“Go All In” with Calibre Audio
2026 marks the National Year of Reading
We're supporting the National Year of Reading in 2026 with a series of events and activities, bringing our services to a wider audience, with accessibility at the heart of the campaign.
National Year of Reading is a Department of Education initiative designed to reignite a culture of reading for pleasure across the UK. The aim is to make reading relevant and engage new audiences with an emphasis on reaching early years children, boys (8-18yrs) and families from disadvantaged communities and adults.
We believe audio is the perfect platform to (re)connect with reading and makes books accessible to those that need it. Audio makes stories come alive, firing imagination and creativity.
We're continuing to organise our programme of events throughout the year. Here's a sneak preview of what we have planned:
We began our National Year of Reading events with our one-day CPD conference for education professionals in January 2026. “Inspiring a love of reading in children and young adults with SEND” featured a programme of key note speakers, workshops, and a panel event who made a call to action to every delegate to set a goal so no child is left behind in the National Year of Reading. Read the highlights from Calibre Audio’s SEND Conference.
Calibre Conversations, our online audiobook festival, is back and bigger than ever with children’s and adult author interviews each month. It launched at the end of January with Ruth Foster, winner of the self-published category at the Comedy Women in Print Prize 2025 for her first fiction novel A Perfect Year? and award-winning children’s author Sally Gardner who talks about her passion for audio which have been integral to her accessing and enjoying stories with her dyslexia. Watch all of our Calibre Conversations here.
Inclusive Voices, our short story competition, will be running from June to September, welcoming entries from all and with a new panel of judges. Watch this space for the new theme and exciting partnership announcements.
Audiobook Reading Challenge will launch in October, asking our members to read a set amount of books and review them. With prizes!
Keep checking the National Year of Reading page on our website for more information and to keep updated with new activities added through the year.
Join us and “Go All In” because you never know where reading can take you!