Chip­ping Nor­ton Lit­er­ary Festival

We're delighted to announce a live literary event. ChipLitFest's founder and patron Clare Mackintosh introduces Hostage, her sensational new book. Just when you thought it might be safe to travel again! Make a reservation for this thrilling journey on a non-stop flight from London to Sydney. Clare's latest thriller is a hijack story where Mina the flight attendant has to decide between saving 100s of lives or the one that matters most...Adopt the brace position!

Thurs 24 June, 19:30 - 20:30 The Theatre

We're thrilled to welcome political journalist Ian Dunt back to ChipLitFest to hear the story of liberalism, from its birth in the fight against absolute monarchy to the modern-day resistance against the new nationalism.

Thurs 23 Sept, 19:30 - 20:30 The Theatre

More news, including how to book tickets, will follow soon.

We are so excited to let you know that Richard Osman will be in Chipping Norton to talk to Mark Billingham all about the second novel in the record-breaking, million-copy best-selling Thursday Murder Club series.

Thurs 30 Sept, 19:30 - 20:30 The Theatre

More news, including how to book tickets, will follow soon.

The sixth ChipLitFest short story competition closed at midnight on 16 May 2021.

We received 248 entries; 42 of the entries were submitted on the deadline day, the last one arriving at 23:50 (we have had later in other years).

We received submissions from all over the world: England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, America, Canada, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Germany, Switzerland, Cyprus, France and Spain.

Eight people were able to take advantage of our free entry for low income writers, a scheme we were able to introduce because of HW Fisher’s sponsorship.

The top ten shortlisted stories will be announced by 19 June 2021. Our judge, literary agent Isobel Dixon, will then select her winner and two runners up, the results to be announced on 16 July 2021.

Thanks to all the writers who got involved, to our readers, to our sponsor and to our judge. Meanwhile, all three winning stories from the 2020 competition are featured here.

STATEMENT RE CHIPLITFEST 2021

Following the wretched but inevitable decision to cancel ChipLitFest 2020, we have to acknowledge the reality of not being able to guarantee the viability of ChipLitFest 2021 so, with very heavy hearts, there will be no weekend Festival in April 2021.
We are heartbroken not to be able to deliver the Festival for a second year running but we have to abide by the rules, of course, and not risk the health of any authors, audience, volunteers and the community.
We do hope to be able to continue our work in the community as soon as schools are open and happy to receive visits from authors. We also plan to bring you live literary events in the autumn when we can once again bring the best contemporary authors to our wonderful town.

The top 25 chartered accountancy firm, HW Fisher, is joining the festival's list of loyal and generous supporters to become the new sponsor for our short story competition. We are really thrilled about this new working relationship with HW Fisher, it's a perfect match between festival and business as HW Fisher specialises in advising authors and journalists, helping them to manage their finances. They are keen litfest attenders and we look forward to welcoming the team to Chipping Norton as soon as possible.

HW Fisher's generous sponsorship means that we are now in a position to offer free entries to those writers on a low income. Details here.