Wrexham Carnival of Words
22-29 April 2023
Hand picked authors, poets and workshops for your literary delight.

2023 Events
Welcome to our 2023 events, which includes Author Talks, Story Telling, Poetry, Writer’s Carousel and the Murder Mystery.
Discounted Early Bird Festival Ticket available until 31st March 2023 – £35
Harriet Tyce
Wednesday 29 March, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £8 Come and meet Harriet Tyce, the author of psychological thrillers Blood Orange, The Lies You Told and her latest bestseller It Ends at Midnight. After a decade as a criminal barrister, she turned to fulltime writing and...
Big Stories with Elen Caldecott
FREE Join this writing workshop for an exciting opportunity to see your work in print. Elen Caldecott is a children’s author, a lecturer in Creative Writing and a Patron of Wrexham’s Carnival of Words. In this 90-minute session, she will encourage participants to...
Peter Read – Hollywood to Wrexham
Monday, 24 April, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £6 From Hollywood to Wrexham is the title of local writer Peter Read’s forthcoming book about Wrexham AFC’s first seasons under the control of new owners Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenny. So, here’s an opportunity for a sneak...
Storytelling for Families
Saturday 22 April, 10.00am – 1.00pm Wrexham Library Free [ticket required] Bring the whole family along for this opening day of the Carnival - great storytelling of every sort and fun for everyone. The fabulous Signing Sensations will perform their own inimitable...
Wrexham Revealed
Monday, 24 April, 2.00pm Wrexham Museum free Our very own Dave McCall (author David Ebsworth) talks about the new guidebook written specifically for visitors wanting to take self-guided tours of Wrexham’s fascinating history, with twenty not-to-be-missed stopping...
Charles Dickens Readathon
Saturday 22 April, 5.30pm Wrexham Library FREE Following the success of last year's classic readathon the readers of Wrexham will be diving into a new book challenge in 2023 – Charles Dickens’s second-longest book, Bleak House. Join us for a fun discussion about this...
Murder Mystery – The Glass Room by Ann Cleeves
Wednesday, 26 April, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £8 Put your sleuthing skills to the test and experience what it’s like to investigate the most serious of crimes at our popular nail-biting Murder Mystery evening. Join us as you play detective for the night and help...
Aled Lewis Evans – New Works in English: Afterglow and Harvest Tide
Saturday 22 April, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £6 Renowned local poet Aled Lewis Evans is esteemed for his books inspired by his lifetime experiences. Join us for readings by Aled from his latest collections of prose and poetry in English: Harvest Tide and Afterglow....
Viva Voce
Tuesday, 25 April, 7.00pm Yellow & Blue FREE Wrexham's leading spoken word literary events – Viva Voce and Voicebox - have come together to celebrate this year's Carnival. This joint event will feature the best of local and neighbouring performers from poets to...
Historical Fiction Night
Friday, 28 April, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £10 Historical Fiction Night: Angus Donald and Matthew Harffy. Also, a pre-recorded interview with Bernard Cornwell. Watch out! The Viking-age Saxons are coming! Carnival of Words favourites, Matthew Harffy (the Bernicia...
Writers’ Carousel
Saturday, 29 April, 11.00am – 3.00pm Tŷ Pawb: Performance Space FREE (ticket required) North Wales writers – authors, poets, songwriters, bloggers and journalists – take part in some fabulous panels. These free sessions run between 11.00am and until 3.00pm. Morning...
Magi Ann
Throughout the Week Brynteg, Cefn Mawr, Chirk, Coedpoeth, Gwersyllt, Llay, Rhos, Ruabon and Wrexham Libraries. FREE Magi Ann is the protagonist of a series of stories for children, and she is now one of the favorite characters of young children in Wales. Magi Ann...
Lucy Diamond & Erica James
Saturday 29 April, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £10 Come and join not one, but two, Sunday Times best-selling romance authors as they bring their love of writing to Wrexham. Erica James is no stranger to success. Her first novel, A Breath of Fresh Air, became a Sunday...
Hanan Issa (National Poet of Wales)
Saturday, 29 April, 4.00pm Wrexham Library £8 A conversation with Hanan Issa, National Poet of Wales, on the power of creativity and how poetry makes sense of the world. As a mixed race artist, Issa weaves together histories, myth and language from her different...
Mike Gayle
Thursday, 27 April, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £6 Previously an agony uncle for teenage girls’ magazine Bliss, Mike Gayle is a journalist and author of eighteen novels. He’s written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, The Daily...
Sophie Pavelle
Thursday, 27 April, 5.00pm Wrexham Library £6 Join Sophie (science communicator and writer for BBC Wildlife, Countryfile, New Scientist and the Guardian) for a chat about her journey around the UK in search of ten rare species that could disappear entirely by 2050...
Conrad Jones
Thursday, 27 April, 2.00pm Chirk Library £6 Conrad Jones is a best-selling Amazon all-star author. His books have been translated into six languages and apart from writing crime thrillers he has written The Magic Dragon of Anglesey children’s series of books. But...
Tim Weaver
Tuesday, 25 April, 7.00pm Wrexham Library £10 Tim Weaver is the author of 13 novels, including the David Raker mysteries You Were Gone, No One Home and this year's bestselling novel The Blackbird. His books have twice been selected for the Richard and Judy Book...
Meinir Pierce Jones
Tuesday, 25 April, 5.00pm Wrexham Library £6 Meinir Pierce Jones will be discussing how she came to write her novel Capten, which won the Daniel Owen Memorial Prize at the National Eisteddfod 2022. This is a maritime historical novel, set in Llŷn in 1893, but which...
Glenda Young
Tuesday, 25 April, 2.00pm Wrexham Library £6 Glenda Young’s cosy crimes are set in modern-day Scarborough and were shortlisted for the Dead Good Readers Awards in the category of New Kid on the Block for best new crime series. She has also written gritty sagas set in...
Fflur Dafydd
Monday, 24 April, 5.00pm Wrexham Library £6 Meet BAFTA-nominated and bilingual screenwriter, novelist and musician Fflur Dafydd as she chats about… her own writing journey; the joys of writing primetime drama for S4C and BBC iPlayer; her work on her art crime...
Frank Cottrell-Boyce
Monday 24 April, 2.00pm Closed event for schools Award-winning screenwriter and novelist Frank Cottrell-Boyce, known for his wonderful children’s fiction, and as the writer of that memorable opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics will be visiting local...
Jenny Blackhurst
Friday, 28 April, 2.00pm Wrexham Library £6 Jenny Blackhurst is the internationally bestselling author of seven psychological thrillers. She wrote her first book after the birth of her son, in-between feeds and nappy changes and never thought anyone would read it....