brilliant book.

Sign up and learn more here: https://litfest.org/big-read-26/

You can also catch up on M. G. Leonard's festival event here: https://crowdcast.io/c/bigread26

When you finish reading Twitch (whether you read alone, with a buddy or in a group) Litfest would like you to write a 100-word review explaining your thoughts. You can use the resources at the link above to help you.

Email your book reviews to [email protected] — the three best reviews from each category will win their choice of three paperback books worth a total of up to £30!

26/04/2026

STOP PRESS!!!

Still just time to secure a place on this excellent 5-workshop online writing course if you apply before midnight tonight (see https://litfest.org/workshops26)! And there are also two bursaries to be claimed.

CALLING ALL Q***R WRITERS ACROSS THE UK!

We are delighted to announce a 5-part online Q***r writing course, in partnership with Kalamos Creative, led by Paul Burston and Gordon Urquhart. Learn more and apply here: https://litfest.org/workshops26/

During the online workshops, participants will consider various different approaches to writing, including fictionalised memoir and narrative non-fiction, leading on to various types of fiction (literary fiction, flash fiction, fan fiction, speculative, fantasy and romantasy) and non-fiction (memoir, discursive), depending on the interests of the participants.

Read on below for a taster of the exercises used at the workshop that took place in person at Litfest 2026.

What’s in a name?

We started with everyone introducing themselves by writing a short piece about their name – why it was chosen (e.g. named after a parent or relative), how they feel about it, whether they’ve changed their name, etc.

A lighthearted exercise to warm up.

I remember…

Then we talked about the power of memory, and used Joe Brainard’s ‘I remember…’ automatic writing exercise, where you quickly write a series of sentences each beginning with ‘I remember’ and create a list of personal memories.

This went down extremely well and everyone wrote a lot.

Then we focused on the strongest memories and developed these into longer personal pieces of memoir.

What’s your story?

Finally, we focused on turning memories into fiction and how changing the perspective / point of view can spark stories. So they wrote about the same memory from someone else’s point of view, or created fictional versions of themselves as characters in a piece of narrative fiction.

14/04/2026

There’s still time to join the Litfest Big Read, tune in below to let M. G. Leonard tell you all about it!

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

09/04/2026

CALLING ALL Q***R WRITERS ACROSS THE UK!

We are delighted to announce a 5-part online Q***r writing course, in partnership with Kalamos Creative, led by Paul Burston and Gordon Urquhart. Learn more and apply here: https://litfest.org/workshops26/

During the online workshops, participants will consider various different approaches to writing, including fictionalised memoir and narrative non-fiction, leading on to various types of fiction (literary fiction, flash fiction, fan fiction, speculative, fantasy and romantasy) and non-fiction (memoir, discursive), depending on the interests of the participants.

Read on below for a taster of the exercises used at the workshop that took place in person at Litfest 2026.

What’s in a name?

We started with everyone introducing themselves by writing a short piece about their name – why it was chosen (e.g. named after a parent or relative), how they feel about it, whether they’ve changed their name, etc.

A lighthearted exercise to warm up.

I remember…

Then we talked about the power of memory, and used Joe Brainard’s ‘I remember…’ automatic writing exercise, where you quickly write a series of sentences each beginning with ‘I remember’ and create a list of personal memories.

This went down extremely well and everyone wrote a lot.

Then we focused on the strongest memories and developed these into longer personal pieces of memoir.

What’s your story?

Finally, we focused on turning memories into fiction and how changing the perspective / point of view can spark stories. So they wrote about the same memory from someone else’s point of view, or created fictional versions of themselves as characters in a piece of narrative fiction.