The festival gets underway on World Book Night, Wednesday 23 April, where book gifting will be taking place at Pyramid in the town Centre and Orford Park Library, plus a range of other sites across Warrington.

Friday 25 April sees a talk by Gill Hoffs in association with Wire Writers about her book, The Sinking of RMS Tayleur – The Lost Story of the Victorian Titanic, and also on this evening’s menu is a screening for the film of the book  The Boy In Striped Pyjamas at Culcheth High School.

Warrington’s rich industrial history will be explored by local author Janice Hayes, she’ll tell local history stories using Bewsey as a case study on 29 April at Warrington Museum and Philip Jeffs explores Poetry, Plays, and Prose: A look at intriguing items in Warrington’s Archives relating to literature at Stockton Heath Library on 1 May.

We are pleased to welcome poet and comedian John Hegley appearing at Pyramid on Friday 2 May – it’s a hot ticket so make sure to grab yours soon!

Budding writers are in for a treat on Saturday 3 May when Pyramid will be buzzing with activity for all ages. With Curtis Jobling, Helen Walsh, David Gaffney, Kate Feld, Steve Fairclough, The Wild Writers, and Wes Brown offering sessions in flash fiction, epublishing, writing erotic romance, illustration, scriptwriting, creative writing, blogging and Q&A sessions, plus drop in crafts activity and children’s sessions – there’s something for everyone.

The jam-packed festival reaches its finale on Friday 9 May with The Paper Cut poetry slam at Pyramid. Slamming is competitive poetry, and the poems are judged on amazing writing, compelling performances and how much the audience enjoys the work until one is crowned the winner, receiving a cash prize as well as the accolade of champion.

In addition to the open festival activity and school sessions brought to you by Culture Warrington, LiveWire Warrington and Curious Minds, we are pleased to be working in partnership with The Colonel Edelsten Bequest and Waterstones for the Way With Words writing competition for children and adults. The competition opens on World Book Day- 6 March and closes on World Book Night 23 April, with winners announced at the end of the festival.

For more information and to get involved