The latest news, interviews and reviews from literary festivals around the world
July 2024
Book festivals previously sponsored by Baillie Gifford seek donations
Partnerships ended over the investment firm’s ties to fossil fuel and Israel, leaving nine book festivals including Hay, Edinburgh and Cheltenham in need of funding
June 2024
No such thing as free speech in Serbia, says deported actor and war critic
Fedja Stukan says he was not allowed to enter country after writing ‘dangerous book’ on his experience in 1990s war
April 2024
Manchester theatre restores cancelled Palestinian event after artists protest
Scottish authors criticise cancellation of Glasgow literary festival Aye Write
February 2024
The Guardian view on festivals and the future: bound together by the power of a shared vision
Editorial: We need international gatherings if we are to find a common language to resist environmental destruction
January 2024
The Audio Long Read
Days of the Jackal: how Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big business – podcast
Andrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era – but is his reign now coming to an end?
November 2023
The long read
Days of The Jackal: how Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big business
The long read: Andrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era – but is his reign now coming to an end?
October 2023
Authors join call for Baillie Gifford to divest from fossil fuel
More than 150 writers and industry professionals are asking the firm, which is a leading sponsor of UK literary festivals, to drop their investments
July 2023
‘I’m horrified by it. I think it’s appalling’: Kit de Waal on the crisis of cuts facing the arts
Stalin erased one generation of Ukraine’s artists. Now Putin is killing another – including my friend
Charlotte Higgins
May 2023
Why are biographies so popular? Because humans are enthralled by the lives of others
Caroline Knox
We seek inspiration, consolation – and the unvarnished truth. And we know that all the best stories are true, says Caroline Knox, director of the Boswell book festival
April 2023
‘Travel is medicine’: how the Sherborne Travel Writing Festival can inspire our trips
Colin Thubron, Sara Wheeler and other celebrated writers will be in Dorset to explain why travel literature still has an important role to play despite the climate crisis and hardening of borders
March 2023
Stormzy and Tracey Emin join Hay festival 2023 lineup
Adelaide Writers’ Week: rare moments of empathy and nuance found amid a storm of controversy
February 2023
Adelaide Writers’ Week withdrawals ‘sad’ and ‘unfortunate’, director Louise Adler says
Adler defends ‘courageous spaces to air opposing views’ as major sponsor and three Ukrainian writers pull out over comments from other invited authors
November 2022
Colm Tóibín quits role at Irish literary festival in row over volunteers
Future of Listowel Writers’ Week in question amid allegations of ‘toxic’ culture
October 2022
On my radar
On my radar: Angela Hartnett’s cultural highlights
‘People need to tell stories’: Lviv holds literary festival in defiance of war
September 2022
Literary festival cancelled due to cost of living crisis
Ways With Words, the organisers of Words by the Water in Keswick, say low ticket sales mean it is not viable to run next year’s event
June 2022
Ten reasons why Bradford deserves to be 2025’s city of culture
From Charlotte Brontë to David Hockney and Zayn Malik, my home town of Bradford has a rich cultural history – and its beauty is balm for the soul
The Audio Long ReadDays of the Jackal: how Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big business – podcastAndrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era – but is his reign now coming to an end?
The long readDays of The Jackal: how Andrew Wylie turned serious literature into big businessThe long read: Andrew Wylie is agent to an extraordinary number of the planet’s biggest authors. His knack for making highbrow writers very rich helped to define a literary era – but is his reign now coming to an end?
