Lincoln Book Festival

It’s World Book Day! Let’s go all in on reading in 2026. Lincoln Book Festival is back this Autumn (1-4 October). 📖 #WorldBookDay

Happy World Book Day, everyone! Today is all about inspiring children to see reading differently, because reading for fun seriously improves lives. Thanks for joining the fun! #WorldBookDay

Save the date! Lincoln Book Festival 2026 lands 1-4 October. First peak at the programme coming spring/summer. 🗓️

The National Year of Reading has officially launched - and we’re going all in for 2026 to marvel at the magic of a good book. Follow our socials or sign up to our newsletter for all the latest on the next edition of Lincoln Book Festival this October. #nationalyearofreading2026

How do stories spark joy, creativity and memories? 📖 Lincoln Book Festival took some of the wonderful entries from our annual flash fiction competition out into care homes across Lincs. 👉 Read the full story: lincolnbookfestival.org/2025/12/litera…

What a talented bunch! 🏅 We had an incredible 180 short stories submitted to our 50-word flash fiction competition this year from authors aged 5-81 yrs. Read the winning stories on the theme “heroes and villains” along with shortlisted and long-listed entries on our website.

For our final day, the festival moves uphill to Lincoln’s historic quarter. The festival hub relocates to the Blue Room at the Lawn for box office, book sales and enquiries. As closing chapters go, this should be memorable. #lovelincoln #lincolnbookfestival #whatsonLincoln

✨We’ve had so much fun down @lincslibraries in Lincoln today✨ Thank you to all our wonderful authors and session leaders. The fun isn’t over yet though - head down to @LincsArtsCentre for an evening of vikings, coming-of-age tales and crime fiction. 🎭📚🕵️

We’ve got another packed programme of events today with family friendly stories, a memoir writing masterclass, more great guest author talks, flash fiction competition winners, our very own book club podcast, and a line-up of fabulous crime fiction writers. 🕵️

Lincoln Book Festival 2025 – Day 2 📚
 What an incredible opening to this year’s festival! Thanks to everyone who joined us yesterday. Now we turn the page to Day 2, and it’s bursting with opportunities for book lovers. 🎟️ See our website for the line-up.

“Some magical process”. ✍️ Beautiful words from @lemnsissay on the power of putting pen to paper this National Poetry Day. A special evening @LincsArtsCentre. ☀️ #NationalPoetryDay #lincolnbookfestival #lovelincoln #whatsonlincoln

THE MERCY STEP by @marciahut ‘Mercy loves school almost more than Dolly (who is definitely not allowed to go). From that very first day she stopped being Mummy’s shadow and swivelled her gaze towards knowledge.’ As great a work as Jeanette Winterson’s ORANGES ARE NOT THE ONLY FRUIT, Marcia Hutchinson’s THE MERCY STEP is a stunning achievement and Mercy Hanson will stand as one of the twenty-first century’s greatest literary characters. A direct line to childhood, Hutchinson immerses the reader in the joys and triumphs, and the abuses and bitter betrayals, of a clever, imaginative, black girl growing up in 1960s and 1970s Bradford. This is a novel that roars with intent, declaiming the resilience of one young spirit in a hard world of casual violence, parental neglect and systemic prejudice. Without doubt, Mercy is a literary hero for our times; funny, opinionated, strong, smart, indomitable and completely unforgettable. I will have the honour of interviewing Marcia at this year’s @LincBookFest at 6pm on Saturday 4th October. Do join us and get a chance to meet one of the most interesting and compelling debut authors in many a long year. lincolnbookfestival.org/festival-progr… #TheMercyStep @CassavaRepublic

And we’re off! What a great start to Lincoln Book Festival 2025. Next up: Lemn Sissay.📚

📚✨ It all starts tomorrow! 
Lincoln Book Festival 2025 runs 2–5 October with four days of inspiring talks, workshops, performances and family fun across the city. 🎟️ Explore the full programme and book now! #lovelincoln #lincolnbookfestival

NOT TO BE MISSED! We can’t wait to welcome guest author Marcia Hutchinson to @LincBookFest for a very special conversation with me (🙏) about her critically acclaimed solo literary debut, The Mercy Step. Marcia was named among the best debut novelists of 2025 by the Observer for this brilliant, sad, funny book with its inspiring young protagonist, Mercy. 📅 Sat 4 October, 6pm | Lincoln Arts Centre | £8 / Live Pass £5 Tickets available here: lincolnartscentre.co.uk/event/the-merc… Marcia will also be running a life writing course earlier that Saturday. Again, not to be missed! lincolnartscentre.co.uk/event/writing-… @marciahut @CassavaRepublic

Lincoln Book Festival opens on Thursday this week - National Poetry Day! ✍️ Enjoy a rich programme of poetic voices, including a headline appearance by poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay, reading from his life-affirming new collection, Let the Light Pour In.

THE HOUSE AT DEVIL’S NECK by @TomMeadAuthor Tom Mead is rapidly becoming one of my favourite contemporary crime authors. His understanding and appreciation of golden age crime fiction ensures that his Joseph Spector novels, set in the time immediately prior the Second World War, are beautifully crafted celebrations of the form. ‘The House at Devil’s Neck’ is an exquisite puzzle of a novel, intricate and complex, and ultimately supremely satisfying. The atmosphere is unsettling and Gothic, as secrets of identity and trauma threaten to engulf the present. Eerie, uncanny and compelling, I could not put it down. I will have the pleasure of chatting to Tom - alongside Philippa East and Jack Cartwright - at this year’s @LincBookFest at 7.30pm on Saturday 4th October. Do join us! lincolnbookfestival.org/festival-progr…

Here’s a Lincoln Book Festival guest author event not to miss… One of Britain’s most exciting new novelists, Marcia Hutchinson, will join @TimRideout1 to talk about her critically acclaimed solo literary debut, The Mercy Step. 📅 Sat 4 October, 6pm | Lincoln Arts Centre | £8

You can’t judge a book by its cover - but book festivals? Maybe. 🤔 Our 2025 printed programme features a handy at-a-glance guide on the back. Some of our wonderful guest authors appear as our cover stars too. Grab a copy from @LincsArtsCentre @LindumBooks & other venues. 📚

Think book festivals aren’t your kind of thing? More than 1,000 people came to Lincoln Book Festival events last year, spanning all ages, backgrounds and interests. We can’t wait to welcome many more people to the latest edition. It opens 2 October. Book your tickets now! 📚