Poetry | Oxford Literary Festival

Alastair Lack

Oxford Poets with Alastair Lack SOLD OUT
St John’s College 2:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Kevin Crossley-Holland and Andrew Rafferty

Seahenge: A Journey
Weston Lecture Theatre 4:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Allie Esiri, Gina Bellman, Samuel West, Diana Quick and Hugh Ross

Shakespeare for Every Day of the Year
Sheldonian Theatre 4:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Sebastian Barry, Kevin Barry and Sinéad Morrissey Chaired by Boyd Tonkin

Voice of Ireland
Sheldonian Theatre 6:00pm Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Jeremy Robson and Frieda Hughes

Lives in Poetry: The Heartless Traffic and Out of the Ashes
Exeter: Rector’s Lodgings 6:00pm Tue 31 Tuesday, 31 March 2020 See this event
John Carey Interviewed by Bernard O’Donoghue

A Little History of Poetry
Weston Lecture Theatre 10:00am Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Bernard O’Donoghue

Poetry: A Very Short Introduction
Blackwell’s Marquee 1:15pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Nikita Gill, Rakaya Fetuga, Troy Cabida and Jinhao Xie

SLAM! You’re Gonna Wanna Hear This
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Euton Daley

Ending the Silence
Bodleian: Divinity School 10:00am Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Ben Okri Interviewed by Alastair Niven

Prayer for the Living
St Cross College 6:00pm Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event
Suzie Hanna and Noreen Masud

Stevie Smith’s The Blue from Heaven: Film Screening and Workshop
St Cross College: Seminar Room 2:00pm Sun 5 Sunday, 5 April 2020 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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11th St Hilda's day at the festival

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