Emma Thompson, Malala Yousafzai, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Gisèle Pelicot are among the headline names appearing at Hay festival 2026, organisers have announced.
The popular UK literary festival has now unveiled its full programme, featuring more than 500 events running from 21 to 31 May in Hay-on-Wye, Powys.
A wide range of leading writers, including Ian McEwan, Maggie O’Farrell, Colm Tóibín, Ali Smith, Elizabeth Strout, Matt Haig, Douglas Stuart, Samantha Harvey, Val McDermid and Ocean Vuong, will appear. Margaret Busby, Cressida Cowell, Tayari Jones, Elizabeth Day, Frank Cottrell-Boyce, Helen Oyeyemi and Ruth Ozeki also feature in the literary schedule, alongside an array of other writers, speakers and thinkers.
Political figures set to speak at the festival include David Miliband, Nicola Sturgeon, Sajid Javid and Louise Casey, alongside historians Alice Roberts, David Olusoga and Simon Schama.
Themed panels will include a discussion on gender equality, hosted by former leader of the Scottish Conservatives Ruth Davidson, former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, Labour peer Harriet Harman, and Sky News political editor Beth Rigby.
There will be a host of genre-themed events, including a romantasy panel. Elsewhere, Facebook whistleblower and author of Careless People, Sarah Wynn-Willliams, will be in conversation on the power of tech companies, alongside investigative journalist Carole Cadwalladr, the reporter who exposed the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Musicians including Gwenno and Aled Jones will take to the stage throughout the festival. And the comedy lineup features Dawn French, Michael McIntyre, Sara Pascoe, Sandi Toksvig and Greg Davies, among others.
There will also be conversations on the art of adaptation, as director Emerald Fennell talks about Wuthering Heights, while Maggie O’Farrell and producer Liza Marshall go behind the scenes on Hamnet. Young readers will be able to attend events with children’s authors including Michael Morpurgo and Frank Cottrell-Boyce.
A new series of My Life in Books events will see public figures talking about their favourite reads in conversation with leading writers and broadcasters. Headline sessions include actor Emma Thompson in discussion with writer and podcaster Elizabeth Day, and appearances from Prue Leith, Hugh Bonneville and adventurer Bear Grylls in conversation with podcaster Jamie Laing.
To spotlight the UK’s National Year of Reading, YouTuber Jack Edwards will discuss the campaign with National Literacy Trust director Jonathan Douglas, along with authors Joseph Coelho and Katherine Rundell.
“As the UK Government’s National Year of Reading invites the country to Go All In for books, our tents are open to all, spaces where everyone is welcome to exchange ideas and inspiration,” said Hay festival CEO Julie Finch.
To mark the 250th anniversary of the US Declaration of Independence, there will be a series of events called America 250 which will explore the changing identity of the nation, featuring authors Sarah Churchwell, David Olusoga, Sarah Pearsall and Simon Schama. General Tim Radford, Katrin Bennhold and geopolitics writer Tim Marshall will discuss the Trump era, in conversation with Helen Lewis.
In conjunction with the National Year of Reading, the festival’s Pleasure List campaign will crowdsource public recommendations, with writers from across the programme sharing their favourite titles.
O’Farrell said she was “so pleased that I’ll be at Hay festival this year” – the Hamnet author will discuss her forthcoming novel, Land. She added: “I spent some of my childhood in Wales, so I’m always happy to go back. Land is a novel very much concerned with landscape, so it seems fitting to discuss it in the beautiful surroundings of Powys.”
Other writers set to appear at the festival include Hisham Matar, Kiran Desai, Kamila Shamsie, Elif Shafak, Sarah Moss, Sarah Hall, John Lanchester, Kiran Millwood Hargrave, Jenni Fagan, Irvine Welsh, Natalie Haynes, and Ben Okri.
Hay festival was founded in 1988 and has since grown into one of the world’s leading literary festivals. It also runs international editions, including events in Peru, Colombia, Mexico, Chile, Panama, Spain and the US.
Tickets are on sale now to Hay festival members, patrons and benefactors at hayfestival.org. Priority booking starts at noon on Wednesday 11 March, before general booking opens on Saturday 14 March.
