The West Cork Literary Festival centres on an extensive schedule of workshops which run for 3 and 5 days. Poet Ruth Padel will facilitate an advanced Poetry Workshop. Kevin Rushby, chief travel correspondent of The Guardian will present a Travel Workshop. Each day participants will travel to Whiddy Island by ferry to take part in the workshop, giving them a small taste of the life of an intrepid travel writer. Carol Drinkwater, Anglo-Irish actress, author & film-maker will give a workshop on Memoir and Non-Fiction. The workshop programme will acknowledge the impact of social media on contemporary writers through a workshop on how to manage your online reputation led by Ellyssa Kroski. 

Highlights include events featuring Philip Hensher, Peter Murphy, Kate Mosse, Claire Kilroy, Pat Boran, Louise Doughty, Kate Thompson, Jonathan Williams, Dr. Sophia Hillan, Barbara Claypole White, Gerard Stembridge, Ruth Padel, Julie O'Callaghan, Michael Harding, Carol Drinkwater, Mary and Bryan Talbot and many more.
 
The Festival continues to celebrate the town's maritime heritage with talks by Roz Savage, Ocean Rower and environmental campaigner, Callum Roberts, marine scientist and conservationist and Beth Powning, author of The Sea Caption's Wife. Great literary passages inspired by the sea will be read and discussed in a panel discussion, 'The Sea, The Sea', and there will be a very special reading on Whiddy Island, on all things maritime. The audience will travel by ferry to the site of the reading, one of the island's gun batteries.
 
Writers will have the opportunity to get their work appraised by a professional literary panel in Writer idol, which returns after its success last year and also returning will be Editor-in-Residence, hosted by Francesca Main, Editorial Director of Picador.
 
The Children's Festival, will bring Monster Doodles, Pop-Up Sharks,  Zom-Bs and Wizard Aduro to Bantry, featuring writers and illustrators, Darren Shan; Children's Literature Laureate,Niamh Sharkey; Chrissie Gittins; Gillian Perdue; Ruth Galloway and Julie O'Callaghan. Dave Lordan will present Words Allowed, Ireland's leading workshop for Teen Writers.