What is the best place for a book lover? Exactly! Welcome to a new season of literary festivals in the UK filled with love for literature, passion for fiction and enthusiasm for the written word.
You’re pondering over the last author’s talk, motivated to jot down a few notes and eager for the next event to begin. Time for a nice cup of tea in a deckchair on the lawn before getting a book signed by your favourite writer. We from novum publishing will whet your appetite for the magical world of book fairs in 2019!
Hay Festival
Join the crowds in one of the most popular destinations for literature aficionados. Also called the Glastonbury of literary events, Hay Festival draws an unbelievable quarter of a million visitors to the charming Welsh town of Hay-on-Wye every year. The festival even branched out to Peru, Colombia, Spain and Mexico. Early Bird tickets are already on sale with a breathtaking line-up including Pulitzer Prize winners, Nobel laureates and award-winning novelists.
Wigtown Book Festival
This lovely gem of a festival is a wonderful example of how books can breathe new life into a region. Once known for its unemployment rates, Wigtown was chosen to become Scotland’s national book town modelled after Hay-on-Wye. Today it is bursting with bookshops, bookish cafés and all things literary. If you can’t be there from 27 September to 6 October, there are literary highlights all year round.
Alderney Literary Festival
Have you ever dreamed of spending a weekend on a scenic island to enjoy reading and writing in a friendly and intimate atmosphere? Then the Channel Island’s boutique history festival is just for you! Take off from 29 to 31 March and discover history through the lens of biographies, thrillers, crime stories, fantasy, adventure, politics and even poetry. Another first: the island will also host the Young People Literary Festival with Anthony Horowitz.
YALC London
The UK’s Young Adult’s Literature Convention is part of the London Film and Comic Convention and was founded by Malorie Blackman in 2014. This year it will excite crowds of young adult fiction readers of all ages from 26 to 28 July. Paying tribute to the hype around YA literature in recent years, the line-up 2019 includes Melvin Burgess, Gayle Forman and Tomi Adeyemi. Check out the schedule and get your tickets here.
Cheltenham Literature Festival
If you’re looking for a more traditional event, this festival is one of the oldest in the world. From 4 to 13 October, more than 600 authors, politicians, poets and actors will dazzle the audience with their performances. The festival in the beautiful Montpellier Gardens stretches out into the pubs, bars and clubs in form of open mics and pub crawls. The year 2019 marks the 70th anniversary of this wonderful festival: make sure to be there and get your tickets now!
FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival
You will not only find major authors like Nobel Prize winner Kazuo Ishiguro but also Booker Prize winner Ben Okri or the beloved Michael Morpurgo there. From 30 March to 7 April, you can also join literary walks, library tours or writing workshops, all in the spectacular setting of Oxford. This festival has had such an impact, it has been described as “literary heaven” by Anne Tyler and as “intellectual Viagra” by Lucy Worsley.
London Literature Festival
Combine a trip to London with a charming literary festival just a stone’s throw away from all the major sights. Starting off with the Poetry International, the Southbank Centre will host the London Literature Festival from 17 to 27 October 2019, attracting the who is who of international authors, poets and award-winning speakers every year. Eat your way through the stunning street food market before heading across the River Thames to countless cultural highlights in this marvel of a metropolis.
Edinburgh International Book Festival
You will certainly not want to miss this one. Set in Charlotte Square Gardens in the heart of Edinburgh, you would never imagine the tented village to be home to the largest literary festival in the world. It rather seems like a community of book lovers, arts enthusiasts, writers and speakers, coming together in over 900 events from 10 to 26 August. If you are open for more, the festival coincides with the Edinburgh International Festival and the Fringe. Don’t miss the programme launch in June and get your tickets soon!
The London Book Fair
You haven’t been to a big one yet, if you haven’t been to the London Book Fair. This is where the crème de la crème of the publishing world meets and shakes hands to go into business. Of course, we from novum publishing will also be there, find us in Hall 5 – Lower West Hall on the ground floor, Booth 5B141.
25,000 publishing professionals and visitors coming from 135 countries can’t be wrong. From 12 to 14 March 2019, you have the chance to be part of the international event of sales and distribution in print, audio, TV and digital media. There will be more than 60 countries exhibiting and about 1,000 overseas companies present. If you want to rub shoulders with authors, publishers and booksellers, find translators, editors or designers or even pitch your novel or screenplay to a literary agent, this is the place for you!
If you cannot decide on just one festival, why not string them all together? Don’t forget to leave some room for all the extra books you’ll bring back home! Which literary festival would be on top of your travel list? We would be delighted to hear from you! Look out for our next blog about the best American Book Fairs 2019!
Keep writing, keep typing!
Yours truly,
One of the best book festival I have ever attended. I just love this book fair.
Thanks for your comment! 🙂 What did you like best?