What’s On
Box Office & FAQ
Tickets for most Manchester Literature Festival events can be booked through our main Box Office agent Quaytickets. You can book online or by phone on 0161 876 2015. The box office phone line is open Monday – Friday: 9am – 6pm, Saturday – Sunday 10am – 6pm. For all events booked through Quaytickets there is a one-off e-ticket transaction fee of £1.75 but no additional booking fees on tickets.
Tickets for MLF events at Contact, HOME and Z-arts are sold directly by the venue and additional booking fees may apply.
Further Information
Plan Your Visit
All our venues are near good public transport links, and we strongly encourage audiences to support our efforts in reducing the Festival’s carbon footprint by traveling to events by public transport if at all possible. We recommend using the Transport for Greater Manchester Journey Planner to plan your journey via train, tram and bus.
Manchester is one of the UK's most exciting, vibrant and multicultural cities. A designated UNESCO City of Literature, Manchester has a wealth of talented writers, independent publishers and a nurturing literature scene as well as beautiful Libraries, historic performance spaces and literary landmarks. Check out the Manchester City of Literature's What's On page and Visit Manchester website for the latest cultural offerings and activities.
Alongside stunning architecture, distinctive venues and acclaimed restaurants, bars and cafes, the city offers a wide variety of places to stay, from historic luxury hotels to midrange and budget hotels, apartments and hostels.
If you are looking to book a trip to Manchester, we highly recommend booking a stay with one of our iconic hotel partners.
Winner of 'Leading Hotel of the Year 2019', The Edwardian, Manchester brings redefined five-star luxury to the city's beautiful Grade II-listed Free Trade Hall. Their spacious rooms and stunning suites feature sweeping city views and you can enjoy award-winning contemporary Japanese and Mexican small plates at Peter Street Kitchen and a Parisian-inspired menu at The Library curated by Assouline.
Past Festivals
In Autumn 2025, we celebrated the twentieth edition of Manchester Literature Festival (11 – 26 October), featuring 50 live events and workshops. The programme showcased the rising stars of literature alongside award-winning writers and featured special conversations with leading national and international novelists, poets, artists, activists and other cultural figures. We also curated a photography exhibition, From Page to Stage, featuring intimate portraits of many previous guest writers and artists and produced a poetry sampler, Palm Poems, featuring a selection of the brilliant poems commissioned by MLF over the years.
In partnership with Manchester UNESCO City of Literature we commissioned Manchester Multilingual City Poets Charlotte Shevchenko Knight and Nóra Blascsók to write new poems on the theme of Welcome and Sanctuary and provided an opportunity for 6 young writers from Manchester and Denmark to take part in a workshop exchange programme in partnership with the Writing Squad and Danish literature festivals LiteratureXchange (Aarhus) and Ordkraft (Aalborg).
Programming strands included: Culture (Hans Ulrich Obrist, Mary Portas, Led By Donkeys, Alice Vincent, Elizabeth Alker, Gary Younge, Jung Chang, Martin Parr, Marcus du Sautoy, Kate Mosse, Hannah Ritchie, Monica Feria-Tinta, Patrick Grant); Fiction (Kiran Desai, Sarah Hall & Daisy Johnson, Andrev Walden, Lisa Ridzén & Agnes Lidbeck, Samantha Shannon & Saara El-Arifi, Mick Herron, Elizabeth Day, Irvine Welsh, Sayaka Murata, Bora Chung & Susan Barker, The Working Class Library Live Podcast, John Murray Proof Party, Zadie Smith, Jeanette Winterson); Poetry (Simon Armitage, Malika Booker, Reimagining v,: Jo Clement & Paul Farley, Rewrite: Elizabeth Gibson, Tallulah Howarth, Asta Birkler, Loc-An Thi Nguyen, Cody Sander & Johanne Bisgaard, Caroline Bird & Rachel Long, Cabaret for Freedom: Salena Godden, Nick Makoha, J.Chambers & Young Identity, Manchester Multilingual City Poets Charlotte Shevchenko Knight & Nóra Blascsók, The Poems of Seamus Heaney with Bernard O’Donoghue, Sinéad Morrisey, Leonita Flynn, Nick Laird & John McAuliffe, Mimi Khalvati, WritersMosaic: Mona Arshi, Karen McCarthy Woolf, Roger Robinson, John Siddique); Children and Families (Family Birthday Bash with Sue Hendra, Katy Ashworth & Serena Patel, Kimberley Whittam, Jim Smith, Bobby Joseph); Workshops with Caroline Bird, Nick Makoha, Kasia Szymanska, Mimi Khalvati.
