Winterson, Kunial and Myers to attend the 2023 Durham Book Festival

Jeanette Winterson, Zaffar Kunial and Benjamin Myers will attend the 2023 Durham Book Festival, held in Durham city and online in the autumn. 

Taking place at Gala Durham, Clayport Library and Collected Books between 13th and 15th October, the festival offers 35 events with more than 40 authors. It is run by Durham County Council and produced by New Writing North with support from Durham University and Arts Council England.

Highlights of the programme include an evening of modern ghost stories with Winterson and an exclusive abridged dramatic live reading of locally-based novel Cuddy by Myers (Bloomsbury Circus), directed by Live Theatre’s Jack McNamara. 

North-east political thinkers Chris Mullin and Sebastian Payne will be discussing the future of the region, while broadcaster Melanie Sykes will speak about receiving an autism diagnosis at age 51. Other guests will include food critic Grace Dent and historian Janina Ramirez, while Ruth Ware will curate an afternoon of new crime fiction, featuring Trevor Wood and Nasheema Lennon.

This year’s Festival Laureate, supported by Durham University, is the poet and author of England’s Green (Faber), Kunial, who will read from his new work, inspired by Durham and commissioned especially for the festival.

Elsewhere, Durham writer Pip Fallow will be talking about his book, Dragged Up Proppa (Macmillan), while 500 free copies of this year’s Little Read title, the picture book Moth by Isabel Thomas and Daniel Egnéus (Bloomsbury Children’s Books), will be distributed to children and families through County Durham libraries. The giveaway is accompanied by events for families at Clayport Library, including story-times with Seven Stories and a science workshop.

Rebecca Wilkie, director of the Durham Book Festival, New Writing North, said: “We’re thrilled to be bringing Durham Book Festival back to Millennium Place for a long weekend of brilliant writers, speakers and creative workshops for all ages. We’re celebrating the history of Durham and St Cuthbert, as well as exploring themes ranging from north-east politics to the NHS and neurodiversity to the joy of food.

"Climate change and evolution are the themes of our Little Read picture book, Moth by Isabel Thomas, which will be available for young readers and their families to pick up in libraries across County Durham. All our events at Gala Durham will be streamed and captioned live, so if you can’t make it to Durham we hope you’ll join us from home.”