Poetry | Oxford Literary Festival

John Dougherty

Dinosaurs and Dinner-Ladies
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Ruth O’Callaghan

A Poetry Workshop: Becoming SOLD OUT
St Cross College 2:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Jeremy Robson Interviewed by Maureen Lipman

Under Cover: A Poet’s Life in Publishing
Worcester College: Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Ruth O’Callaghan

Poetry Reading: Becoming
St Cross College 6:00pm Sun 31 Sunday, 31 March 2019 See this event
Alastair Lack

Oxford Poets with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
Meet outside St John’s College Lodge (main entrance), St Giles 2:00pm Mon 1 Monday, 1 April 2019 See this event
Jane Rogers

Reading Round: A No-Homework Reading Workshop
St Cross College: Seminar Room 11:30am Wed 3 Wednesday, 3 April 2019 See this event
Tim Pears

Reading Round: A No-Homework Reading Workshop SOLD OUT
St Cross College: Seminar Room 2:30pm Wed 3 Wednesday, 3 April 2019 See this event
Jane Draycott

Reading Round: A No-Homework Reading Workshop SOLD OUT
St Cross College: Seminar Room 4:30pm Wed 3 Wednesday, 3 April 2019 See this event
Lavinia Greenlaw Interviewed by Paula Byrne

The Built Moment and In the City of Love’s Sleep – Poetry and Prose
St Cross College 10:00am Sat 6 Saturday, 6 April 2019 See this event
Jenny Lewis and Sue Leigh Chaired by Jem Poster

Epic and Miniature
St Cross College 12:00pm Sun 7 Sunday, 7 April 2019 See this event

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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.

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.

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