FREE JUST TURN UP
Unfiltered Clarity is essentially an offline and online platform to help young adults navigate early adulthood. The event will consist of open discussions, honest conversations and table activities.
Tickets HERE
Hyde Park Supper Club #1
Join us for our first supper club at HPBC!
3 Course Meal
Starter
Homemade Focaccia with Whipped Feta, Roasted Courgette and a Roasted Red Pepper with Chimichurri Dip
Main
Green Gnocchi with pea mint lemon and Crispy Shallots served with a Side Salad of Fennel, Radish, Beetroot, Orange, and pickled Shallot
Dessert
Orange Olive Oil Cake with raspberry compote and fresh whipped cream
Paired drink options for additional costs will also be available.
Tickets HERE
I am Marina, a nurse and a mushroom enthusiast. I believe we need to stay curious and playful, and step away from the daily seriousness that disconnects us from ourselves. I have been experimenting with mushroom cultivation for some time and I am fascinated by fungi as a broader phenomenon, including its folklore, symbolism, and material intelligence. This curiosity eventually led me to start running workshops.
The Soft Rot Library is a project that invites people to return to their own playground as an antidote to autopilot living, machinery, and everything increasingly robotic. In this workshop, participants bring a softcover book (up to 300 pages), which is used as a substrate for oyster mushrooms, creating a living object that they take home and continue to witness as it undergoes real-life metamorphosis.
In the process, we explore mushroom folklore, symbolism, and fungi as a phenomenon, while connecting with like-minded people through shared attention and conversation.
Tickets HERE
We return with A Very Queer Cabaret in celebration of Pride! Expect your favourite showtunes and artists, performed by Northern Based performers!
Tickets HERE
“A fresh collection of Cookson’s verse … if it’s laughter you’re after you could do worse”
Dr John Cooper Clarke
“You, me and some poems” – that’s exactly what this evening will be. Paul has worked as a poet for nearly forty years and sold over a million books. Since Lockdown Paul has written and shared on line a brand new poem every day. There are now over 2000 consecutive daily poems. The show will feature work from his latest Flapjack Press collections – “Psycho Seagull Stole My Dog” and “Slim Volume”. While the latter is gentle and thoughtful, “Psycho Seagull” features poems based on newspaper headlines such as “Brian Blessed Wrestles Forty Stone Gorilla”, “I Saw The Ghost of Lemmy Riding a Horse Eating Pizza”, “Gregg Wallace Sex Dwarf Hid A Frozen Chicken in His Underpants” and many more.
Expect an evening of laughter, occasional audience participation with moments of quiet reflection and balance.
“A poet for all seasons” – Henry Normal
“Funny, irreverent” – Brian Bilston
Tickets HERE
Internationally recognised Spoken Word Artist, Msb Mario “El Niño de la Pili” presents a contemporary live performance combining storytelling, poetry and performance art. Originally from El Montserrat (Reus), he has developed a distinctive artistic identity across Europe centred around spoken word and live sound, creating deeply engaging and emotionally driven work.
His upcoming show at Hyde Park Book Club, is an intimate, capacity-limited performance for lovers of alternative live music and contemporary poetry, with only 60 seats available, ensuring a close and intimate setting.
The work focuses on a direct connection with the audience, supported by subtle rhythmic and sonic elements that enhance the narrative rather than overwhelm it. Each performance is built in real time, shaped by the energy of the room and audience interaction.
An experimental live performance exploring identity, emotion and human experience through raw, immediate delivery, exclusively at Hyde Park Book Club.
FREE JUST TURN UP
Pop Smear!! A Night for Feminine and Feminist Music. DJs Bethany and Gill, plus special guests, play records in the Snug from 6-11pm. indiepop - riot grrrl - girl groups - punk & post-punk - r&b and soul - left of the dial - sha la la - ba ba ba - pop bangers. FREE.
Tickets HERE
Rachel Cracknell is a writer and performer of comedy, poetry and theatre. Her work explores the excitement and challenge of romance: looking for it, finding it and often discovering it’s not exactly as it seems. Using real life experiences, Rachel brings honesty and wit to matters of the heart which could put anyone off getting back out there, but luckily for us she continues to do so.
Rachel is single and open to new connections.
Tickets HERE
This zine launch celebrates the Leeds music scene through a photography collection.
To celebrate the release, the artist is hosting an inclusive launch party at the Hyde Park Book Club on August 22nd. Far from a formal exhibition, the night is designed as an open refuge for music lovers and creatives. It features a stellar lineup of local talent, including weekend at dads, NI?G, and Clea Wang. Everyone is invited to bring their instruments, chat with fellow creatives, and join the live jam session. Whether you want to talk, jam, or simply connect over independent art, this is a night to celebrate the sounds of Leeds.
Check it out HERE
Sip and Social is an opportunity to join an afternoon of casual conversation and community, doing easy-going activities such as board games, creative writing and drawing.
We’ll be creating a space to take time out from your regular routine at different venues across the city, starting with Hyde Park Book Club.
If you’d like to come to a Sip and Social session, take a look at our Events page for upcoming dates. If you’d be interested in hosting a Sip and Social session at your venue, please contact our Wellbeing Practitioner, Eleanor Gillott.
Tickets HERE
Leeds Lit Fest 2026
Brought to you by Zineophilia, Exploring Gender and the Body is an event open to all levels of experience in writing poetry - including none at all!
We will collectively explore poems related in some shape or form to gender and bodies, and invite participants to construct pieces of their own through structured activities. These will enable thought on the relationships between bodies and the world, as well as bodies and one's inner self.
There will be an option to share these poems within a zine to showcase our varied responses to the prompts.
Tickets HERE
Leeds Lit Fest 2026
Join Shauna M. Morgan and Seni Seneviratne to discuss community, environment and creating your own 'ground provisions.'
Shauna M. Morgan will read from her debut collection Ground Provisions and Seni Seneviratne will read from Unknown Soldier and new poems. Poetry from local Leeds poet Barsa Ray will open & close the event.
Seed swap: Bring seeds and take new seeds! 🌱 Leave with a sense of purpose & community to sow your own hopes"
About the authors
Seni Seneviratne, born and raised in Leeds, is of English and Sri Lankan heritage, and the author of four highly-acclaimed collections of poems. Her poem 'A Wider View' is included on the AQA GCSE poetry syllabus, and her collection, Unknown Soldier (2019), was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and National Poetry Day Choice. She is a fellow of the Complete Works programme and has collaborated with film-makers, visual artists, musicians and digital artists. She is currently one of ten commissioned writers on the Colonial Countryside Project: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted. She lives in Derbyshire.
FREE JUST TURN UP
Leeds Lit Fest 2026
Join us for Leeds Arts University’s fifth annual event as part of Leeds Literature Festival, as we launch our first anthology of writing: Labyrinths
The anthology features work by students from the BA (Hons) and MA courses, through prose and poetry.
This event is an opportunity to hear the next generation of prose and poetry writers, across our vibrant writing community. Wonder, mystery, misdirection, and adventure; get lost in Labyrinth. It’s one not to miss.
Tickets HERE
Leeds Lit Fest 2026
Join the team from book publisher HarperCollins' imprint HarperNorth team, to learn how to get into the industry, pick up publishing tips, careers advice and how to prepare your ideas ready for submission to a publisher.
Do you want to get into publishing, either as an author or working in the industry itself?Join staff from HarperCollins’ Manchester-based imprint HarperNorth at Hyde Park Book Club for a deep-dive into how book publishing works.
Fiction commissioning editor Megan Jones and marketing and publicity assistant Taslima Khatun will explain the publishing process—from manuscript submission and editorial development to production, distribution, and marketing—and share practical tips for making a book successful.
The evening is suitable for aspiring authors, particularly those writing for adults, and anyone interested in a publishing career, offering insight into roles and pathways in the industry. Attendees can ask questions, receive guidance on improving manuscripts and submission strategies, and talk to professionals and fellow literary enthusiasts.
Come prepared with questions about how to make your book the best it can be, and ask all your careers questions!
Tickets HERE
Leeds Lit Fest 2026
After inheriting the miner's safety lamp that belonged to his great-grandfather, Jake Morris-Campbell sets out on a pilgrimage across his homeland. Travelling from the Holy Island of Lindisfarne to Durham Cathedral, he asks what new ways might be made through the old north.
Jake's journey along the 'Camino of the North' sees him explore the shifting nature of individual and regional identity across 1300 years of social change. Rejecting the damaging trope of 'left behind' communities, Jake uncovers neglected seams of culture and history, while offering a heartfelt celebration of the place he calls hyem.
Tickets HERE
Leeds Lit Fest 2026
Perdita is a human child who is born in a laboratory in 2035. She grows into adulthood without parental nurture at a time when the distinction between humans and machines has become blurred and human survival is in doubt. She will become the last human on earth.
Through a sequence of poems, Perdita explores questions about subjects including body augmentation, gender identity, work, war and truth as she learns to live amongst her non-human peers. A thought provoking and involving story.
This sequence of poems-for-performance is written by Jane Kite and performed by Jane Kite and John Hepworth.
Tickets HERE
Leeds Lit Fest 2026
Join Carnyx Press for a captivating evening of folklore-inspired short fiction. Six writers from across the North of England read stories from the new Carnyx Press anthology 'Oaths and Offerings'.
These strange, dark, and playful tales explore folk culture from the North and beyond, and reimagine folk tales for our time.
The readings will be followed by discussions about folklore and writing.
With "stories as diverse and strange as the hidden world we sense just beyond our own" (Glen James Brown), this is sure to be an enthralling evening for fans of folk horror, weird fiction, and literature.
£2 Tickets on the door only
Join us for an exciting Charity Quiz and Raffle Night in support of Deafblind UK. Doors open at 7pm, the evening will bring together friends, families, students, and members of the local community for a fun and engaging night of trivia, prizes, and fundraising. Participants can test their knowledge across a range of quiz rounds while also having the chance to win fantastic raffle prizes, all while supporting an important cause. Every donation raised during the event will help Deafblind UK continue providing vital support, advice, and companionship to people living with combined sight and hearing loss across the UK. Whether you come to compete, socialise, or simply support the charity, the event promises to be an enjoyable evening with a meaningful impact.
Check it out HERE
Sip and Social is an opportunity to join an afternoon of casual conversation and community, doing easy-going activities such as board games, creative writing and drawing.
We’ll be creating a space to take time out from your regular routine at different venues across the city, starting with Hyde Park Book Club.
If you’d like to come to a Sip and Social session, take a look at our Events page for upcoming dates. If you’d be interested in hosting a Sip and Social session at your venue, please contact our Wellbeing Practitioner, Eleanor Gillott.
