One of Britain’s most influential television writers as Russell T Davies,Award-winning author Sarah Hall,and Bestselling Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel are among five new events, which are now on sale before the main Festival programme is announced in August.
Russell TDavies joins Bernardine Evaristo to discuss his forthcoming memoir and how his extraordinary work has transformed the landscape of modern television.
Award-winning author Sarah Hall delivers the 2026 Faber Lecture: Burning Snowflake in the atmospheric Manchester Museum.
Cumbrian-born Sarah Hall is the award-winning author of seven novels and three short-story collections. Her 2025 novel Helm was selected as a Book of the Year by The Observer, New Statesman, Financial Times and BBC.
Bestselling Canadian author Emily St. John Mandel discusses her electrifying new novel Exit Party, exploring parallel worlds, political unrest and blurred realities.
A gripping evening with Patrick Radden Keefe, bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing. Patrick joins us to discuss his new work London Falling, a riveting true story of secrets and lies, wealth and the dark currents running beneath modern London.
Internationally acclaimed novelist Elif Shafak returns to celebrate her extraordinary new novel, In One Brief Moment All Eternity. Spanning decades and continents, from revolutionary 19th-century France to Istanbul, Egypt and Beirut, this luminous and deeply moving story explores creativity and resistance in times of political upheaval and war.
Manchester Literature Festival 2026 will run from 9 – 25 October 2026. The full programme will be announced on 11 August with tickets on general sale from 13 August.
Listings information
Russell T Davies & Bernadine Evaristo
Sunday 11 October, 7.30pm, Royal Northern College of Music
Tickets: £22 standard ticket / £40 ticket & copy of The Queerest of Folk (RRP £25)
An Evening With Russell T Davies Bernardine Evaristo | Manchester Literature Festival
Sarah Hall: Burning Snowflake
The Faber Lecture 2026
Saturday 10 October, 6pm, Manchester Museum
Tickets: £10
Sarah Hall Burning Snowflake | Manchester Literature Festival
Emily St John Mandel
Saturday 10 October, 7pm, Central Library, Manchester
Tickets: £12 / £10
Emily St John Mandel | Manchester Literature Festival
Patrick Radden Keefe
Monday 12 October, 7.30pm, Martin Harris Centre
Tickets: £12 / £10
An Evening With Patrick Radden Keefe | Manchester Literature Festival
An Afternoon with Elif Shafak
Sunday 25 October, 3pm, Royal Northern College of Music
Tickets: £22 standard ticket / £37 for ticket and a copy of In One Brief Moment All Eternity (RRP £20)
An Afternoon With Elif Shafak | Manchester Literature Festival
