Hay Festival 2020 was cancelled and replaced by Hay Festival Digital 2020

An exploration of memory, memoir and the process of reflection through writing with frank, tender and sometimes funny thoughts from two writers who have written about personal losses – Margaret Atwood of her long-term partner, and Rob Delaney of his son from a brain tumour. The pair share reflections on writing about the worst things imaginable, the power of language to express humanity and the impact of memoir. Their compassionate and honest insights speak to society’s need to understand, and work through, one of life’s most painful experiences. Delaney’s A Heart That Works is a moving memoir about losing his son Henry; Atwood’s Dearly is a collection of poems about absences and endings, ageing and retrospection, but also about gifts and renewals.

Open the covers on the life-changing power of books and join the discussion of how literacy and a love of reading can improve a child’s life chances. An inspirational talk from Cressida Cowell, former Waterstones Children’s Laureate and author of the How to Train Your Dragon series, Children’s Laureate Wales Connor Allen, and bestselling author-illustrator Tom Percival. Chaired by Jonathan Douglas, CEO of the National Literacy Trust.

Guides from the Brecon Beacons National Park will lead a gentle walk through the beautiful surrounds of Hay-on-Wye. You’ll be joined by artist and writer James Roberts, author of Two Lights: Walking Through Landscapes of Loss and Life.

Hay-on-Wye is based within 520 square miles of beautiful landscape that makes up Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons) National Park. The National Park is driving change to bring about a sustainable future, meeting our needs within planetary boundaries. Their Hay Festival series of gentle walks will take you into the town’s local environment while offering the opportunity to learn more about the Park’s work and its treasured landscape.

Please wear appropriate footwear and outdoor gear.

Join Artemis Fowl author Eoin Colfer and illustrator Celia Ivey as they share their children’s book, Little Big Sister. Eoin will read his beautiful story of a girl growing up with dwarfism, and Celia will provide a peek behind the scenes at how she brought the characters to life through art.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for outdoor family sessions inspired by the Forest School approach. We’ll use foraged materials to craft natural items that you can take away with you, taking part in some simple tool use and finishing off with a hot apple juice around the fire. These sessions are aimed at families and will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the limit.

Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 2.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.

Sue Barker was just 15 when she was sent to a junior tennis championship in France alone, told she had to win the money to pay for her return fare; five years later she was Britain’s number one tennis player. The grit and determination she applied to her tennis has also been seen in her long-running broadcasting career, during which she’s interviewed some of the world’s top sporting legends. Barker has now turned the focus on herself in her memoir Calling the Shots. In conversation with BBC Sport and CNN reporter Phil Jones, she talks about her hard-won success in tennis and broadcasting, relives some of the nation's biggest sporting dramas and gives us an understanding of her trailblazing career.

For both Christian Lewis (Finding Hildasay) and Raynor Winn (The Salt Path, Landlines), the coastline is a place of healing, challenge, uncertainty and beauty. Lewis embarked on a mission to walk the entire coastline of the UK after suffering with severe depression; among his journeys he spent three months on an uninhabited island called Hildasay, where there was no fresh water or food. Winn and her husband Moth went on a 1,000 mile journey from the north-west corner of Scotland to the south coast of Cornwall, even as they both knew that Moth’s health was suddenly declining. The pair share their inspirational and hopeful stories.

Arinze Ifeakandu is the winner of the £20,000 Swansea University Dylan Thomas Prize.

Awarded for the best published literary work in the English language, written by an author aged 39 or under, the Dylan Thomas Prize celebrates the international world of fiction in all its forms and is one of the most prestigious awards for young writers.

Ifeakandu’s debut short story collection, God’s Children Are Little Broken Things, features nine stories that examine queer love, family and loneliness against the backdrop of Nigerian society.

Join us to celebrate the 2023 winner in conversation with Jon Gower, novelist and a member of the 2023 prize jury.

Hear from the creators of Phoenix Rise, the new BBC iPlayer drama set in a Coventry school and Pupil Referral Unit, developed and scripted by Perrie Balthazar and Matt Evans, lead writers from Waterloo Road, Ackley Bridge and EastEnders.

You Don't Know What War Is is the powerfully moving true story of a young girl fleeing the conflict in Ukraine. The gripping and urgent diary of refugee Yeva Skalietska, it follows twelve days that changed 12-year-old Yeva’s life forever.

She was woken in the early hours to the terrifying sounds of shelling. Russia had invaded Ukraine, and her beloved Kharkiv home was no longer the safe haven it should have been. It was while she and her granny were forced to seek shelter in a damp, cramped basement that Yeva decided to write down her story.

Yeva shares what is happening hour-by-hour as she seeks safety and travels from Kharkiv to Dublin, where she now lives. Giving a powerful insight into what conflict is like through the eyes of a child, this is an essential event for older children and adults alike. She talks to Claire Armitstead.

Celebrate the biodiversity of our ocean and have fun making paper masks from recycled materials with the University of Worcester’s illustration team.

This workshop is part of Sea Change, the new venture of the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, which is concerned with sustainability and promoting ocean literacy.

Artists from around the world have sent illustrated postcards to form the Sea Change exhibition, drawing attention to the growing threat to our ocean and seas. You can visit the exhibition at the Festival, and talk to the University of Worcester Illustration Department lecturers who made the Sea Change project possible, on Friday 2 June, 4pm.

Come and join Rooted Forest School for outdoor family sessions inspired by the Forest School approach. We’ll use foraged materials to craft natural items that you can take away with you, taking part in some simple tool use and finishing off with a hot apple juice around the fire. These sessions are aimed at families and will run whatever the weather, so make sure you’re wrapped up for the conditions.

How do books provide solace and strength in times of uncertainty and upheaval? Find hope in this discussion on the power of reading. As the war in Ukraine continues, the threat of climate change looms ever closer, and women and girls bear the brunt of a rising tide of poverty and displacement, it can be difficult to wade through the bad to the good. It’s at these times that we need books more than ever. At this Book Aid International event at Hay Festival, presenter Mariella Frostrup and authors Kit de Waal (My Name is Leon, Without Warning and Only Sometimes) and Elif Shafak (The Island of Missing Trees) discuss the power of books to provide shelter, solace, connection and hope in times of upheaval and share the stories which have comforted them over the years. Pam Dix is a Book Aid International Trustee and Chair of IBBY UK (International Board on Books for Young People) and of the Akili Trust, a small charity supporting educational development in rural Kenya.

Three crime writers give an insight into how they create convincing crimes, intelligent (and occasionally infuriating) investigators, and tons of tension in this panel discussion. Abell is a journalist and radio presenter who presents the breakfast show on Times Radio; Death Under a Little Sky is his first crime novel. Griffiths is best known for her Dr Ruth Galloway series; her latest novel is The Last Remains, the 15th Ruth Galloway book. Herron is the author of the Slough House series; the latest book, Bad Actors, is about a missing staffer from a governmental think-tank.

What are you scared of? What is the biggest risk to your safety? And how do experiences and worries differ across the world? Sarah Cumbers, director of evidence and insight at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, takes us through the World Risk Poll, which reveals a world of worry changed less by a global pandemic than you might expect, where the countries most exposed to disasters are those least resilient to them, and where discrimination has major consequences for safety.

In this event, Connor Allen will announce the new Children’s Laureate Wales for 2023–25 and welcome them on stage for their first ever appearance as Children's Laureate Wales here at Hay Festival.

Join Connor, the current Children’s Laureate Wales, for a lively and interactive poetry event featuring poems from his upcoming new collection, Miracles.

Recreate the magic world that exists beneath the surface of the world’s seas, with the University of Worcester’s illustration team. Come to draw and paint all manner of aquatic scenes and creatures. Take inspiration from recycled, hand-made ‘all seeing’ boxes, and mix it with your imagination, using paint, crayons and coloured pencils to express your ideas. You’ll create pictures of your underwater world that will contribute to a larger collaborative collage.

This workshop is part of Sea Change, the new venture of the International Centre for the Picture Book in Society, which is concerned with sustainability and promoting ocean literacy.

Artists from around the world have sent illustrated postcards to form the Sea Change exhibition, drawing attention to the growing threat to our ocean and seas. You can visit the exhibition at the Festival, and talk to the University of Worcester Illustration Department lecturers who made the Sea Change project possible, on Friday 2 June, 4pm.

An opportunity to get crafting! Activities differ every day, including everything from print-making to junk modelling with recycled materials. Get messy and creative: your imagination is the limit. 

Book for the session and you can drop in at any point during the 2.5 hour duration. Accompanying adults: please stay in attendance at all times, but you do not require a ticket.