BigBookend

26/04/2025

Get your Leeds Lit Fest tickets now! 34 events over 9 days in June.

Book here: https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/events/

16/04/2025

We're back for our 7th year of literary fun. Tell your friends and please book your tickets now!

06/03/2025

Save The Date ~ Leeds Lit Fest is back! 🚨 ✨

The city’s award winning festival of words & thought is back 14-22nd June 2025.

A collaboration between venues, organisers, writers & performers, we’ve once again got an action packed week of events taking place in venues across the city.

Stay tuned for the programme announcement coming soon

11/09/2024

We're fundraising for Leeds Lit Fest! Introducing our guests for this Sunday.There are open mic slots available all day plus these wonderful guests.

We need funds for our festival next year. Tickets £10/£5.

https://bit.ly/3X181IN

18/08/2024

Leeds Lit Fest needs you! This marathon fundraiser will feature special guest headliners and an open mic showcasing the city and the region's incredible talent.

Tickets are available here (including earlybird until 31st August): https://bit.ly/3X181IN

Tickets will also be available on the day.

Special guest headliners will be confirmed in the run-up to the day itself.

LLF is a not-for-profit community interest company run by volunteer directors. LLF was turned down for all sources of funding it applied for this year, and the festival needs you to keep LLF accessible with low and no-cost events, and to maintain the festival's support and celebration of the independent and DIY grassroots.

Sign up for the open mic on the day, and stick around to hear slots from 10 amazing guests. All proceeds will go towards covering essential running LLF costs.

17/06/2024

On today's Leeds Lit Fest menu, we have:

Dirty Laundry from the next generation of writers at Leeds Arts Uni;

Monique Charlesworth talking about her book Mother Country, part memoir, part detective story and part daughterly fury;

Debut author Claire Carroll for a workshop on creating fiction with climate crisis at its centre;

John Bowers KC with his book Downward Spiral looking at collapsing public standards and
how to restore them;

and Zineophilia, a workshop on how to make zines and fill them with repurposed words.

Today's venues are
Hyde Park Book Club, The Leeds Library and Leeds Central Library.

Tickets: https://leedslitfest.co.uk/

Pics from yesterday's events.

16/06/2024

We're very excited to launch a new Anthology from
The Northern Short Story Festival Academy writers on the final day of Leeds Lit Fest (Sun 23rd). Stories range from playful, experimental narratives to folk horror, fantasy and reimagined fairy tales.

Just a handful of tickets remain: https://www.leedslitfest.co.uk/whats-on/all-shows/permanent-emotion-anthology-book-launch-from-the-northern-short-story-festival/7713

Preorder your copies and support Northern writers and a Northern Press: https://www.valleypressuk.com/shop/p/permanent-emotion

Pre-order: for delivery late June 2024 Permanent Emotion is a captivating new anthology which highlights the exceptional writing talent currently emerging from the North of England. Edited by SJ Bradley and supported by the Walter Swan Trust, it features graduates of the Northern Short Story Fest

16/06/2024

What a great first day of Leeds Lit Fest.Great writers, performances & audiences!

Today we have Sharan Hunjan at the Hyde Park Book Club, Sh@nty at Chapel FM Arts Centre and our Book Quiz with Gary Wigglesworth at The Lamb and Flag pub, with prizes!

Join us. Tickets: https://leedslitfest.co.uk/

15/06/2024

Big day today. Leeds Lit Fest 2024 is well and truly go! Keep out of the rain and instead enjoy authors Alice Mcilroy, Stuart Maconie, Ajay Close, Salena Godden + supporting poets, and an all night Readathon. Your venues are The Leeds Library, Leeds Minster, Hyde Park Book Club and Chapel FM Arts Centre. Hope to see you there!

https://leedslitfest.co.uk/

13/06/2024

Leeds Lit Fest launched last night at the Forum Call to Action event at Chapel FM Arts Centre. It's a fascinating listen/ watch.

Get involved! We're very happy to feed into the ongoing discussions any of your thoughts re the literature scene in Leeds. Message here.

Here are the links to both the Listen Again and the live stream:
https://www.chapelfm.co.uk/.../leeds-lit-forum-a-call-to.../
https://youtube.com/live/3uPmYxRSdpY?feature=share

Does Leeds adequately support its emerging organisers, young writers, writers from under-represented communities?How can we more vividly celebrate the rich l...

20/05/2024

Leeds Lit Fest - “Of the city and for the city”

Read all about it! 🗞️ In today’s Yorkshire Post, read about events, the festival’s history and why this is an exciting time for lit in Leeds.

Thanks to Yvette Huddleston for the article.

17/05/2024

A call out to anyone interested in the literature scene in Leeds. As part of this year's Leeds Lit Fest programme, the literature sector is responding to Leeds City Council's Leeds Literature Ecology Review (link in the event details) published last year. Come and have your say and hear what we have to say. Help us shape the future of literature in Leeds.

A discussion on the financial support for literature and spoken word scene in Leeds.