Booking is open for the 14th edition of the Belfast Book Festival, which will take place from June 6th to 13th, 2024.
The festival will be held in the iconic Victorian Crescent Arts Centre building on University Road and promises an array of events and activities tailored for both adults and children. It will celebrate the finest in fiction, nonfiction and spoken word.
Sophie Hayles, Chief Executive of Crescent Arts Centre and Belfast Book Festival said:
‘We are thrilled to welcome visitors to the 14th edition of the Belfast Book Festival here at Crescent Arts Centre – come on in to our beautiful South Belfast home.’
Highlights of the festival include an evening with Margaret Drabble, in conversation with Wendy Erskine reflecting on seven decades of writing; and Colm Tóibín discussing the highly anticipated sequel to Brooklyn, titled Long Island, 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 plenty for young people too, including an audience with Jacqueline Wilson, readings with Martin Waddell and launches of new works from Northern Ireland talents Ashling Lindsay and Colleen Larmour.
The Festival’s poetry programme features celebrated US poet Marie Howe; Belfast’s Dawn Watson, Scott McKendry and Micheál McCann.
Alongside bookable events there’s a range of free/drop-in activities including film poem screenings, exhibitions, a ‘Little Library’, Room to Write, Storytellers Corner and a Poetry Jukebox.
To enhance accessibility to the Belfast Book Festival, organisers are adopting a “Pay What You Decide” model. Sophie Hayles elaborated on this initiative, stating:
‘For the third consecutive year, we’re implementing the ‘pay what you decide’ approach to foster broader engagement with the festival, especially among individuals who may not typically attend such events.’
