Founded in 1990, Durham Book Festival is one of the country's oldest literary festivals, traditionally taking place every October in some of Durham's most impressive historic venues. In 2021, we are delighted that were able to offer a hybrid model of live and digital events.

In 2020, we had to quickly pivot and make our whole programme digital. We learned a lot that year, not least that many people who have previously found literary events inaccessible were able to engage with our work online. We want to make sure that audience continues to be served by the festival as we move forward to our hybrid programme. In 2021, every digital event will be captioned (video) or transcribed (audio). Our live events at Gala Theatre will also be captioned by Stagetext.

We also learned that while our opportunities to reach audiences may have grown in the digital era, our usual and vital box office income cannot recover while we are in Covid-19 measures. This income not only allows us to put on an exciting and diverse range of events, it also supports our outreach work with families and groups in County Durham, bringing books and the joy of reading to people across the county.

Your support for Durham Book Festival will help to secure the festival's ability to thrive into the future. Of course we very much welcome donations on this page; you can also support the festival by buying one of our £20 Digital Passes, which allows you to access 20+ digital events until 31 October 2021.

Many thanks for your interest in the festival and we hope to see you at our online and in-person events from 9-17 October 2021.

Durham Book Festival is a Durham County Council Festival produced by New Writing North with support from Durham University and Arts Council England.