Past events
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SOLD OUT: Manchester Literature Festival presents Maggie O’Farrell
18:00 - 19:15 9 October 2026
Maggie O'Farrell makes a welcome return to Manchester Literature Festival with her extraordinary new novel, Land - a sweeping, multi-generational epic inspired by her own family history and the dramatic landscapes of Ireland’s Atlantic coast. Set in 1865, in the shadow of the Great Hunger, the novel...
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Jennifer Lee Tsai and Adam Lowe in Conversation with John McAuliffe
17:30 - 19:00 6 October 2026
Join us for an evening to celebrate the debut collections of two exciting poets. We are delighted to welcome Jennifer Lee Tsai and Adam Lowe to the Centre for New Writing. 'Melete' by Jennifer Lee Tsai is published by Bloodaxe Books. 'Patterflash' by Adam Lowe is published by Peepal Tree Press. Both...
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Manchester Literature Festival presents Tayari Jones
2 June - 2 November 2026
Manchester Literature Festival is delighted to welcome bestselling author Tayari Jones to discuss her highly anticipated new novel Kin. Born days apart in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, Vernice and Annie grow up inseparable, bound by a shared loss: neither will ever know her mother. Coming of age in segregated...
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Manchester Literature Festival presents Douglas Stuart
26 May - 2 November 2026
We’re delighted to welcome back to Manchester Literature Festival Booker Prize-winning novelist Douglas Stuart, to discuss his profoundly moving new novel John of John, set on the Isle of Harris. Returning home after his art school years on the mainland, John-Calum Macleod is drawn back into a tightly...
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Jeanette Winterson (Manchester Literature Festival in partnership with Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester)
19:00 - 20:15 11 November 2025
Forty years after her era-defining debut Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, Jeanette Winterson returns with One Aladdin Two Lamps - a bold, brilliant celebration of the transformative power of storytelling and a radical look at the future. Written in Jeanette’s unique style, One Aladdin Two Lamps, cracks...
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Mimi Khalvati: Rylands Poetry Reading (Manchester Literature Festival in partnership with Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester)
18:00 - 19:15 23 October 2025
Join us for the annual Rylands Poetry Reading, this year delivered by one of our best-loved poets Mimi Khalvati. Her award-winning lyrical poetry has been inspired by everything from her Persian background to her travels in the Mediterranean. She employs a variety of poetic forms from sonnets to ghazals...
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