Tickets on Sale from 5th August

We’re excited to give you a sneak preview of a few more headline names joining the already announced Lee Child, Rob Rinder, and Sir Alan Aykbourn.

The main programme will be announced on Tuesday 5 August. Tickets for the main programme will also be on sale from 9am on Tuesday 5 August (via our website).

More events will be added and announced later in the summer too, including the full poetry strand for the festival, so do keep an eye out. As you’re signed up to our e-newsletters, we will of course make sure you’re the first to know once these events go on sale.

Drum roll please…

We’re thrilled to announce Steph McGovern will bring her debut crime thriller, Deadline, to Whitby Lit Fest. Hailing from Middlesborough, Steph began her career as a producer on Radio 4 Today, before moving to BBC news, and presenting her own magazine show, Ch4’s Steph’s Packed Lunch. 

Get ready for goosebumps as the former Blue Peter presenter – the real-life Ghostbuster, Scream Queen Yvette Fielding heads to town. She’ll be talking about her experiences on TV’s Most Haunted as well as hosting a bespoke children’s event on her new book set in Whitby – The Vampire of Whitby.

We’re also thrilled to welcome a literary phenomenon – Shaun Usher. His book Letters of Note not only became a huge bestseller, it evolved into Letters Live featuring A-list actors reading out the letters on iconic stages in London, New York, LA, and Venice. This year, he took it to Glastonbury with Benedict Cumberbatch, Simon Pegg, Andrew Scott, and James Norton to name a few. Whitby is his next stop! He’ll be discussing his new compilation, Diaries of Note 366 Lives, One Day at a Time. And, who knows, we may have our own A-list star as a featured guest!

We can’t wait to reveal more next Tuesday!

Thank you

We would like to thank all the authors who have contacted us on email. We have tried to respond to as many as we can.

The team has been inundated with interest to attend the festival, particularly from local authors and poets. We can’t squeeze everyone in but we are still interested in hearing from you, for next year, or if slots become available. There are some events still to be announced too.

Fringe events

We’re aware some venues and groups are hosting their own literary events around town. Although Whitby Lit Fest can’t officially be liable for these events, we are keen to support the wider activity and buzz around books across the long weekend. Please do get in touch if you are running a fringe event, and we will do our best to list and promote this to our website!

Volunteers

We are actively recruiting volunteers to support the running of events (ushering, author liaison, etc.) – please do get in touch with the word ‘Volunteer’ in your subject line if you’d like to take part. 

Roll on November!

The Whitby Lit Fest team.