It’s time for WoWFEST26: NEW WORLD DISORDER
As Liverpool’s longest-running writing and literary festival, WoWFEST has always held fast to the belief that words do not simply describe the world – they reshape it. In a moment marked by democratic backsliding, spiralling inequality, algorithmic manipulation and the renewed swagger of authoritarianism, WoWFEST26: New World Disorder confronts the forces fracturing our common ground: the rise of AI without accountability, the mainstreaming of far-right ideologies, the weaponisation of disinformation, escalating global conflict and an economic order rigged in favour of the ultra-wealthy.
But this is not a festival of despair. It is a festival of resistance. WoWFEST will foreground writers, artists and activists who refuse inevitability – who challenge power, expose injustice and imagine alternatives. In the face of manufactured chaos, we choose solidarity. In the shadow of reaction, we choose creativity. Together, we reclaim language as a site of struggle and possibility – and insist that another world is not only necessary, but possible.
Each year, the festival brings together writers, artists, activists and audiences to share stories, question power and explore how creativity can support resistance, solidarity and social change. WoWFEST26 will once again showcase outstanding progressive writing alongside bold, generous and thought-provoking conversations, shaped by the social and political moment we are living in and driven by hope, collective action and the belief that culture can open up new possibilities for change.
Over the years, WoWFEST has welcomed an extraordinary range of writers and thinkers, including Akala, Munroe Bergdorf, Pauline Black, Jo Brand, John Cooper Clarke, Anne Enright, Bernardine Evaristo, Shon Faye, Armando Iannucci, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Jackie Kay, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, Francesca Martinez, Ben Okri, Jon Ronson, Michael Rosen, Alexei Sayle, Will Self, Joelle Taylor, Kit De Waal, Ruby Wax, Gary Younge and Benjamin Zephaniah. Irvine Welsh once described WoWFEST as ‘the best writing festival in the world’. Our reputation is built on collaboration, risk-taking and genuinely community-led programming.
Alongside live events, Writing on the Wall’s wider work celebrates creative heritage, uncovers overlooked archives and amplifies voices too often marginalised or excluded from mainstream narratives. At its heart, WoWFEST is about connection -between past and present, culture and community, art and action, and about the role creativity can play in building a more just, inclusive and joyful society.
