Welcome to the Oxford Literary Festival

Welcome to the 23rd Oxford Literary Festival. More than 160 events are already available for booking through this website. More will be added over the next few weeks. Please enjoy browsing through the site. More information about the festival is also available via the links below.
December 2018

Title partner

International radio partner

Festival cultural partner

Festival ideas partner

Worcester College: Festival college partner

Supporter of Italian programme

Supporters of the Irish programme

MIT Press. Sponsors of the programme of American literature and culture

Festival London hotel partner

Festival on-site and online bookseller

The festival hotel

Festival green room sponsor

Sponsor of Gibraltar Lecture

Broadcast media partner

Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture

Lincoln College

St Cross College

10th St Hilda's day at the festival

St John's College

The Queen's College

Exeter College

Keble College

Regional media partner

Local radio partner

Festival Digital Strategy & Web Design

Alumni Office

Oxford University Images

K T Bruce Photography

Wadham College

Festival information:

The night in Oxford was the most beautiful event I have ever done. Not just the spectacular setting (of the Sheldonian), but an unforgettable evening.

The Oxford Literary Festival has in my mind become the leading literary festival of the year. The organisation, the roster of speakers, the ambience and the sheer quality of it all is superb. May it now go from strength to strength each year stretching its ambition more and more. I believe it will.

Every literary festival stays in an author’s mind for slightly individual reasons. I shall remember the Oxford festival for: - the size of the audience: at the top end of the range - their intelligence – this makes a huge difference for a speaker. In the Oxford audience I encountered many experts in the field my book covered and even one of the ambassadors I’d quoted - the beauty and the grace of the place itself – incomparable - the willingness of my hearers to buy books afterwards; I’ve never sold more.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

I came away buzzing and reassured that we still have in this century a wide ranging community fascinated not just by famous authors (I’ve rarely seen so many concentrated in one place) but by challenging ideas and questions.

It was a privilege for me to visit the festival to receive the Bodley Medal. As an incidental blessing I saw Oxford at its most mysterious and atmospheric. It was a day of piercing cold and as I walked through the twilight from the Sheldonian to Christ Church, the streets were empty and the whole city was shutting itself away. Christ Church was silent except for the footfall of unseen persons around corners and the sounds of evensong creeping from behind closed doors. For the first time I understood thoroughly the power of college ghost stories.

The Oxford festival is the most elegant and atmospheric of literary festivals. It’s a pleasure to both attend and perform there.

Often as an author, I only occasionally get to meet the public who buy and read my books. The Oxford Literary Festival was a special opportunity for me and certainly one of the highlights of my career – it was an honour I will never forget.

FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival partners & sponsors