Manchester Literature Festival (MLF) began trading in 2006 and was built on the legacy of its very successful predecessor, Manchester Poetry Festival. MLF provides unique and imaginative opportunities for audiences to experience high quality live literature through an annual festival. The festival celebrates the power of writing across all creative and technological media. We produce a cutting-edge programme of activities that challenges the boundaries of what is traditionally understood to be a literature event and aim to promote internationalism, diversity and independence.

Company Registration No. 4369668. Charity Registration No. 1121276.

MLF is uniquely programmed under three strands of activity:

Read presents some of the most influential and inspirational authors writing in the world today in prestigious and unusual venues around Manchester, providing an opportunity for people to meet their literary heroes and discover new ones.

Independent is a programme of readings and events showcasing the best in regional and national independent publishing, writing and production.

Freeplay is a more experimental strand providing a series of events and happenings exploring the spaces where new writing meets new technology and media.

Festival Director: Cathy Bolton
Festival Coordinator: Jon Atkin
Festival Fundraiser: Charlotte Platt
Digital Marketing Assistant: Sarah-Clare Conlon
Freelance Events Manager: Ian Hyde
Blog Awards and Rainy City Stories Coordinators: Kate Feld & Chris Horkan
Board of Trustees: Katherine Beacon, Jan Bradley, Jerome de Groot, Matthew Frost, Jane Mathieson, Colette Morgan, Punam Ramchurn & Alison Spenceley.
Press & PR: Lethal Communications, Catherine Braithwaite & Shelagh Bourke

Paul Abbott (award-winning TV writer and producer)
Carol Ann Duffy (UK Poet Laureate)
Jenni Murray (broadcaster and anchor of BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour)
Miranda Sawyer (broadcaster and journalist)
Michael Schmidt (poet, founder and editorial director of Carcanet Press & PN Review, Professor of Poetry at Glasgow University)