Lgbtq

Amin Ghaziani and Diarmuid Hester

Queer Identity and a Creative Life
Oxford Martin School: Seminar Room 4:00pm Sat 16 Saturday, 16 March 2024 See this event
Sharron Davies interviewed by Andrew Billen

Unfair Play: The Battle for Women’s Sport
Sheldonian Theatre 2:00pm Thu 21 Thursday, 21 March 2024 See this event
C A Castle, Lex Croucher and K J Charles interviewed by Suzi Feay

Queering the Period Drama
Weston Lecture Theatre 12:00pm Sun 24 Sunday, 24 March 2024 See this event
Alan Hollinghurst

Our Evenings
Sheldonian Theatre 6:30pm Tue 1 Tuesday, 1 October 2024 See this event

Festival information:

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.

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

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 Oxford Literary Festival is intellectual Viagra.

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

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.

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.