Paul Blezard Launches The Lockdown Litfest

Literary commentator and presenter Paul Blezard has announced The Lockdown Litfest, a new online literary festival which will offer live author interviews and a wide range of other cultural content.

The online venture comes in response to Covid-19 and new social distancing practices, as author events and festivals scheduled for the foreseeable future are cancelled. The initiative aims to keep everyone reading, entertained and inspired by great authors, writers, poets, historians, academics, cartoonists, illustrators and more from the UK and abroad.

The first live webcast will be on the festivals website in the week commencing Monday 6th April and the festival hopes to create more online awareness before then.

The digital festival already has over 50 authors lined up to take part, including Ian Rankin, Joanna Harris, Philip Pullman, Professor Kate Williams, William Dalrymple and Carol Drinkwater.

Blezard: "We’ve pulled together a great team in just a few days and are working hard to build a top-notch platform. We’re keen to hear from publishers, authors, agents, performers—anyone who’d like to join us and offer content as we build our festival and audience."

Over time, the festival hopes to attract sponsorship. Blezard commented: "We hope, in time, to be able to attract sponsorship and other financial support for our initiative so that we can provide a modest income to contributors to help us all through this."

Those who would like to get involved, offer support or have any skills to offer the organisers, can contact the festival by email.