We welcomed the Yayavar Literary Festival in India to the Association this week which makes us 74 members strong! This week we discovered messy first drafts of classic novels, a James Bond stunt driver writing a book, writers virtually in residence, the auction of some ‘monstrous’ artwork, and more.

We welcomed Festival Québec en toutes lettres, Borris House Festival of Writing and Ideas (Ireland), Brisbane Writers Festival, and Newcastle Writers Festival (Australia) to the Association most recently which makes us 73 members strong! Plus the Hay Festival Querétaro announcement, and more.

Elif Shafak launches How to Stay Sane in an Age of Division at Cambridge Literary Festival this month, Penguin Live kicks off with Zadie Smith and Intimations this evening, Graham Norton joins Dublin Book Festival lineup and more.

JLF Brave New World turns 100, Man Booker 2020 longlist announced, classic audiobooks dusted off for digitization, an open marquee for Wimbledon BookFest, the world’s lowest-budget film festival one of 12 creative events planned for Margate Bookie, and more.

Bromance book clubs, Captain Sir Tom Moore cover reveal, Good Housekeeping’s online literary festival this weekend, how toilet roll can help sell books and much more in the literary news this week.

The UK’s first drive-in book festival, digital and physical presence announced for Emirates LitFest, Tyson Fury autobiography wins Sports Book of the Year, trailer for much anticipated Vikram Seth adaptation is released, and more.

The first Arab space mission to Mars is ready for launch, the Liverpool Arab Arts Festival kicks off, crime fiction sales soar, The Great Gatsby gets a prequel, and much more…

From Eccleston and Sissay in conversation, to Cressida Cowell’s Summer Camp and lighthearted events like ‘The Worst Book Event of My Life’, variety really is the spice of virtual literary life in July. Plus warring ice-cream trucks, new poetry from Ben Okri, the best-dressed in fiction and more…

From Nottingham to Decatur, Turkey and beyond, the literature festival community shows no signs of slowing down with digital events, Waterstones wants us to judge books by their blurbs, and the world mourns the loss of bestselling author Carlos Ruiz Zafón.

After being unable to host its March festival, Istanbul International Literature Festival staged a digital event this week on its original theme of ‘sunflower literature’ - from 15 June until 19 June - events fittingly end with David Nicholls discussing Sweet Sorrow.

We hosted our first live Association webinar, the world celebrated James Joyce, Ishiguro announced a new novel and Istanbul’s digital edition of its International Literature Festival will part with audiences, quite fittingly, with David Nicholls’ Sweet Sorrow.

We see first black British women to top UK fiction and non-fiction charts, literary plans to boost Scottish tourism, drones deliver library books, and we discover Maruice Sendak’s hidden talent.

As festivals whose dates are later this year or early next, decide on the shape their events might take what’s to be learned from those first movers who were forced to become the ‘early adopters’ of the latest tech?

Major publishers pull out of Frankfurt Book Fair, anti-racist books sell out, authors rewrite their books to reflect the ‘new normal’ and hundreds of thousands tune in for the online edition of the Hay Festival.

Frankfurt Book Fair’s big announcement, a much-needed anti-racist reading list, good news for the book industry in New Zealand Aotearoa, New York’s essential workers write Haiku, some exciting news for fans of The Lord of the Rings, and more…