American Programme | Oxford Literary Festival

Michael Nylan

The Chinese Pleasure Book
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Matt Hern and Am Johal

Global Warming and The Sweetness Of Life: A Tar Sands Tale
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Wed 3 Wednesday, 3 April 2019 See this event
Merve Emre

What’s Your Type? The Strange History of Myers-Briggs and the Birth of Personality Testing
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 10:00am Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event
Cass Sunstein Interviewed by Tim Harford

How Change Happens
Sheldonian Theatre 12:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event
JPat Brown and Beryl C D Lipton

Writers under Surveillance: The FBI Files
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event
William Burns

The Back Channel: American Diplomacy in a Disordered World SOLD OUT
Weston Lecture Theatre 6:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event
Zachary Leader

The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife 1965 -2005
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 6:00pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event
Alec Russell

Celebrating the Programme of American Literature and Culture
New College: Hall 7:45pm Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event
Thomas Bollyky

Plagues and the Paradox of Progress: Why the World Is Getting Healthier in Worrisome Ways
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 10:00am Sun 7 Sunday, 7 April 2019 See this event
Josephine Wolff

Cybersecurity: You’ll See This Message When It’s Too Late
Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 April 2019 See this event
Philip Salem

Defeating Cancer: Knowledge Alone is not Enough
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 April 2019 See this event

Festival information:

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

I loved the whole atmosphere of the Oxford Literary Festival. From breakfast, alongside some of the attendees, who were talking books with each other a mile a minute, to the public event at The Sheldonian where everyone was lively and engaged – I felt I had arrived in a kind of literary heaven.

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

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 Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

A stimulating and rewarding on-stage conversation; a lively informed and tolerant audience; privileged access to the great treasures of the Bodleian, and finally, wonderfully interesting dinner companions to help me conclude the best day I have enjoyed at any festival – anywhere.

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival sponsors, donors & partners

Partner of Oxford Literary Festival

Prestige publishing partner. Celebrating 25 years in Europe in 2024

Accountants to the festival

Oxford International Centre for Publishing

Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection

Five-star hotel partners of The Oxford Collection

Where learning meets opportunity: education partners of the festival

Wines of the Douro Valley

Festival on-site and online bookseller

The Cervantes Institute, London

The Spanish Embassy: supporters of the programme of Spanish literature and culture

Festival ideas partner

Festival cultural partner

Supporter of the festival's Voices of Europe programme

Supported by the Delegation of the European Union to the UK

Festival media partner

Supporters of the programme of American literature and culture

Brasenose College founded in 1512

Founded 1884

Reuben College founded in 2019

Magdalen College founded 1458

Trinity College founded 1555

Lincoln College founded 1427

Worcester College founded 1714

Exeter College: college home of the festival. Founded 1314

New College founded 1379

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