Writing | Oxford Literary Festival

Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course: What’s the story? Finding and Developing your Plot
St Cross College 9:30am Sat 28 Saturday, 28 March 2020 See this event
Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course. Who are these People? Developing your Characters
St Cross College 9:30am Sun 29 Sunday, 29 March 2020 See this event
Helen Taylor

Why Women Read Fiction: The Stories of our Lives
St Cross College 4:00pm Fri 3 Friday, 3 April 2020 See this event
Jem Poster and Sarah Burton

Creative Writing Course. Real Lives: Writing Biography and Memoir
St Cross College 9:30am Sat 4 Saturday, 4 April 2020 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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

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.

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.

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 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.

FT Weekend Oxford Literary Festival partners & sponsors

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Partner of Jewish programme

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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

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Patron donor for the programme of Irish literature and culture

Worcester College

Lincoln College

11th St Hilda's day at the festival

St Cross College

Alumni Office

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