Music | Oxford Literary Festival

Marcus du Sautoy

The Creativity Code: How AI is Learning to Write, Paint and Think
Sheldonian Theatre 5:00pm Mon 1 Monday, 1 April 2019 See this event
Daniel Snowman

The Gilded Stage: A Social History of Opera
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Tue 2 Tuesday, 2 April 2019 See this event
Ed Vulliamy Interviewed by Daniel Snowman

When Words Fail: A Life with Music, War and Peace
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Tue 2 Tuesday, 2 April 2019 See this event
Alba Arikha Interviewed by Suzi Feay

Where to Find Me
Lincoln College: Oakeshott Room 2:00pm Thu 4 Thursday, 4 April 2019 See this event
Martin Kemp and Robert Hollingworth

Leonardo 500: Shaping the Invisible
Weston Lecture Theatre 2:00pm Fri 5 Friday, 5 April 2019 See this event
Caroline Langrishe, Adrian Lukis, Camilla Pay and Rosie Lomas

An Afternoon with Jane Austen CANCELLED
Randolph Hotel: Ballroom 2:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 April 2019 See this event

Festival information:

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Oxford University Images

Alumni Office

Olive oil from Sicily

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