Our Story

Spawned from the internationally celebrated Bridport Prize, the Festival was conceived over two decades ago to bring authors together in Bridport, at a particularly quiet time of year for the town, to talk about books and share their ideas with diverse audiences with eclectic interests

The brainchild of Mark Culme-Seymour, director of Eype Church Centre for the Arts,  together with Chris Huxley, director of the Bridport Arts Centre and Tanya Bruce-Lockhart, director of the Beaminster Festival of Music and the Arts, the festival was created to deliver a programme of literary events to be enjoyed by the local community and audiences from across West Dorset.  Local resident Venetia Ross Skinner became our first generous sponsor.

From these humble beginnings, BridLit was registered as a charity in 2012. The festival has grown in stature to be recognised nationally and enjoyed both by writers and all lovers of literature from across the country.