The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival has today announced its free programme of events and activities, inviting audiences of all ages to create, share and connect through storytelling, while affirming its commitment to connecting communities and broadening access to culture.
At the heart of this year's programme is Cheltenham Writes Back, a new around town project delivered in association with Cheltenham BID. Taking over the town in the run-up to and during the Festival, the project will explore community, connection and belonging, inviting local people and visitors to take part in two shared creative experiences Postmarked: Letter Writing Stations (18 September - 18 October) and Fragments: A Poetry Trail (3-4 October).
VOICEBOX, Cheltenham Festivals’ flagship free programme for 18 – 30s, returns with a line-up of stars and new voices, including Heartstopper’s Bradley Riches, social commentator and broadcaster Ashley James, After Care author Divya Maniar, poet and musician David Larbi, Capital Xtra host Jojo Silva, founder of The Fangirl Nation Ambar Driscoll and many more, all set to appear alongside the Festival’s wider free strand.
Celebrating One Town, Thousands of Stories
This year's around town project, Cheltenham Writes Back, will invite audiences of all ages to take part in a shared reading experience, designed to spark connection and discovery. In addition, fresh from winning the 2026 Women's Prize for Fiction, The Correspondent by Virginia Evans will be the Festival’s ‘Big Read’, shared through book drops, giveaways, reading groups and activity across Cheltenham town centre.
Drawing on the theme of Evans’ novel, letter writing stations will pop-up in local businesses and community spaces across Cheltenham. Each station will encourage people to reflect and write their own letters, to be featured in a special installation in The Snug venue at Cheltenham Literature Festival. The space will host The Writing Desk, a dedicated display and letter writing station in a special collaboration with The Sunday Letter Project, an initiative created by Wildflower Illustration Co. Local book groups will also be invited to join the project, creating a shared community response to this year's Big Read.
On 3-4 October, UrbanArt will create five large-scale handdrawn artworks celebrating the people, places and stories that make our town unique. This will form Fragments: A Poetry Trail, an accessible trail for the community and visitors to discover as they explore the town. Trail-goers will also be invited to take part in interactive drawing sessions, giving people the chance to contribute to the artwork.
Connecting Communities and Platforming Local Talent
More than 30% of activity across the Festival will be free to see, with more than 100 events spanning new writing, music, pop culture, history, wellbeing, poetry, bookish recommendations and creative workshops. Audiences can hear from local and global voices on The Huddle stage, connect with fellow Festival-goers in The Snug, discover stories in the Listening Lounge by BBC Audiobooks and hear from big names and the next generation of creatives exploring the issues that matter across the VOICEBOX programme.
The Huddle stage will put local people and community voices front and centre. Highlights include Sahara Saheli, a multicultural Cheltenham-based women's group, who will share stories celebrating lives, friendships and communities, while families from Cheltenham’s St Paul's area will launch their community cookbook, showcasing the food and stories that make their community special.
A Local Voices Showcase will celebrate Gloucestershire authors and their writing journeys. The Community Poetry Showcase will give creatives and community members a platform to share their original work in an open mic event, and The Music Works return for a series of gigs platforming the best of local talent.
Alongside local talent, our Literary Explorer in Residence, Ann Morgan, returns to host a series of international events, including a discussion about the winner of this year’s Nobel Prize for Literature and a talk with Rahul Jain, the curator of Dibrugarh University International Literature Festival.
Elsewhere, in The Snug audiences can enjoy uninterrupted readings with the Silent Book Club, take part in the Young Adult Book Swap, get bookish recommendations from the Waterstones Book Doctor, get creative through Found Poetry, Quill Crafting and Cheltenham Craft Coven workshops. There will also be a drop-in writing for wellbeing workshop as part of the Festival’s year-round outreach programme, The Scribbled Self.
Amplifying Big Issues and Championing Change
VOICEBOX returns as a space dedicated to new voices and ideas, with free talks, debates, workshops, live music, comedy and more from big names and the next generation of creatives. Highlights include the internet's resident librarian Jack Edwards hosting an exclusive Inklings Book Club gathering, sharing his top picks and hidden gems with fellow readers. TikTok historian Katie Kennedy delves into the outrageous stories of the past alongside Helpful History’s Katie Arnold, while Birmingham-based slam-winning spoken word poet Vig's Poetry brings a performance drawing on his experiences as a British South Asian artist to explore identity, vulnerability and connection.
Broadcaster and campaigner Ashley James joins Sydney McAllister, Director of This Ends Now, to explore the language used to describe women and its relationship to misogyny and violence, while Heartstopper actor and autism advocate Bradley Riches and content creators Demi Colleen and Ella Willis discuss navigating the autistic experience. Wellbeing takes centre stage as body image advocate Stephanie Yeboah and mental health campaigner Sophia Kaur Badhan explore the impact of changing ideals around body image on our health, author Divya Maniar and journalist Michaela Makusha discuss the blurred lines between our online and offline lives and poet and musician David Larbi shares his reflections on finding calm and joy in the everyday.
Audiences are invited to step away from ‘doomscrolling’ and switch off from their screens with a drop-in zine-making workshop from multidisciplinary artist Juice NazNaz and a crafty bookmark-making session with local creative Paula Johnston-Bond. Across the VOICEBOX programme, audiences can discover writing for wellbeing, live music, spoken word, community showcases and more.
Celebrating the next generation of writing talent, The Bookseller’s New Adult Book Prize, launched in partnership with VOICEBOX in 2025, returns with authors from the 2026 shortlist. New for 2026 is the Women’s Prize Discoveries programme event, bringing together a line-up of recipients of the Discoveries prize. Furthermore, audiences can also hear from authors publishing their debut novels in 2027 under Stormzy’s publishing imprint #Merky Books.
There is also a series of events highlighting Cheltenham Festivals’ year-round education projects: audiences can explore the benefits of writing for our mental health in The Scribbled Self: Writing for Wellbeing, with practical writing exercises designed to boost wellbeing. In Write Now: Beyond the Margins, poet John Bernard shares the impact school exclusions can have on young people’s mental health and wellbeing. In partnership with Amnesty International, Words that Burn will bring students together from local secondary schools for a powerful poetry showcase around the fight for equality.
Providing a Great Family Day Out
In addition to the Festival’s ticketed family programme featuring Andy Day's Dino Racers, a trip around the solar system with Maggie Aderin and Lottie Brooks author Katie Kirby, families can enjoy a great family day out in our free children’s area, featuring a packed programme of crafts and activities, storytelling sessions and book character appearances, including Tom Gates, The Gruffalo and Donut Squad.
Create a new land for The Magic Faraway Tree, visit Jess French's immersive Micro Life Explorer, build LEGO® stories, model an underwater scene and enjoy other festival activities in The Den.
Story Shack offers storytelling adventures including Romani tales with Richard O’Neill, mystery-solving with detectives Pudding and Pie, superhero story-making with Becci Books, doggy draw-alongs with Alex Willmore, fairytale magic with children from Kolo Ukrainian School, and many more interactive storytelling experiences throughout the two weekends.
Discover real-life stories of extraordinary people on the Little People, BIG DREAMS® Trail, join the Big Children's Book Swap and celebrate Unicorn Academy with a special unicorn meet-and-greet and unicorn crafts.
The Hush provides a quiet space for those looking for quieter stories and moments of reflection, while the festival’s many picnic areas and food traders offer places to refuel between activities.
Young Adults can read, recharge and meet friends in our new teen space, Cabin 13-18, sample the Waterstones YA Group and join informal creative writing workshops.
Something for Everyone
Benefact Group will once again host Festival-goers in its lounge space, providing the chance to hear inspiring stories about the thousands of people and causes that benefit from its commitment to donating all available profits to charity.
Times Square offers another place to relax and spend time together. Visitors can enjoy complimentary wine tastings in the Headline Bar, sit back with a free newspaper in Speakers Corner with Times Radio playing in the background, and test their skills with world-famous Times puzzles including crosswords, sudokus, quizzes and more. Literary history comes to life in The Archive, where visitors can explore stories from The Times and The Sunday Times rich history.
Meanwhile, the Listening Lounge by BBC Audiobooks invites visitors to lose themselves in unforgettable stories, adventures and laughs.
Making Culture Accessible for Everyone
The Festival’s free programme forms part of Cheltenham Festivals' commitment to widening access to culture. The arts charity behind Cheltenham Literature Festival, Cheltenham Science Festival, Cheltenham Jazz Festival and Cheltenham Music Festival also delivers year-round learning, participation and community engagement work, working with communities locally and across the UK.
As part of its new five-year strategy, The Next Chapter, launched earlier this year, Cheltenham Festivals is committed to deepening its work with young people, expanding how it works with underserved communities and growing the partnerships that enable creativity to drive meaningful change.
The organisation is working towards an ambition for 50% of its activity to be free by 2030, creating more opportunities for people to experience, participate in and connect through culture.
The Festival’s free activity wouldn’t be possible without the support of partners, funders, individual giving and Festival-goers, all whose contributions help us deliver our Festivals and create opportunities for audiences, artists, speakers and communities.
Nicola Tuxworth, Head of Programming for Cheltenham Literature Festival, said: “Everyone is welcome to our Festival Village to revel in the stories that matter across our free programme and beyond, whether you're a lifelong reader, discovering your next great story, bringing the family for a day out or simply looking for somewhere to connect with people.
Cheltenham Writes Back captures that spirit beautifully by taking stories out into the town and inviting people to become part of the Festival before it begins. During the National Year of Reading, we want to share the incredible power of stories to bring us together and help us see the world, and each other, differently.”
The Times and Sunday Times Cheltenham Literature Festival takes place from 9-18 October 2026 in Montpellier Gardens.
People can visit Postmarked: Letter Writing Stations from 18 September-18 October. Fragments: A Poetry Trail runs from 3-4 October.
Tickets for the full programme are available to buy on the Cheltenham Festivals website.
