A rare opportunity to hear from Satoshi Yagisawa and Emi Yagi, two of Japan’s most exciting writers in translation, as they discuss storytelling, love and loneliness. Yagisawa’s international bestseller Days at the Morisaki Bookshop is a tender, life-affirming novel set among the second-hand bookshops of Tokyo’s Jimbocho district. Yagi’s When the Museum is Closed offers a strikingly different yet deeply resonant exploration of similar themes.
Co-presented with The Japan Foundation, the Japan Publishing Industry Foundation for Culture and the Agency for Cultural Affairs.
Booker Prize-winning novelist Douglas Stuart will introduce his profoundly moving new novel John of John set on the Isle of Harris. This tender, immersive and unflinching book explores the weight of family expectation, the compromises demanded by love and the devastating cost of lives constrained by silence.
Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester.
Tayari Jones, one of the warmest, wisest and most irresistible voices in contemporary fiction, discusses her highly anticipated new novel Kin. An international bestselling author of four novels, including An American Marriage (winner of the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2019) and Silver Sparrow. She will be in Manchester to discuss mothers and daughters, lifelong friendship and the truths that shape us.
Presented in partnership with the Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester.
Last year’s festival attracted more visitors than ever and 2026 already looks set to be another exciting year, with this first line-up of writers booked for Spring and more events to be announced in March.
Manchester Literature Festival 2026 will run from 9 – 25 October. The full programme will be announced in August.
Listings information
Satoshi Yagisawa & Emi Yagi
Saturday 14 March 2026, 7pm
Central Library
Tickets £12/10
Event page: https://manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/satoshi-yagisawa-emi-yagi
Douglas Stuart
Tuesday 26 May 2026, 7pm
Contact
Tickets £15 / £13
Event page: https://manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/douglas-stuart
Tayari Jones
Tuesday 2 June 2026, 7pm
Central Library
Tickets £12/£10
Event page: https://manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk/events/tayari-jones
