What’s On

Manchester City of Literature is inspired by the possibilities from our city to bring people together to celebrate stories. You’ll find everything that’s going on here, whether you’re a reader, a writer, you want to support independent publishers or are looking for something to entertain you or young children. Don’t forget that you can add your own events here too, if you’re an organiser. 

  • Filter events:
  • All
  • Calendar +
  • Download listings as pdf
event

Easter Family Fun

Location: Elizabeth Gaskell's House
find out more
event

Meet Derek Landy

find out more
event

Fruit Salad Writing Evening

find out more
event

Careers in Publishing

find out more
event

In Conversation with Elizabeth Lovatt

find out more

HOSTING A LITERATURE EVENT?

If you are arranging or hosting a literature event in Manchester which is open to a public audience, and would like us share via our network, please get in touch.

Submit your event
event

How to Get Published

find out more
event

Hannah’s Bookshelf Live Poetry Special

find out more
event

Paint & Write!

find out more
event

Children’s Books with Nadine Kaadan

find out more
event

Fruit Fly: Josh Silver in conversation

Location: Serenity Booksellers
find out more
event

Word Central

find out more
event

The Archaeology of Loss: Sarah Tarlow in conversation with Melanie Giles

find out more
event

An Evening with Shahed Ezaydi

find out more
event

Crime Central April 2026

find out more
event

Last One Out: An evening with Jane Harper

Location: Serenity Booksellers
find out more
event

An Evening with Paige Toon

find out more
event

Beyond Words Book Club Pop-Up

find out more
event

HEY! Festival Manchester

find out more
event

Poets Who Edit: Featuring Rachael Allen

Location: Manchester Poetry Library
find out more
event

Northern Publishers’ Fair

find out more
event

Roch-Tales Free Creative writing workshops

find out more
event

Poets and Players: Ian Duhig, Safiya Kamaria and Day Mattar with music from RNCM

find out more
event

April Book Club x Jamaica Road by Lisa Smith

find out more
event

Collectors, Scientists and Slaves: Islamic Art in Early Modern Italy

Location: Online
find out more
event

‘The Wireless Operator’: The Mancunian Jewish Sailor Who Invented the Modern Drug Trade

find out more
event

INTERSEX: Iain Morland in conversation

find out more
event

THE ASKING: Jane Hirshfield in conversation

find out more
event

Juno Dawson and Delphine Seddon in conversation

find out more
event

FINDERS, KEEPERS: Nicholas Royle in Conversation

Location: Blackwell's Bookshop
find out more
event

Meet the Reverend Richard Coles

find out more
event

Online Talk: Charlotte Brontë and Elizabeth Gaskell- A Friendship

find out more
event

Graham Caveney: In Conversation (with Will Rees)

find out more
event

Deconstructing The Signature of All Things: The Books Behind the Story

find out more
event

Anjuman: A New Mushaira

Location: Manchester Poetry Library
find out more
event

Pour Homme Mcr

find out more
event

Book Launch: Attila the Stockbroker – Fiery Words for Hellish Times

find out more
event

Author Event: The Others with Sheena Kalayil

find out more
event

Night Babies – Lucie McKnight Hardy in conversation with Andrew Michael Hurley

find out more
event

The Grey Area: April Book Club/Writing Group

Location: Whitworth Art Gallery
find out more
event

Hannah’s Bookshelf Beltane Special

find out more
event

Islamesque: Europe’s Greatest Medieval Cathedrals

find out more
event

From the Dashwoods to Cranford – Sisterhood in the Worlds of Jane Austen and Elizabeth Gaskell

find out more
event

Author Event: ‘The Mercy Step’ Marcia Hutchinson with Pete Kalu

find out more
event

Centre for New Writing Fellows 2026: Inua Ellams and Gurnaik Johal

Location: Blackwell's Bookshop
find out more
event

The Gaskell Singers Takeover

find out more
event

Coffee and Poems Club: Extended Cut

find out more
event

Dan Hicks: Monuments Will Fall

find out more
event

Poet: ‘Little Bitch’ launch with Ellora Sutton, Betty Doyle and Roma Havers

find out more
event

Meet Joe Abercrombie

find out more
event

Author Event: ‘The Jackfruit Chronicles’ by Shahnaz Ahsan

find out more
event

CROSSINGS: João Florêncio and Liz Rosenfeld in conversation

find out more
event

The House of Broken Things: Dr Kim Moore in conversation with Dr Malika Booker

find out more
event

Northern Lights Writers’ Conference 2026

Location: Waterside Arts
find out more
event

MIA Book Club: Reading the Islamic World – Gazing at Mecca and Medina

find out more
event

KESHED: Stu Hennigan in conversation with Thom Cuell

find out more
event

Robin Ince at International Anthony Burgess Foundation

find out more
event

SOLACE HOUSE: Will Maclean in conversation

find out more
event

Anxiety in the Modern World with Joshua Fletcher

Location: Waterstones Deansgate
find out more
event

THE DISAPPEARING ACT: Maria Stepanova in conversation

find out more
event

Online Reading Course: The Gothic – Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu

find out more
event

Rose &Renzo: Carolyn O’Brien in conversation with Louisa Reid

find out more
event

IMLD26: Manchester – One City, Many Voices

find out more
event

AUTHOR EVENT: ‘Rose and Renzo’ with Carolyn O’Brien

Location: House of Books and Friends
find out more
event

Sarah-Clare’s Literary Salon

find out more
event

The Poetry of Suicide: J.T. Welsch in conversation with Nikolai Duffy

find out more
event

Eid Celebration with Multilingual Mushaira and International Poetry

find out more
event

LEAN CAT, SAVAGE CAT: Lauren J. Joseph in conversation

find out more
event

An Evening with John Patrick McHugh

Location: Waterstones Deansgate
find out more
event

How to Kill a Language: Sophia Smith Galer in conversation

find out more
event

Fieldwork as a Sex Object: Meena Kandasamy in conversation

find out more
event

Books & Beats

find out more
event

Celebrating Caroline Aherne with David Scott

Location: Waterstones Deansgate
find out more
event

In Translation: Miha Mazzini and Celia Hawkesworth in conversation

find out more
event

Manchester Literature Festival presents Douglas Stuart

find out more
event

The Vivisectors: Missouri Williams in conversation

find out more
event

Ocean Vuong in conversation at Stoller Hall

find out more
event

Goyle, Chert, Mire Book Launch with Jean Sprackland

Location: Manchester Metropolitan University
find out more
event

An Evening with Robin Ince

find out more
event

Manchester Literature Festival presents Tayari Jones

find out more
event

An Evening with Shannon Chakraborty

find out more
event

Online Talk: Cranford – A TV Classic

find out more
event

Roots & Reverence: Poetry from the Punjabi Sufi Tradition

Location: Online
find out more
event

At the Edges of Languaging

find out more
event

New York: A Literary Anthology – J. Michelle Coghlan in conversation

find out more
event

Storytelling: Los sueños de Ilán

find out more
event

Manchester Literature Festival presents Natalie Haynes

find out more
event

An Evening with Katherine Arden

Location: Waterstones Deansgate
find out more
event

Online Talk: Step into the Garden – The Language of Flowers in Cranford and other novels

find out more
event

In Conversation with Gab Torr

find out more
event

Shared Reading at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House

find out more
event

Exploring the Legacy of Islamic Empires with Justin Marozzi

find out more
event

Manchester Literature Festival presents Andrew Sean Greer

Location: Waterstones Deansgate
find out more
event

Minor Black Figures: Brandon Taylor in conversation with Simon Savidge

find out more
event

Online Talk: Cranford For Beginners

find out more
event

An Evening with Lucy Steeds

find out more
event

The Book Hive MCR x An Evening with Shani Akilah

find out more
event

The Nerve presents Dave Eggers in Conversation: Contrapposto

Location: International Anthony Burgess Foundation
find out more
event

A 12th Century Novel: Ḥayy ibn Yaqẓān by Ibn Tufail, Andulusian novelist

find out more
event

An Evening with Veronica Roth

find out more
event

Love Stories Etc: Romantic Fiction Festival

find out more
event

A Conversation with Novelist Diana Abu-Jaber

find out more
event

Elizabeth Gaskell’s Gothic Fiction: An Introduction

Location: Online
find out more
event

Mothers of the Gothic – Writing the Supernatural

find out more
event

Online Talk: Mothers of the Gothic – Writing the Supernatural

find out more
event

Online Talk: Mary Shelley Beyond Frankenstein

find out more
event

Online Talk: The Shadows of Salem: Myth V. Reality in Lois the Witch and Other Tales

find out more
event

Elizabeth Gaskell V Anne Brontë – Monsters and Madmen

Location: Online
find out more
event

Online Talk: Victorian Gothic – Haunted Houses and Night-time Terrors

find out more
event

Online Event: Elizabeth Gaskell V George Eliot – The Moorland Cottage V The Mill on the Floss

find out more