Visit a literary festival and you can enjoy listening to your favourite author read from their latest book, ask them questions, learn the tricks of the trade from published authors, attend workshops and network with other like-minded people exchanging views on books and authors you have read and tips on how to get published. It is also a chance to broaden your horizons and develop an interest in new genres and authors. Hearing an author talk about their work or read an extract can open new avenues for you.

The main literary festival seasons are Spring to early Summer and the Autumn. Some general arts festivals have lively and interesting literary sections, such as the Charleston festival, part of the Brighton Festival (May) or Belfast Festival at Queen’s (October/November). There are some large very well-known purely literary festivals such as The Guardian Hay Festival (May – June), the Cheltenham Festival (with a Spring and an Autumn season in April/May and October), the Edinburgh International Book Festival (August /September), the Bath Literature Festival (March) and Swindon Festival of Literature (May). These festivals always have many famous authors reading, in discussion, and giving workshops. They are often themed each year with a particular emphasis, for example, the Autumn Cheltenham Festival centres around The Human Condition.

There are many more smaller festivals. Some are devoted to a particular genre, Crime Scene (July) is a film and literature festival, others to a lone author, such as the Graham Greene Festival (October) or Dylan Thomas – the Celebration (October/November). Gender can be the basis for selection of authors as with Spit-Lit: the Spitalfields Literary Festival (March) celebrating women’s writing, or Proud Words (June/July) a creative writing festival for lesbians, gay men and bisexuals. Literature from particular regions of the UK is the focus of some festivals, such as Aspects Irish Literature Festival (September), or  Ty Newydd Festival (biennial in April) and Rich Text Literature Festival (October) with readings, workshops and new fiction from Wales. If you are a scriptwriter you could send your full-length play for selection to the New Writing Festival (April), plays must be submitted by 30 August each year, or to the International Playwriting Festival (November), closing date for entries 30 June.

There are many poetry festivals, one of the largest in the UK is Poetry International (September/October/November 2003), a biennial festival with many international poets, a poet-in-residence, readings, debates and workshops. Stanza (March) held in St Andrews, includes readings, seminars, talks, performances and workshops. The Bristol Poetry Festival (October) is a celebration of the quality and diversity of the medium with a wide range of performances, workshops, competitions, public poetry interventions, community work, and cross art form and digital projects.

Storytelling festivals are not just about the performance but also include workshops. There are three storytelling festivals each July and the Scottish International Storytelling Festival (October/November).

Some festivals are aimed at children, such as Wordplay Literature Festival for Young Adults (October), Imagine: Writers and Writing for Children (biennial in October/November - bookings from the Royal Festival Hall), and the Young Readers Birmingham (May) but the larger festivals often have a separate children’s strand to them, for example, The Edinburgh International Book Festival (August/September) and Book It at the Cheltenham Festival of Literature (April/October).

Most festivals also include workshops but a few are devoted to them such as the National Association of Writers Groups – Open Festival of Writing (September), a residential literary weekend with over forty workshops led by professional poets and writers, writer’s surgeries, and competitions. The Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers Festival of Writing (April) aims to encourage networking. A number of festivals now include a virtual festival on the web, such as the Bath Literature Festival (March) and the Belfast Festival at Queen’s (October/November) with a chat room, live webcasts, an e-mail novel, and fantasy festival creation.