The Oxford Literary Festival has announced a new lineup of children’s and family events for its upcoming season in Oxford, Oxfordshire. Between 21 March 2026 and 29 March 2026, the city will host high-profile authors and illustrators for storytelling sessions and hands-on workshops.
Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler will appear at the Sheldonian Theatre on 26 March in a conversation about their long collaboration on picture books; they will be presented with the Bodley Medal during the festival. Other guests include Michael Morpurgo, who will talk about his modern adaptation of Black Beauty, and Michael Rosen, who will introduce his new children’s picture book and draw on his well-known work in performance poetry.
This year the festival is focusing on interactive activities where children can learn to draw or write their own stories. Author Louie Stowell is scheduled to run interactive drawing workshops that continue her established approach of using simple doodles to help children create characters and narratives.
Most family activities are concentrated on the two weekends of 21–22 March and 28–29 March 2026. Events will be held at venues across the city, including the Oxford Martin School and Bodleian Library locations such as the Divinity School.
The festival runs an expanded schools programme offering free or low-cost access for school groups, and there are student price categories for individual bookings; the festival’s public ticketing information states there are no general concession categories for children’s events. The organisers say the family programme is designed to make reading more exciting by bringing creators and their books to life in a fun and approachable way.
