Bournemouth Writing Festival 2026: 55 sessions

If you've spent any time staring at a blank page or nursing a half-finished manuscript, the Bournemouth Writing Festival is worth keeping on your radar. It comes back for its fourth year from 23 to 25 April 2026, and it's built around a hybrid format that lets you dip in however you like, whether you're in the room or watching from your sofa.

The headline figure is around 55 virtual talks and masterclasses, which is where the bulk of the programme sits. They cover the whole spread: writing craft, publishing, performance and genre, and the best part is that they're recorded and stay available on demand until 30 September 2027, so you can catch up on your own schedule. The sessions are an hour each and run across a few clear strands: 'The Craft of Writing' for plotting, characterisation and world-building; 'Ready to Publish' for book marketing and cover design; 'Writing for Performance'; and 'Genre Worlds', which takes in romance, crime, sci-fi, fantasy, non-fiction and children's writing. There are also Literary Agents 1:2:1s for private manuscript feedback, which is the kind of access that's hard to find elsewhere.

In person, the festival sets up shop at Pavilion Dance, which serves as the main hub for talks and workshops. The hybrid model means the in-person side isn't just the three days in April, either: there are seven monthly events around Bournemouth between January and June. A few of them are already locked in, like a networking evening at Hengistbury Head on Saturday 20 March at 6pm, and two nights at Pavilion Dance South West, with Tongue Fu and live improvisation bands on Saturday 24 April at 7.30pm and Poetry and Performance with dance on Sunday 25 April at 7.30pm. Tickets for those meetups are £15, or they're included if you've gone for an Access All Areas pass.

There's a fair bit going on around the edges too. A Marketplace and Author Hub at Patch, on the first floor of Bobby's, doubles as a place for book launches and stall-hiring, and there's a dedicated Children's Hub at Patch as well. The festival leans hard into the community side of things, with a writing competition for schools and home-educated children run with Bournemouth One Radio and Bournemouth University, a collaboration with the RNLI and the Hengistbury Head Writing Group, and free workshops for marginalised groups, including adults with additional needs, homeless people, those in financial difficulty, children in care and language school students. The whole thing is run largely by volunteers.

It's not a newcomer, either. The festival has picked up a Silver Award for Tourism Event/Festival of the Year at the Dorset Tourism Awards, following two Gold Medals in the same category, and a Silver at the South West Tourism Awards. The 2025 edition drew close to 2,000 people, so it's clearly found its audience. If you want to build a plan around it, the festival website is the place to start, and you can email info@bournemouthwritingfestival.co.uk with any questions.