More than 70 events are set to be held between today and Sunday 4 May at locations including St James, Les Cotils and the Guille-Alles Library.
Chef Tom Kerridge, broadcaster and journalist Jon Sopel, Paralympic champion Jonnie Peacock and human rights lawyer and UK parliamentarian Baroness Shami Chakrabarti are among the famous names visiting the island as part of the festival, which is now in its 13th year.
Festival director Claire Allen said a total of approximately 10,000 tickets had been made available, with some individual events having already sold out.
‘Some of the authors will be going into care homes, community centres, the hospital and into schools, there are going to be a couple of events for Year 5 students at Beau Sejour too,’ she said.
‘We’ve designed it to be as accessible and as far-reaching as possible.’
She paid tribute to the 70 volunteers who would be assisting with meeting and chaperoning visiting authors during their stays, as well as helping with ticketing.
‘I’m incredibly grateful to them. It’s thanks to them that everything will hopefully run smoothly.’
Among the events she was personally most looking forward to is a talk on Sunday 4 May with Dr Kaitlyn Regehr – a lecturer on digital literacy and the ethical implications of social media and AI at University College London – about her new book, Smartphone Nation.
‘It will be one of her first public events talking about her book, and wider discussion on how we manage our digital diet, so really practical for today’s world.’
Many of the local authors participating have written books about the Occupation in light of the 80th anniversary of the Liberation this year, and Ms Allen said talks with local contributors had been among the quickest sellers.
These included a talk with Theresa Le Flem about her latest novel, Freedom on the Morning Tide.
However, the festival is more than just talks, with events including a session of poetry readings from the winners of the Guernsey International Poetry Competition also being held.
Entries from around the world were received for the competition, with the winners chosen by British-Pakistani poet Imtiaz Dharker.
‘One of the winners was from Oregon in the US, so they’ll be reading alongside some of the winners from closer to home,’ Ms Allen said, adding that a number of children’s authors would be speaking during the festival, meaning there were family-friendly options available for those with young children.
Full details and tickets are available at guernseyliteraryfestival.com.
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