Less than 2 weeks until Durham Book Festival begins!

There are less than two weeks to go until our first ever Durham Book Festival. Wherever you live, stay at home and join us! You can book now for events with a massive range of writers including Ann Cleeves, Richard Osman, Jenny Offill, Brit Bennett, Sarah Moss, Alex Wheatle, Ian Rankin, Layla F Saad, Lily King, Alastair Campbell, Fatima Bhutto and loads more. Almost all events are free and we’d love you to see you there. Find the full programme here. 

There are a few events that might especially interest the writers amongst us. There are workshops on writing poetry with Anthony Anaxagorou and writing your memoir with Colin Grant. In Writing the Missing, Lisette Auton asks why the 25% of people in the North East who are disabled are not represented in our cultural spaces. Writers Degna Stone, Inua Ellams, Shaun Wilson and Jodie Russian-Red respond to the Arena film on Tony Harrison, Them and Uz. If you took part in Murmuration, our collective poem in a time of Covid-19 and Climate Crisis, you can watch the premiere of our short film. Northern Writers’ Awards winner Kit Fan takes part in one of our proof parties, which introduce the biggest books of next year. And you’ll be able to read essays and listen to podcasts from the 15 brilliant writers commissioned for New Narratives for the North East.

Finally, don’t miss publishing’s most exciting prize, the Gordon Burn Prize, whose shortlist this year features Jenn Ashworth, Deborah Orr, Paul Mendez, Peter Pomerantsev, Lisa Taddeo and Lemn Sissay.