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Birmingham Literature Festival

@bhamlitfest

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🎟️ A celebration of writers, books & ideas
🗓️ 8-12 October 2026 plus Readers’ Day
⬇️ Tickets on sale now! #BhamLitFest2026

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2026 PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED!

After many months of preparation, we're so excited to finally share with you the line-up of incredible authors featuring at this year's Birmingham Literature Festival! Including:

Sathnam Sanghera @sathnamsanghera
Zakia Sewell @zzzakia
Kate Lister @drkatelister
Adele Zeynep Walton @adele_walton
John Grindrod @johngrindrod
Daisy Dixon @daisylouisedixon
M. John Harrison @m_john_harrison
Luke Kennard @luukekennnard
Isabel Waidner @isabelwaidner

Along with Margaret Busby, Courttia Newland, Liz Berry and many more!

This year’s festival runs from the 8th-12th October plus Readers Day on the 24th October.

Head to birminghamliteraturefestival.org to discover the full programme of events and book your tickets!

#bhamlitfest26 #authortalks #bookevents #Birmingham #BOOKSBAB

Graphics by @state_design_ taken in Birmingham, United Kingdom by @bhamlitfest

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2 months ago

This is next weekend in Birmingham @bhamlitfest with @mooneylwrites Would be lovely to see you there 🤍💙 by @bhamlitfest

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We are delighted to announce the appointment of Bradley Taylor as the new Poet Laureate for the city of Birmingham 2026-28.

Bradley is a very talented poet who has exciting ideas to encourage more people to connect with poetry, and we are really looking forward to working with him over the coming two years.

We’ll be hosting an inauguration event as part of Birmingham Literature Festival on Sunday 11th October at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, featuring poetry performed by Bradley and our newly appointed Young Poet Laureate, as well as from our outgoing Poets Laureate, Ayan Ayden and Japmeh Kaur Gujral. This event is sponsored by Birmingham City University.

Come and join us for this special event, one of many fantastic poetry events taking place across the day. Visit birminghamliteraturefestival.org to book.

Oh, and Happy National Poetry Day!

Photo by: Sam Frank Wood @samfrankwood_

#nationalpoetryday #birminghamUK #poetlaureate #poetry by @bhamlitfest

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2 days ago

Happy National Poetry Day! Visiting Birmingham Cathedral and its wondrous angels with @czafarimusic ahead of The Urban Sermon at @bhamlitfest on Monday 12th October. Join us for wonderings about angels, love and radical kindness alongside songs from Czafari’s gorgeous choir @singoutoftrouble 🤍 Tickets are flying 🪽so if you’d like to come along then do grab your seat now - link in my bio and stories. by @bhamlitfest

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As we approach Black History Month, we’re excited to spotlight events that explore a variety of themes and genres, highlight Black experiences and honour legacy.

With just over one week to go before the festival begins - head to the link in our bio to book tickets while you can.

�We look forward to seeing you next week!

#bhamlitfest26 #authortalks #bookevents #birmingham by @bhamlitfest

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3 days ago

Hells to the bells, @bhamlitfest is next week! 📚📚📚
From Thursday to Saturday, I’ll have a pop up at the festival where you can come for a natter and get your #BOOKSBAB merch 🤎. Bring me your book recommendations… I’m stealing @abookishbrummie ‘s idea from last year and will be collecting my next reading list! Head to @bhamlitfest for tickets and I’ll see you there!

💁‍♀️ @emily_onthepage
📸 @leeallenphotos

#yesbab #punksandchancers #bhamlitfest taken in Birmingham Rep by @bhamlitfest

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In this workshop, Taylor will equip you with some of the tools you will need in order to elevate the style of your own sentences, from how to craft them in the moment in a more meticulous way, to how they will eventually sound to others and the music they might make.

“Taylor Burns is without doubt one of the most thrilling new writers to have emerged in the city over the last couple of years. Taylor is a staunch advocate of writing style – not only in how a writer articulates their own distinct authorial voice, but as an essential tool in building a book, one memorable sentence at a time. So, expect his workshop – created during his time as Voce Books writer-in-residence - to inspire the crafting of some stylish new works of prose.” 2026 Festival Programme Clive Judd

On Style with Taylor Burns
Sunday 11th October, 10.30am–12.30pm,
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
£30, bursaries available
Book: birminghamliteraturefestival.org by @bhamlitfest

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8 days ago

It’s not every year Birmingham Literature Festival gets to feature two authors whose latest books have made the Booker Prize shortlist!

Our festival opens with Luke Kennard discussing his blazingly funny and profoundly humane novel Black Bag, an investigation into the crisis of masculinity and an off-kilter love story, as part of a joint event with Goldsmith prize-winning author Isabel Waidner discussing the surreal and slyly poignant As If.

The next evening features M John Harrison, author of The End of Everything – a satirical and unsettling post-apocalyptic adventure into the limits of human understanding from the acknowledged master of science fiction - in conversation with Luke Kennard (yes, that’s two Booker Prize shortlisted authors in the same room, at the same time!)

Come along and join the conversations, ask your burning questions during the Q&A, meet these brilliant authors, and get your books signed!

#2026bookerprizeshortlist #theendofeverything #blackbag by @bhamlitfest

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9 days ago

The true temperature of a culture can often be taken underground: or where significant artists and creators toil away out of sight of the commercial mainstream. For novelist and screenwriter Courttia Newland (@courttia) it is here that we find the pioneers, radicals and gamechangers making the real work for all time.

Examining those artists and thinkers that have informed and inspired his own career, exploring how one stands up for one’s personal voice, experiences and perspectives, and encouraging an engagement of works beyond the white Western canon, Newland’s fascinating new essay collection, The Art of Opposition, is a generous act: one that eloquently elevates the voices of uncompromising non-conformers.

In conversation with writer, educator and former Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey (@casey_bailey). by @bhamlitfest

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'While it’s always a difficult task to highlight just a handful of events from a programme as packed full as ours, here is a small selection I’m particularly looking forward to as we move towards the Birmingham Literature Festival in October: writers and writing that fully represent the festival in ways illuminating, insightful and inspiring!

With a focus on Place a guiding principle for much of this year’s festival programme, I’m thrilled to introduce Midlands-born author Lauren Mooney and Belfast-born poet Matthew Rice (Working Hours) as they clock in to discuss class, history and hauntings. Social historian John Grindrod (Tales of the Suburbs) joins us also to document the fascinating history of LGBTQ+ lives drawn from our supposedly sedate suburban and edgeland estates.

Our rich literary history is one we are always look to celebrate at the Birmingham Literature Festival, and few people have done more to shape to the diversity of our bookshelves over the last half century than the inimitable Margaret Busby. Her new book Part of the Story, offering insights into the lives and works of writers who have propelled her extraordinary career in publishing and literary advocacy, includes essays on writers as varied and influential as Maya Angelou, Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Buchi Emecheta. What better way to mark Black History Month in Birmingham!

It felt essential this year to mark the passing of one of the city’s most influential (and sometimes controversial) creative spirits, with Keith Kahn-Harris examining The Beautiful Death of Ozzy Osbourne. As much as Keith’s book is a celebration of Ozzy’s journey from the working-class alleyways of Aston to worldwide notoriety as one of the pioneers of a very Midlands style of music, it is also a soulful meditation on politics, philosophy and place with Ozzy positioned as complex guide towards a life well-lived.

And finally, acclaimed novelist and screenwriter Courttia Newland (The Art of Opposition) returns to the festival to elevate the work of a range of largely unsung writers and creatives who have for years been actively disrupting the artistic mainstream.'

- Clive Judd, 2026 Festival Programmer by @bhamlitfest

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From Ancient times to the present day, women have been challenging received notions of sexual desire: and getting off on it too! In her brilliantly funny and fast-paced new book Flick, historian, writer and host of the much-loved Betwixt the Sheets podcast Dr Kate Lister takes us on a raucous ride through the centuries in search of the true story of female pleasure.

Expect sex goddesses, radical feminism, and rampant rabbits: an event you’ll definitely want to come to…

Join us on Saturday 10th October, 6:30 PM to see Dr Lister in conversation with Chief Editor of the Birmingham Dispatch, Kate Knowles. by @bhamlitfest

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13 days ago

You know we could have our first Crate Poetry Live! without @bradleytaylorpoet

Bradley is an integral part of the poetry community, as a talented poet, a supporter of his peers and having hosted multiple poetry nights including @pieceofwork_poetry

Come see him live Sunday 11th October as part of the @verve.poetry.festival Poetry Sunday at @bhamlitfest

Tickets via link in bio! by @bhamlitfest

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