European Writers' Festival

Building on the success of the first European Writers’ Festival in 2023, this year’s festival brings together a new constellation of glittering stars from across Europe. With a launch party on Friday evening 17 May, the festival takes place from May 18-19 2024 at the British Library. Two days of panels and performances will gather together 30 authors from Austria to Ukraine to discuss the literature and ideas defining our countries and Europe today.

Last year’s stunning line-up of writers included International Booker Prize winner Bulgarian Georgi Gospodinov and the President of Romanian PEN Magda Carneçi and proved beyond doubt the pulling power and necessity of a European Writers’ Festival in the UK. This year’s festival features special guest Ukrainian author Andrey Kurkov as well as the prize-winning authors Laurent de Sutter (Belgium), Pajtim Statovci (Finland), Igiaba Scego (Italy), Nora Ikstena (Latvia), Afonso Cruz (Portugal), and many more.

30 established and emerging writers will respond to this year’s theme Transformation, because change, and the challenges of the fast and furious changes in society, politics, climate, identity, technology, science, the arts, health, language, humour and human rights, rocks our lives. As we in Europe are again shaken to the core by war and division, the European Writers’ Festival hopes to demonstrate that community, debate, entertainment and storytelling can unite us in creating hope and positive transformation.

Organised by the European Union National Institutes of Culture (EUNIC) London, in partnership with the European Literature Network and the British Library, and with the support of the Delegation of the European Union to the United Kingdom and the European Parliament Liaison Office in the United Kingdom, the second European Writers’ Festival is once more curated by former BBC journalist Rosie Goldsmith, director of the European Literature Network and Editor-in-Chief of the Riveter magazines.

UCL European Institute is a supporting partner, in the context of an ongoing collaboration with the EUNIC London and the European Literature Network to deliver a Writer in Residency programme associated with the European LIterary Map of London

Click to view the full programme