Literary Festivals

With thousands of literary festivals being held across the world every year, it would be a shame to miss out on this bookish fun. Based in Oxford, we were lucky enough to be able to enjoy a week of inspiring talks and stirring conversations in our local Oxford Literary Festival. But similarly, almost every town in the UK has a literary festival to visit and relish. These book parties attract and unite different types of readers. No matter if you’re a fan of romance and sagas, short stories or non-fiction, literary festivals have events for all ages and tastes.

Meet fellow readers. Literary festivals are great for meeting like-minded people. With so much hustle-and-bustle around you, it is difficult not to strike a conversation with someone behind you queueing up for an author autograph or looking at the same books in a bookseller’s marquee.

Meet authors. The greatest thing about literary festivals is finding brand new authors to read or bumping into your favourite ones. Get inspired by attending author events, listening to their thoughts and creative advice. There’s usually an opportunity at the end of the talks for book signings and picture taking.

Attend talks in unique places. Many literary festivals use unusual spaces for their events. Whether it’s a discussion about the importance of libraries, hosted in an old-school cinema house, or a poetry reading in an abandoned factory, is a splendid opportunity to visit the venues you wouldn’t normally go to.

Join classes. Most of the literary festivals also organise creative classes for children and adults. Check your local festival’s programme for an opportunity to brush up on your creative writing skills or learn book binding.

Buy more books. A never-ending to-be-read pile is a joy and a curse to every reader, but after listening to so many inspiring talks, and meeting new and old beloved authors, how does one resist from buying their books? We definitely couldn’t stop ourselves!

So check out literary festivals near to you – join the crowds, support your local authors, and enjoy the magical bookish atmosphere they create.

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