Hay Festival unveils busy 2023 programme featuring Stormzy, Atwood and Osman

Margaret Atwood, Stormzy and Richard Osman are scheduled to attend this year’s Hay Festival.

More than 500 in-person events will take place between 25th May and 4th June 2023, including appearances from the likes of Barbara Kingsolver, Eleanor Catton, Max Porter, Douglas Stuart, Alice Oseman and Jaqueline Wilson.

Atwood, Stuart and Elif Shafak will join forces to mark the launch of Salman Rushdie’s Victory City (Vintage), while author-brothers Richard Osman (The Bullet that Missed, Viking) and Mat Osman (The Ghost Theatre, Bloomsbury) will be in conversation. Dua Lipa will present a live recording of her podcast “At Your Service” with Booker Prize-winner Stuart, and will talk to Booker Prize Foundation director Gaby Wood about her own love of books.

Alexander McCall Smith will mark 25 years of his No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series and trio of novelists Anya Bergman (The Witches of Vardø, Manilla Press), Juno Dawson (The Shadow Cabinet, HarperVoyager) and Emilia Hart (Weyward, The Borough Press) will talk “witcherature”.

Hay Festival c.e.o. Julie Finch said: “This Hay Festival edition is a beacon, an international symbol of hope for the collective, creative imagination and a better future. Our latest programme offers ‘11 days of different’ in the Brecon Beacons National Park, creating a space where great minds won’t always think alike, and where imaginations are free to roam. During the day our conversations will engage with the world around us [wjile] in the evening we’ll laugh, dance and exchange stories in a place like nowhere else."

Stormzy, who will celebrate five years of his #Merky Books imprint in a special event; said: “As a kid in school, I fell in love with literature and it sparked a life-long journey with words and writing, which led into my career as a songwriter and a musician.”

Hay Festival 2023 is supported by lead sponsors Baillie Gifford and Visit Wales. Michelle McLeod, sponsorship manager at Baillie Gifford, said: “Hay Festival never fails to bring together the brightest minds to discuss some of the biggest challenges of our times, along with the very best writers in fiction, non-fiction and poetry.”

Events will take place across eight stages in the free-to-enter festival village at Dairy Meadows – which also offers a range of spaces for audiences to explore and enjoy, including the Festival Bookshop, Wild Garden, Make and Take Tent, a host of exhibitors and market stalls, cafés and restaurants – as well as in and around Hay-on-Wye, including performances all week at St Mary’s Church. A selection of sessions will be streamed live throughout the 2023 event, “continuing the festival’s commitment to digital accessibility”. More information on tickets and the programme can be found here.