Belfast Book Festival 2026
Belfast Book Festival
Come join us for Belfast Book Festival 2026!
Our annual June Festival runs from 4 - 11 June 2026.
Each June we invite you into our beautiful Victorian home to meet, watch and listen to storytellers; to write your own stories; to get crafty; to build, borrow or buy your summer reading list. At the very least let us introduce you to the colony of swifts that The Crescent is a home to: spot them in the skies around us from late April to August!
2026 sees an ambitious billing of poetry, fiction, workshops and lively discussions with a literary line-up including: Jan Carson, Andrea Carter, Sara Pascoe, Neil Jordan, Sarah Moss, Neil Hegarty, Doireann Ní Ghríofa, Katriona O’Sullivan, Nussaibah Younis, Patrick Radden Keefe, Martin Doyle, Miriam O’Callaghan, Stephen Daly, Anne Enright, Will Storr, Mícheál McCann, Rónán Hession, Wendy Erskine, Sínead Morrissey, Forrest Issac Jones and many more.
With a spotlight on Belfast, a special event with Belfast-born writer Bernard MacLaverty celebrates his work for page and screen, whilst writers Wendy Erskine and Phil Harrison join photographer Tolu Ogunware to explore contemporary Belfast through fiction and visual storytelling. In partnership with The National Year of Reading, four NI YA authors - Jenny Ireland, Stephen Daly, Kelly McCaughrain and Sue Divin celebrate new book releases and a special screening of Nostalgie, Kathryn Ferguson’s award-winning adaptation of Wendy Erskine’s short story set in NI will be supported by a Q&A.
BBF26 also celebrates the gothic and dystopian with Director of Interview with the Vampire and The Butcher Boy, Neil Jordan discussing his new literary sci-fi novel, The Library of Traumatic Memory, and Jan Carson shares her new dystopic novel Few and Far Between. Carson will also be in conversation with author Henrietta McKervey on her new gothic novel The Woman in the Water, inspired by Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca.
Further programme highlights include Sara Pascoe and her novel Weirdo, a tragicomic story of a young woman navigating life while battling her inner-monologue. Journalist Aimee Donnellan presents Off the Scales, An inside look at Ozempic and Katriona O’Sullivan discusses Hungry, a raw exploration of hunger, trauma, and women’s collective search for self-acceptance.
Broadcaster Miriam O’Callaghan will reflect upon her life and work via her memoir and Books Editor of The Irish Times Martin Doyle, gives insight into his many interviews with prominent Irish writers across the years. Journalist and writer, Patrick Radden Keefe will also talk about his newly published book London Falling and author Lucy Caldwell will discuss the lure and popularity of Irish short fiction with panellists Jan Carson, Paul Delaney and Hedwig Schwal.
Audiences can also tune into a timely discussion on reading, censorship and book bans with Hilary McCollum, Ann Morgan and Gaea Schoeters whilst author Forrest Issac Jones talks on his new book Good Trouble, exploring the connection between the Black Civil Rights Movement in the US and the Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland.
