Peter Barlow’s Cigarette has a treat this spring as the team – Tim Allen, Joey Frances and Rachel Sills – has organised an open mic in April and invited along guest readers in May.

Since its first outing in December 2023, Calder Valley reading series Poetry at the Dusty Miller (in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub) has been inviting three or four guests to read each month, gathering considerable steam.

Brand new for 2025, the inaugural Manchester Experimental Poetry and Arts Festival takes place on the afternoon of Saturday 17 May, and features an incredible line-up. They say it themselves, but they’re not lying!

Huddersfield Literature Festival is back with a packed programme this May, and this Polari-themed special on 10 May caught our eye, featuring writers including Okechukwu Nzelu and Rosie Garland.

On 28 May online, Éireann Lorsung will be reading from and talking about her latest poetry collection Pattern-book with Jon McGregor.

Blackwells Bookshop is partnering with the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing to welcome multi-award-winning authors Saba Sams and Eley Williams to the city on 19 May.

The bunting’s up to celebrate Chorlton Arts Festival’s 23rd birthday, with the multi-venue event running 16 to 25 May, and serving up a whole host of literary arts and spoken word performances by contributors from the Manchester area, and beyond.

As part of the Poetry Reading Series at Manchester Poetry Library, on 29 May, Canal Laureate Roy Macfarlane will be in conversation with the series curator and award-winning poet Helen Mort.

Jay Farley brings to the stage their debut book of poetry A [Cupboard] Full of Tomboys, which was created under the mentorship of TS Eliot Award-winning Joelle Taylor and published by Broken Sleep Books in February.

Leeds live literature regular Chemistry offers an exciting mix of open mic acts and invited poets – this month for Chemistry 19, the headliners are Helen Ivory and Luke Samuel Yates.

Now in its 20th year, Manchester Literature Festival returns this autumn, running city-wide across a variety of venues in October. If you can’t wait until then, fear not – there’s a special programme of spring events!

Celebrated poet and musician John Hegley is back at Waterside Arts with his latest show, An American In Luton, which contains a good deal of yet-to-be-published material alongside some back catalogue favourites.

Festival Of Libraries is a five-day multi-venue celebration of Greater Manchester’s libraries, returning for the fifth time in 2025 and running from 4 to 8 June. We’re really looking forward to The Embassy of Utopia, back due to popular demand following 2024’s UK premiere, and featuring newly crowned multilingual city poet Nóra Blascsók.

Throughout 2025, the team at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is taking a deep dive into Ruth, one of the famous 19th-century author’s most shocking texts.

Throughout 2025, Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is celebrating its tenth anniversary, having first opened to the public a decade ago. From a close brush with dereliction to being awarded official accredited museum status in August 2024, it’s been an important decade in the building’s almost 200-year history.