‘Literary Salon’ among expanded LGBTQ+ events at Lancaster Litfest

Lancaster’s popular celebration of literature has announced exciting new features as part of its programme of events next month.

Litfest first began in 1978 in the city, and over the last almost 48 years has successfully created a wide variety of events for its audiences, always championing the best of the local, the national and the international contemporary literature, illustration and ideas.

The event always features the spring festival in March and autumn festival in October.

Among the highlights of the programme of events for next month, the multi-award-winning  Polari Literary Salon, founded by author Paul Burston and hailed by the New York Times as ‘London’s most theatrical salon’, will make its Lancaster debut on March 14, at at Atkinson's Hall Café. 

Hosted by Paul Burston, the Salon’s guest writers will include author and poet Rosie Garland, novelist VG Lee and award-winning poet Max Wallis (pictured below), 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, a Lancaster-based queer arts group, who draw on their experience in fiction, best-selling non-fiction, award-winning film making, playwriting and international journalism.

2026 sees a quantum leap on this front, with the festival’s first ‘LGBTQ+ Writer in Residence’ and other exciting events.

They include a seminar with Creative Writing Students at Lancaster University on March 13, moderated by Creative Writing tutor Oliver K. Langmead, and a discussion of life-writing – ‘Queering the Memoir’ – on March 14  in The Olive Bar at The Gregson Community and Arts Centre, between Paul Burston 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.

There will also be a major series of writing workshops –  the Queer Life Writing Course – this will start with an in-person session facilitated by Paul Burston and Gordon Urquhart at Moor Space, the Dukes.

Click here for the full programme of spring events.