A selection of bookshop readings, performances, literary lunches, salons, festivals and other writerly goings-on are listed here and regularly updated.
For your wider literary and cultural fix, check out the in-person and virtual event listings at the British Library, the London Review Bookshop, Waterstones, English PEN, the Southbank Centre, publisher and author websites and social media streams, as well as those of your local organisations and venues.
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Tuesday 20 to Sunday 1 November
London Literature Festival
Southbank Centre
Various times daily; events individually priced
Curated this year by Dua Lipa, the 2026 London Literature Festival features headline conversations with Zadie Smith (Saturday 24 October, 3pm), Mustafa (Saturday 24 October, 8pm) and Patti Smith (Sunday 25 October, 7.30pm), alongside a host of events curated by the Service95 Book Club. Other highlights include A Conversation with Nadia Murad (Thursday 22 October, 7.45pm), Translated Fiction Showcase with Nelio Biedermann, Gaël Faye, Intan Paramaditha and Samanta Schweblin (right), moderated by Hope Ndaba (Wednesday 28 October, 7.45pm), Malorie Blackman: Noughts & Crosses at 25 with Tinie Tempah and Candice Carty-Williams (Wednesday 28 October, 8pm), Fierce Sounds featuring Kae Tempest, Jacqueline Crooks, Omar Musa and Sufiyaan Salam (Friday 30 October, 8pm) and Hanif & Carlo Kureishi: Are You With Me Now? (Sunday 1 November, 8pm).
More info and book
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Ongoing
Arvon courses and retreats
Online or in-person, from one hour at home to five weeks at historic writers’ houses in Devon, Shropshire and Yorkshire, you can find inspiration, support and transform your writing with Arvon. Discover a range of creative writing courses and events for writers of any genre and any level of experience.
Residential courses for Autumn/Winter 2026 include Poetry as Speech with Alice Oswald, Peter Oswald and Zaffar Kunial (Totleigh Barton, 9 to 14 November); Adaptation with Hannah Griffiths, David Eldridge and Pia Masters (The Hurst, 9 to 14 November); Fiction: Writing the Weird with Andrew Michael Hurley, Catriona Ward and Elle Machray (Lumb Bank, 9 to 14 November); and online sessions include Speculative Fiction with Nick Hunt (6 November); The Lyric Address in Poetry with Pádraig Ó Tuama (10 November); TV Pitch Writing Bootcamp with Tolula Dada (13 November); Poetry: Movement and Stillness with Caroline Bird and Hannah Copley (16 to 20 November); and Fiction: Finding Your Voice with Emma Freud (17 November).
More info and book
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