The UK’s Biggest and Brightest LGBTQ+ Literary Festival is Back 15-18 October, at The Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts.

Presented by New Writing South in partnership with Marlborough Productions. 

The first festival of its kind, it’s grown year on year and is back in 2026 with a stellar lineup including Susan Stryker, Patrick Gale, Shon Faye, Sarah Waters, Thomas Glave and many more. The festival is packed full of enlightening in-conversation events, mind-opening panels, stellar writing workshops, engaging poetry performances and publishing industry events to demystify the industry for up and coming queer writers. 

The Coast Is Queer creates a space for queer readers, writers and allies to come together in a grassroots celebration of the written word and its ability to illuminate and enrich the life of our community. It engages thousands of readers, writers and artists every year and saw growth of 40% in 2024 and 2025 respectively.

Collaboration is at the heart of the festival, and New Writing South works closely with the University of Sussex and Brighton University as well as our partner organisation Marlborough Productions to pull together this beloved community celebration.

Find out more at coastisqueer.com.