Pride Month 2026
Recognise and celebrate LGBTQ+ authors and literature.
Pride Month is an inclusive celebration that honours the LGBTQ+ community, their history, achievements, and ongoing struggle for equality.
Sparked in 1969 by the Stonewall Riots – a series of gay liberation protests in New York – the first Pride marches took place in 1970 across several American cities. These were considered a watershed moment for LGBTQ+ rights. To this day, Pride Month in June celebrates and commemorates the LGBTQ+ community and encourages us to take pride in ourselves, no matter who we love.
To recognise and celebrate LGBTQ+ authors and literature, we’re sharing a collection of events from previous festivals, showcasing queer debut writers, acclaimed novelists, and celebrated icons over the years. Their work reflects on themes such as queer identity, chosen family, LGBTQ+ history, and resistance through art.
Scroll down to watch five events for free.
Free to watch throughout June & July
A very special event from the winner of the coveted T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. Joelle Taylor joins us for an electrifying evening reading from her debut novel, The Night Alphabet. As a former UK poetry slam champion, Taylor is a spellbinding performer. We can’t wait for you to discover the rich and varied stories – from coal mines to dystopian cities and gay bars – told through her protagonist’s interconnected tattoos.
Douglas Stuart talks to Alex Clark about Young Mungo. Juxtaposing aching tenderness with the brutality of toxic masculinity, Young Mungo tells the story of Mungo and James: two young men newly, rawly, dangerously in love.
In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado’s engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing experience with a charismatic but volatile woman, this is a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse.
In this specially commissioned film shot at her studio in Suffolk, Maggi Hambling celebrates the work of her father, the visionary Suffolk artist Harry Hambling (1902–98), and the long-awaited publication of his book A Suffolk Eye, which brings together Harry’s works for the first time. This tender and intimate conversation with Luke Syson, Director and Marlay Curator, The Fitzwilliam Musuem, is a praise song to Maggie’s father.
Merlin Holland, the iconic Oscar Wilde’s only grandson, has dedicated himself to studying Oscar’s life and works, and their wider legacy. In After Oscar, Merlin debunks many inaccurate or entirely fictitious stories that have grown up around this iconic figure. This wonderful conversation between Merlin with broadcaster Alex Clark is a moving event, shedding much-needed light on the reverberations of a life and a scandal.