Belfast Book Festival 2024

Festival highlights include Margaret Drabble in conversation with Wendy Erskine and Colm Tóibín in conversation with Festival Patron Lucy Caldwell.

Other writers at the Festival include Sinéad Gleeson, Kevin Barry, Elaine Feeney, Martin Doyle, Paul Lynch, Louise Kennedy, Fergal Keane, Suzi Ronson, Nicola Tallant, AC Grayling, and Eimear Ryan.

There’s a strong line-up of writers for children on Saturday 8 June: an audience with Jacqueline Wilson; readings with Martin Waddell alongside an exhibition celebrating his picture books; and launches of new work from Northern Ireland talent Ashling Lindsay and Colleen Larmour.

The Festival’s poetry programme features celebrated US poet Marie Howe; and Belfast’s Dawn Watson and Scott McKendry; and there’s a special live edition of RTÉ Sunday Miscellany with new writing from a line up that includes Jan Carson and Glenn Patterson.

Alongside bookable events there’s a range of free/drop-in activities including film poem screenings and a Poetry Jukebox. For the 3rd consecutive year the Festival is operating a Pay What you Decide Model.

Belfast Book Festival has pioneered panel-led curation in Ireland, with this year’s programming associates including Neil Hegarty and Mícheál McCann: Festival director Sophie Hayles notes that ‘Panel-led curation is now the norm in many countries: and at Belfast Book Festival we have witnessed how very well it works, providing access to a range of ideas, connections, and creative input’.

Belfast Book Festival runs at the Crescent Arts Centre from 6-13 June, and booking is now open at belfastbookfestival.com.

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