Lancaster Litfest set to return to city with ‘packed programme’ this autumn

Lancaster Literature Festival will return in autumn with an extensive programme of events.

Litfest events will run from Thursday 1st October to Saturday 28th November, with Autumn Weekend taking place from Friday 16th October to Wednesday 21st October.

The festival is set to run across a number of Lancaster venues, such as The Storey, Atkinson’s Upper Hall, The Gregson and Lancaster University campus.

Several events will also be run online which can be accessed through the festival’s website.

The Autumn Season of this year’s Litfest will be launched with The Litfest ‘Wonder’ Poetry Mosaic, welcoming submissions of poetry until Wednesday 30th September. Select contributors will be chosen to take part in the gala reading on Friday 16th October, hosted by poet Nathan Parke.

The programme will continue with features from acclaimed authors, poets, performers and thinkers, including a number of contributions from Lancaster University staff.

They include Professor Jenn Ashworth, who will read from her acclaimed five-part story The White Lady of Morecambe to celebrate its print publication, and also run a short story writing workshop.

Professor Will Pettigrew and Dr Nick Radburn will launch the new Register of British Slave Traders database – a research project which has been five years in the making – and discuss how their findings changed their idea of British history. Will will also discuss his new significant research into Britain’s role in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, as unveiled in his upcoming book and BBC TV documentary Britain’s Slave Traders.

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Dr Eoghan Walls, whose poetry collection Elsa and the Wolfman was published earlier this year, is set to appear in a poetry double bill alongside Dr Kim Moore.

Programme highlights also include Children’s author Katherine Woodfine’s retelling of classic mystery The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins; Nathan Parker and EastCoast’s stage show The Land Beneath Our Feet, as recently seen at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe; and internationally-acclaimed Ukrainian novelist Andrey Kurkov host sixth Lancaster International Fiction Lecture, ‘What Can Fiction Do in a Time of War?’.

International literature events are also featured in the programme, including online International Fiction Book Club discussion of Mario Vargas Llosa’s renowned novel Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, and biographer Gerald Martin’s exploration of Vargas Llosa’s life and legacy.

The Litfest Autumn Season 2026 is supported by Lancaster City Council, Lancaster University, Fondation Jan Michalski and Lancaster BID.

Further information on events at Lancaster’s Autumn Litfest 2026 can be found here, with event tickets available to purchase from The Dukes box office.

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