LISTEN: Looking ahead to 47th Lancaster Litfest literature festival

Lancaster's annual literature festival returns from March 13 to 22 and will focus squarely on the natural world.

The 47th edition of Lifest will explore the idea of ‘the rights of nature’. What are they? And why do they matter?

Hear the voices and ideas that reveal why recognising the rights of rivers, birds, animals, fish and insects is more important now than ever.

Natalie Sorrell Charlesworth from the Lifest team spoke to Beyond Radio about this year's programme.

LISTEN to Natalie Sorrell Charlesworth talking about Litfest

This year’s poetry call-out for the Litfest digital poetry map invites poets to submit up to three poems on the theme of ‘the rights of nature’, while podcaster Annabel Ross invites young and old to send in their own 100-word written or recorded ‘Messages from the Wild’.

All poems and messages will be posted on one of the two digital maps, and some will be picked out to be read at the events on March 15 and 21.

In the National Year of Reading, the Litfest focus is on pleasure and nature, with M.G. Leonard’s eco-thriller Twitch selected as this year’s Big Read book.

Several hundred copies of Twitch will be offered free to Lancaster and Morecambe secondary schools to support under-resourced students. 

There are three new Big Read schemes to suit different preferences: Book Groups, ‘Reading Buddies’ – where youngsters and family or friends can team up to read the book together – and, of course, ‘flying solo’. And there are great prizes to be won!

And alongside all of that, there is brilliant:

Fiction from nationally recognised novelists Alan Hollinghurst and Kit de Waal, through rising stars Joanna Kavenna and Lancaster University teacher Eoghan Walls, to new north-west fiction writers, including Nick Fragel, Lisa Nicholas, John Whitehead and Hank Williams.

LISTEN to Joanna Kavenna

LISTEN to Lisa Nicholas

Poetry from Fiona Benson, Sarah Howe, Karen McCarthy Woolf and Polly Atkin.

Memoir from the master of memoir himself, Blake Morrison

History from this year’s Lancaster History Lecturer, Dan Hicks, on monuments and memory, to Anna Whitelock on the pivotal reign of James I and the rise of global Britain.

In one of the events, Penny Bradshaw will present An A-Z of Beatrix Potter in conversation with Jo Baker on Sunday March 8, International Women's Day.

LISTEN to Penny Bradshaw talking about the event

In short, from imitating the dog’s The War of the Worlds show at The Dukes, through writers’ workshops, children’s activities, five writers in residence’, and two showings of Darren Andrews’ acclaimed film Starling: Iridescent Black, Litfest 2026 is going to be one of the best and busiest ever.

The festival ends with a panel on ‘the Rights of Nature’ chaired by Dr Karen Lloyd, with the Eden Project’s Juliet Rose, environmental lawyer Anna Tranter and authors Lee Schofield and Anna Levin.

LISTEN to Karen Lloyd talking about her events at Litfest

On March 14, the multi-award-winning Polari Literary Salon, founded by author Paul Burston and hailed as ‘London’s most theatrical salon’ ( New York Times), will make its Lancaster debut as part of Litfest 2026.

Hosted by Paul Burston, the Salon’s guest writers will include author and poet Rosie Garland, novelist VG Lee (pictured) and award-winning poet Max Wallis, founder of The Aftershock Review.

 One of Litfest's successes in the past few years has been its collaboration with the LGBTQ+ community.  Guided by Litfest trustee Gurmit Singh, in partnership with Lancaster-based queer arts group Kalamos Creative, 2026 sees a quantum leap on this front, with the festival’s first ‘LGBTQ+ Writer in Residence’ and four exciting events:

A seminar with Creative Writing Students at Lancaster University on 13 March, moderated by Creative Writing tutor Oliver K. Langmead

A discussion of life-writing – 'Queering the Memoir' - on March 14 in The Olive Bar at The Gregson Community and Arts Centre at 2pm between Paul Burston (pictured) and local author and film-maker Gordon Urquhart about their two very different and controversial memoirs We Can Be Heroes and The Pope’s Armada.

LISTEN to Paul Burston

The Polari Literary Salon at Atkinson's Hall Cafe, at 7pm on March 14.

A major series of writing workshops –  the Queer Life Writing Course – will start with an in-person session facilitated by Paul Burston and Gordon Urquhart at Moor Space, the Dukes, on Saturday March 14 at 11am. After that, the course will continue online for five more sessions (details in the link).

Applications for the Litfest Queer Life Writing course are now open, please see HERE.

For the full Litfest 2026 programme see HERE.