MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2015 12—25 OCTObER

Transcription

MANCHESTER
LITER ATURE
FESTIVAL
2015
12—25
October
Principal Sponsor
Welcome
Manchester Literature Festival is ten years young this year and like most ten year olds we
are super excited about our birthday celebrations. We’ve put together an extra special bumper
edition, inviting back many of our favourite writers from the past decade and hand-picking
some of the most gifted emerging storytellers, destined to make big literary waves in the
coming decade.
Melvyn Bragg and Robert Harris explore power, politics and humanity through the lens of
history, whilst Margaret Atwood and Sarah Hall present disturbing visions of the future in
their new novels. Paul Mason discusses what a post-capitalist world might look like and,
in our new literature and landscape strand of events, writers reflect on our relationship
with nature and the earth.
Elif Shafak delivers this year’s Gaeia Manchester Sermon and Joanne Harris presents
a specially commissioned Writer’s Manifesto. We bring words and music together through
some unique collaborations with manchester jazz festival and Manchester Camerata,
and singer songwriter Kathryn Williams performs songs from her new album Hypoxia
inspired by Syliva Plath.
In much anticipated literary re-imaginings, Anthony Horowitz introduces us to his new James
Bond novel Trigger Mortis and Jeanette Winterson launches her retelling of Shakespeare’s
A Winters’ Tale. We explore the legacy of literary icons Saul Bellow, John le Carré, George
Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell and WB Yeats; and champion pioneering women Eleanor Marx,
Sophia Duleep Singh and Virginia Woolf. Our ever popular literary tours explore the haunts
of Manchester’s literati, and allow you to enter the pages of much loved novels
Love on the Dole and Wuthering Heights.
Former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen performs a selection of favourite poems at
a special event for schools. We present some inspirational theatrical adaptations of children's
picture books, and there will be lots of fun activities for children at our Family Reading Day.
From crime fiction to performance poetry and radical women to the future of the planet there’s
something to capture everyone's imagination. Please join us for an unfogettable party of words
and ideas.
Cathy Bolton & Sarah-Jane Roberts
Festival Co-directors
Foreword
We are delighted to continue our support of literature across the UK through our sponsorship
of Manchester Literature Festival 2015.
By bringing together people from around the world and providing a platform for the exchange
of views and ideas, the Festival uses literature as a way of opening up opportunities,
making connections and stimulating debate across borders.
As the Festival celebrates its 10th anniversary, its dynamic growth is testament to its
engaging and inspirational programme, which this year includes a series of World Literature
events celebrating writers and thinkers from across the globe. The Festival’s international
strand reflects HSBC's own commitment over the past 150 years to encouraging the exchange
of ideas across different cultures as a way of strengthening international relationships.
We look forward to welcoming these guests to Manchester in October, along with
the thousands of visitors who will join us for two weeks of inspiring talks,
readings and performances.
Antonio Simoes
Chief Executive Officer, HSBC UK
Principal Sponsor
Programme Notes
The 10th edition of the Manchester Literature Festival offers a bigger and more eclectic
programme than ever before, with 85 events to choose from. To help you navigate our
busy schedule, we’ve badged events under several themed categories:
Whet your appetite at one of our special trailblazer events.
Preview
Encounter some of your literary heroes in prestigious and
Main Event
unusual settings across the city and beyond.
Experience world premieres of new work created especially
New Commission
for the Festival. This includes our annual Gaeia Manchester
Sermon, a manifesto for Writers and exciting commissions in
collaboration with the Midland Hotel, Manchester Art Gallery
and manchester jazz festival.
From nature writing and memoir to psychogeography and
Literature and Landscape
climate change, authors and non-fiction writers reflect on
our relationship with the earth and the landscapes around us.
Expand your reading horizons by checking out some
World Literature
of our acclaimed writers in translation. Hear stories from
other cultures and countries including Afghanistan, China,
Japan and Spain.
Discover the authors, poets and spoken word artists
Rising Stars
of the future at our special showcase events.
Get the inside story on how to ignite your creativity
Industry Insights
and develop your writing skills at a series of talks,
panel discussions and workshops.
Revisit the work and discuss the legacy of past literary
Literary Reputations
icons including Saul Bellow, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell,
Sponsored by Specsavers
John Le Carré, WB Yeats and Virginia Woolf. This series
is sponsored by Specsavers.
Learn more about Manchester’s rich literary heritage
Weightmans Literary Tours
on one of our bespoke walking or coach tours. This series
is sponsored by Weightmans LLP.
Inspire a new generation of book lovers at our events aimed at
Young Readers
schools and families. This series is sponsored by Specsavers.
Sponsored by Specsavers
Young Readers’ Projects
In addition to our main events, Manchester Literature Festival also has a year round
programme of activities for children and young people. Taking place throughout Greater
Manchester, these activities use stories as an inspiration to engage young people as the
readers and writers of the future. Current projects include:
Read It, Watch It, Talk About It
A monthly film/book club based at The Factory Youth Zone in Harpurhey. A fun and informal
opportunity for young people aged 8 to 12 to get together, watch films, and talk about the
stories that inspired them.
Writing Squad
We are delighted to be working with the Writing Squad to support emerging young writers
from the North West region to develop their craft. Our squad offers ten writers aged 16 - 21
the chance to work with each other and with professional tutors for two years. Alongside this
they are also offered on-going support to help make their way in the literature industry.
Examples of their work can be found at writingsquad.com/push.
Story Time with Dad
We are working with fathers to help them to engage with their children’s reading habits,
and encourage reading for pleasure in early years and school age children through regular
reading groups in libraries across Manchester. We deliver Story Time with Dad in Beswick,
Longsight, North City and Manchester Central libraries on a monthly basis. All families
are welcome at our relaxed and fun sessions which focus on reading together, playing
together and learning together. This project is Lottery funded through the Big Lottery fund
and generously supported by The Ernest Cook Trust and The Manchester Guardian Society
Charitable Trust.
Digital Reporters
Prior to the festival we recruit a team of young Digital Reporters between the age of 15 and 25
and offer them an opportunity to attend and review our events. It’s a fantastic opportunity for
participants to flex their journalistic muscles, see their favourite authors speak and pick up
new skills along the way. Their reviews are published on our Chapter and Verse blog.
At a Glance
Preview
Steven Pinker
Tuesday 1st September, 6.30pm
University Place
10
Andrew O’Hagan & Owen Sheers
Wednesday 14th October, 6.30pm
Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama
23
David Constantine
Thursday 3rd September, 6.30pm
HOME
10
24
45 Years Film Screening
HOME
11
Val McDermid & Mark Billingham
Wednesday 14th October, 7pm
Central Library
BSL interpreted
25
Anthony Horowitz
Wednesday 9th September, 7pm
Central Library
11
Anita Anand
Thursday 15th October, 6pm
Portico Library
27
Margaret Atwood
Sunday 27th September, 3pm
Royal Exchange Theatre
13
Rachel Holmes on Eleanor Marx
Portico Library
Love on the Dole Film Screening
Friday 16th October, 6pm
HOME
30
31
Main Event
Afternoon Tea with Deborah Moggach
Monday 12th October, 3pm
Midland Hotel
14
Kate Mosse
Manchester Museum
32
Jane Smiley
International Anthony Burgess Foundation
15
Don Paterson & Rommi Smith
Saturday 17th October, 2.30pm
Hallé St Peter’s
33
Kevin Barry & John McAuliffe
16
Sarah Crossan, Laura Dockrill
& Julie Mayhew
Saturday 17th October, 3pm
Central Library
An Evening with Robert Harris
Monday 12th October, 7.30pm
16
Jesse Armstrong & Tim Key
35
Jeanette Winterson
Tuesday 13th October, 7.30pm
20
Kathryn Williams: Hypoxia
Hallé St Peter’s
35
Les Murray
Central Library
21
Carol Ann Duffy
Sunday 18th October, 7.30pm
Hallé St Peter’s
39
At a Glance
Melvyn Bragg
Manchester Cathedral
42
Tracey Thorn & Dave Haslam
Gorilla
44
Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, Shruti Chauhan
& Lydia Towsey
Tuesday 20th October, 8pm
Contact
45
Iain Pears
Wednesday 21st October, 6pm
46
Jon McGregor: The Letters Page
Wednesday 21st October, 6.30pm
(doors open 6pm)
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
46
Polly Samson & Virginia Baily
Portico Library
47
Paul Mason: PostCapitalism
Thursday 22nd October, 7.30pm
RNCM
50
Grevel Lindop & Matthew Sweeney
Friday 23rd October, 1pm
Central Library
51
Louis de Bernières
Friday 23rd October, 6.30pm
Portico Library
52
Dave McKean
53
The Sequel:
Manchester Camerata,
Martynas Levickis & David Fielder
53
Portico Prize: The Fiction Shortlist
Sunday 25th October, 5-7pm
Portico Library
60
New Commission
Afternoon Tea with Kate Clanchy
Midland Hotel
25
Ned Beauman & Matthew Darbyshire
Manchester Art Gallery
29
The Gaeia Manchester Sermon:
Elif Shafak
30
Joanne Harris:
Why I Write – A Writer’s Manifesto
BSL interpreted
40
An Ape’s Progress
Iain Ballamy, Matthew Sweeney,
Dave McKean &
The Pepper Street Orchestra
Whitworth Art Gallery
50
Simon Armitage
Central Library
BSL interpreted
49
Granta Presents: What Have We Done?
Sunday 25th October, 12 noon
59
Sarah Hall & George Monbiot
Sunday 25th October, 2pm
59
At a Glance
Oliver Morton
60
World Literature
Jesús Carrasco & Kirmen Uribe
Instituto Cervantes
19
The Book of Tokyo
20
Care Santos
Thursday 15th October, 6.30pm
Instituto Cervantes
26
Bidisha & Gulwali Passarlay
Cross Street Chapel
32
Diao Dou & Adam Marek
33
Rising Stars
Manchester Cathedral Poetry Prize
39
Carcanet New Poetries
Central Library
42
Precarious Passages
Central Library
43
Commonword Superheroes of Slam Final
Three Minute Theatre, Afflecks Arcade
52
Louise Stern & Benjamin Wood
Saturday 24th October, 12 noon
55
Mary Costello & Stuart Evers
57
Stephen Kelman & Sunjeev Sahota
57
Industry Insights
Jami Attenberg & Liza Klaussmann
17
Mai Al-Nakib & May-Lan Tan
15
19
Michael Rosen & Mandy Coe:
The Future of Children’s Poetry
Central Library
23
Paula Hawkins, Renée Knight
& Kate Hamer
26
One on One with Danny Brocklehurst
University of Salford, MediaCityUK
45
Young Identity: Battle of the Minds
Contact
34
Spanish Translation Workshop
Wednesday 21st October, 6-8pm
Instituto Cervantes
Northern Lights Writers’ Conference 2015
Saturday 14th November, 10am-5.30pm
Waterside Arts Centre
61
At a Glance
Patricia Duncker on George Eliot
Portico Library
21
Elizabeth Gaskell Coach Tour
Sunday 18th October, 11am-4.30pm
Meet outside the Britannia Hotel
38
True Harmony – Yeats at 150
Thursday 15th October, 7.30pm-9.30pm
27
First Editions & Rarities Walking Tour
Thursday 22nd October, 1.30-5pm
Meet at the tiled wall map, Victoria Station
47
Zachary Leader on Saul Bellow
38
Charles Dickens Walking Tour
Friday 23rd October, 12-1.45pm
Meet outside Portland Thistle Hotel
51
Nick Channer on Writers’ Houses
(doors open 6pm)
40
A History of Manchester in Ten Poems
Meet on the Town Hall steps, Albert Square
55
Alexandra Harris on Virginia Woolf
43
Wuthering Heights Coach Tour
Sunday 25th October, 10.30am-5pm
58
Wives and Daughters:
A Celebration of Elizabeth Gaskell
with Andrew Davies
Portico Library
44
Adam Sisman on John le Carré
Waterstones Deansgate
58
Elizabeth Gaskell’s Manchester
Tuesday 13th October, 1.30-4pm
Meet outside St Ann’s Church
17
Literary Manchester Walking Tour
Meet outside The Midland Hotel
24
Love on the Dole Walking Tour
Meet at Working Class Movement Library
29
Boho Literary Pub Walking Tour
Saturday 17th October, 5-8pm
34
Young Readers
Flyaway Katie
Saturday 10th October, 11am & 2pm
Z-arts
13
Michael Rosen
14
Man on the Moon
Saturday 17th October, 11am
Central Library
31
Wordsmith Showcase
Thursday 22nd October, 5pm
Z-arts
49
Family Reading Day
Saturday 24th October, 10am-4:30pm
Central Library
54
Comic Art Masterclass
Central Library
54
Preview
Preview
Steven Pinker
The Sense of Style
David Constantine
The Art of The
Short Story
Does writing well matter in an age of
instant communication? Drawing on the
latest research in linguistics and cognitive
science, Steven Pinker’s The Sense of Style:
The Thinking Person’s Guide to Writing
in the 21st Century explains why style
still matters: in communicating effectively,
in earning a reader’s trust and, not least,
in adding beauty to the world. Steven is an
award-winning cognitive scientist, public
intellectual and Professor of Psychology
at Harvard University. His bestselling
books include The Language Instinct and
Words and Rules. This is a European City
of Science event presented in partnership
with The University of Manchester. The event
will be chaired by Professor Daniel M. Davis,
author of The Compatibility Gene.
A new book from a writer broadly hailed
as one of the most gifted practitioners of
the short story form is cause for celebration.
David Constantine won The Frank O’Connor
International Short Story Award for Tea
at the Midland, the title story of which also
won the BBC National Short Story Award.
New from Manchester’s Comma Press,
45 Years: Selected Stories features the
best from previous collections including
The Shieling, Under the Dam and the
out-of-print Back at the Spike. AS Byatt
said of his work ‘every sentence is both
unpredictable and exactly as it should be.’
David will be reading and talking about
both his short stories and 45 Years, the film
adaptation of his story, starring Charlotte
Rampling and Tom Courtenay, which will
be screened at HOME later this evening.
Tuesday 1st September, 6.30pm
University Place,
The University of Manchester
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
10
HOME
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0161 200 1500 or
homemcr.org
Preview
Preview
45 Years
Film Screening
Anthony Horowitz
Adapted from a short story by David
Constantine, 45 Years is a beautifully
understated study in the frailty of
relationships directed by Andrew Haigh
(Greek Pete, Looking). Charlotte Rampling
and Tom Courtenay deliver masterful
performances as married couple
Kate and Geoff, whose union almost
imperceptibly unravels in the run up to
their landmark anniversary. The film won
the Michael Powell Award for Best British
Feature Film at the Edinburgh International
Film Festival and was hailed as one of the
stand-out films at this year’s Berlinale,
winning two Silver Bears for Best Actor
and Best Actress. The Hollywood Reporter
called it ‘a contemporary British drama with
an almost Ingmar Bergman-esque take on
the fragile certainties of love and marriage.’
As his new James Bond novel,
Trigger Mortis, hits the shelves,
Anthony Horowitz comes to Manchester
to discuss the legacy of Ian Fleming, the
challenges of posthumous collaboration
and what makes 007 such an enduring
character. Partly inspired by a never-used
television treatment that Fleming wrote,
Trigger Mortis sees our hero enter the
high-octane world of motor racing –
matching wits with deranged adversary
Jai Seung Sin and his old friend Pussy
Galore. One of the country’s most prolific
and versatile writers, Anthony has written
more than 40 books including Sherlock
Holmes novel The House of Silk and
the bestselling series about teenage spy
Alex Rider. As a screenwriter he created
Midsomer Murders and the BAFTA
-winning Foyle’s War. Chaired by author
and comedian Viv Groskop, this lively
event will be a must-see for fans of
Bond and Horowitz alike.
HOME
Tickets £8.50/£6.50
(online discounts available)
Book on 0161 200 1500 or
homemcr.org
Wednesday 9th September, 7pm
Central Library
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
11
Preview
Young Readers
Margaret Atwood
Flyaway Katie
MLF are delighted to present award-winning
Canadian author, and international
bestseller Margaret Atwood. Margaret
has written more than 40 books of fiction
including The Handmaid’s Tale, Cat’s Eye,
The Blind Assassin and the MaddAddam
trilogy. She will be discussing her
forthcoming novel The Heart Goes Last –
an immensely funny and disturbing satire
set in a near future where the lawful
are locked up and the lawless roam free.
Young, poverty-stricken lovers Charmaine
and Stan sign up for a social experiment
but the promise of a suburban paradise
soon turns into a nightmare of conformity,
mistrust, guilt and sexual desire. Come
and see why the Sunday Times described
Margaret as ‘the outstanding novelist
of our age’. Chaired by broadcaster
and critic Erica Wagner.
Long Nose Puppets present their adaptation
of Polly Dunbar’s Flyaway Katie, a flight
of fancy about the power of the imagination
for 2-7 year olds. Described as ‘magical
and beautiful’ by The Guardian and with
music by Tom Gray of Gomez, the show’s
tiny adventurer Katie wishes she could feel
less grey and lonely. A beautiful picture on
the wall catches her eye and, in an explosion
of colour, another world comes to life.
Puppets lead the way on a journey bursting
with energy, movement and surprises.
The latest performance from the makers
of Arthur’s Dream Boat and Shoe Baby
is not to be missed. The show lasts 40
minutes and offers the chance to meet
the puppets afterwards. This event is
sponsored by Specsavers.
Sunday 27th September, 3pm
Tickets £12/£10 (£6 Restricted View)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Z-arts
Tickets £8/£6
(£24 family ticket admits 4 people of any age)
Book on 0161 226 1912 or
z-arts.org
13
Young Readers
Main Event
Michael Rosen
Afternoon Tea with
Deborah Moggach
MLF and Manchester Children’s Book
Festival are delighted to present one
of the UK’s best-known figures in the
children’s book world. The fifth Children’s
Laureate and a passionate advocate of
children’s reading, Michael has published
numerous poetry collections, picture books
and anthologies for children including
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt, This is Our
House, Centrally Heated Knickers and
Michael Rosen’s Big Book of Bad Things.
Come and hear Michael perform some of
his favourite poems at what is sure is to be
an unforgettable event, suitable for children
at Key Stage 2. This event is sponsored
by Specsavers.
Join us for an entertaining afternoon
with one of the country’s most beloved
contemporary novelists. Deborah Moggach
is the author of several bestselling books
including Tulip Fever, The Ex-Wives,
Heartbreak Hotel, Stolen and The Best
Exotic Marigold Hotel, which was made
into a feature film. Her warm and witty
new novel, Something to Hide, follows
the fortunes of five characters scattered
across the globe from Pimlico to West
Africa. Exploring love, marriage, infidelity
and friendship, Something to Hide looks
at the things that connect us, the secrets
we all carry within us, and the unforeseen
moments when they come to light.
Hosted by Carol Ackroyd. This event
is sponsored by Squire Patton Boggs.
Tickets £4
Book on 0161 833 9833 or
royalexchange.co.uk
14
Trafford Suite, Midland Hotel
Tickets £20/£18
(includes tea and scones)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Industry Insights
Jane Smiley
Michael Rosen
& Mandy Coe
The Future of
Children’s Poetry
A rare opportunity to see one of America’s
greatest novelists in Manchester. Jane
Smiley is the author of numerous novels
including the Pulitzer Prize-winning
A Thousand Acres, the Orange-shortlisted
Horse Heaven, and Private Life, which
was named a best book of 2010 by the New
Yorker, The Atlantic and The Washington
Post. She will be in conversation with
Mariana Casale O’Ryan discussing
Golden Age, the long-anticipated final
instalment in her epic Last Hundred
Years trilogy, which USA Today called
“staggering… a masterpiece in the making.”
A sweeping, masterfully written tale of one
American family, Golden Age assembles
the Langdons together on their Iowa
farm, amid unexpected visitors and
possible reconciliations, and follows their
individual journeys up to the year 2020.
We all need poetry in our lives –
but are we doing enough to instil a love
of verse in the next generation of readers?
We are thrilled that Michael Rosen will be
joining us for a discussion about the future
of children’s poetry in support of the
‘Letting in the Stars’ campaign to celebrate
and encourage great poetry writing for
young people. With Poet Laureate Dame
Carol Ann Duffy, Manchester Literature
Festival join Manchester Metropolitan
University in inviting schools, libraries,
bookshops and other organisations to
aid our cause. Prompted by a decline in
the number of publishers launching new
poetry for children, the campaign is
spearheaded by poet and educator Mandy
Coe, who will be joining Michael for a frank
and engaging conversation about what
we can do to safeguard poetry’s future.
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Central Library
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
15
Main Event
Main Event
Kevin Barry
& John McAuliffe
An Evening With
Robert Harris
An evening celebrating new books from
two established talents of Irish writing.
Kevin Barry’s short stories have won
major prizes including The Sunday Times
EFG Short Story Award for Beer Trip to
Llandudno, while his first novel City of
Bohane won the IMPAC prize in 2013,
and was described in the New York Times
as ‘full of marvels.’ His eagerly-awaited
new novel Beatlebone is an arresting and
incredibly funny story that imagines a trip
by John Lennon to Ireland's west coast
in 1978. Poet John McAuliffe co-directs
The University of Manchester’s Centre for
New Writing. His previous collection Of All
Places was described by Thomas McCarthy
as ‘a glorious book… by an Irish writer who
is a poet’s poet, an immortal watchman
in poetry, a guardian sent to mind the
guardians.’ He will be reading from
his fourth collection The Way In.
Robert Harris had a successful career as
a reporter for Panorama and Newsnight,
then as a political editor for The Observer,
before becoming one of the UK’s finest
writers of historical fiction and thrillers.
An international bestseller, his work has
been translated into 37 languages. He is
the author of Fatherland, An Officer and
a Spy, Enigma, Archangel, Pompeii and
The Ghost. His forthcoming novel,
Dictator, is the long-awaited conclusion
to his acclaimed Cicero trilogy. A gripping
read, it encompasses some of the most epic
events in human history, from the collapse
of the Roman republic and the subsequent
civil war, to the assassination of Julius
Caesar. Join us to hear Robert discuss
power, politics, corruption, ambition,
history and humanity in conversation
with Carol Ackroyd.
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
16
Tickets £10/£8
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Rising Stars
Jami Attenberg
& Liza Klaussmann
Elizabeth Gaskell’s
Manchester
Experience two talented American authors
whose work conjures fascinating figures
from the past. Jami Attenberg is the author
of The New York Times bestseller The
Middlesteins. Her new book Saint Mazie
brings to life the big-hearted Queen of
The Bowery who held court from the ticket
booth of The Venice movie theatre. Weaving
together fictionalised diaries, writings
and interviews, Attenberg has constructed
a portrait of a remarkable woman and
a moving vision of old New York. The
flamboyant expat lives of Gerald and
Sara Murphy inspired F. Scott Fitzgerald’s
Tender is the Night, and Liza Klaussmann
returns us to their house on the French
Riviera in her fantastic second novel Villa
America. Described as ‘a delicious pleasure’
by The Sunday Telegraph, it’s a beautifully
written tale of their enthralling marriage,
their coastal oasis and the true cost of
living lives that burn bright. Hosted
by MLF’s Kate Feld.
When Mrs Gaskell’s Mary Barton appeared
in 1848, it kicked up a storm in cultured
Mancunia. Could the wife of the Unitarian
minister at Cross Street Chapel really have
written so vituperative an account of those
kindly, God-fearing mill owners? Ed Glinert
leads this walk around sights and sites
significant to the life and work of this
fascinating writer, finishing up with a visit
to the historic and recently re-opened
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House. Ed is the author
of The Literary Guide to London and The
Manchester Compendium, and is editor
of the Sherlock Holmes stories for
Penguin Classics.
Tuesday 13th October, 1.30-4pm
Meet outside St Ann’s Church
Tickets £16
(includes tea, cake and a tour of
Elizabeth Gaskell’s House)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
17
Rising Stars
World Literature
Mai Al-Nakib
& May-Lan Tan
jesús Carrasco
& Kirmen Uribe
Two extraordinary new practitioners of
the short story form come together in
Manchester for an evening of great fiction.
Kuwait writer Mai Al-Nakib’s first collection
The Hidden Light of Objects won the
Edinburgh First Fiction Award, and The
National introduced her as ‘an exciting
new literary voice’. Set amid Middle
Eastern unrest, these luminous and
beautifully written stories capture
overlookedmoments in the lives of
ordinary people, and the power of objects
to hold extraordinary memories. Born in
Hong Kong, May-Lan Tan lives in London
and her debut collection Things to Make and
Break was shortlisted for the 2014 Guardian
First Book Award. In her sharp and
arrestingly intimate stories, a pole dancer
named Proust becomes a ghost, a star
falls for her stunt double and a woman finds
nude photos of her husband's exes and
tracks them down. The authors will be in
conversation with MLF’s Kate Feld.
An evening with two literary stars from
spain. Jesús Carrasco’s debut novel, Out in
the Open, was a runaway success in Spain;
it won the Spanish Booksellers Prize and
was named the best novel of 2013 by El País.
With echoes of Cormac McCarthy’s The
Road, it’s a powerful, troubling tale of
a boy in a drought-stricken country ruled
by violence. Kirmen Uribe won the National
Prize of Literature for his highly original first
novel Bilbao-New York-Bilbao, which was
translated from Basque into 14 languages.
His poetry collection Meanwhile Take My
Hand was a finalist for the 2008 PEN Award
for Poetry in Translation, and his writing has
been published in The New Yorker. The event
will be hosted by Mariana Casale O’Ryan
and is presented in partnership with
Instituto Cervantes, Etxepare Basque
Institute and Literature Across Frontiers.
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Instituto Cervantes
Tickets are free but booking is advised
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
19
Main Event
World Literature
Jeanette Winterson
The Gap of Time: The
Winter’s Tale Retold
The Book of Tokyo
One of our most imaginative storytellers,
Jeanette Winterson has written 10 novels, a
book of short stories, numerous essays and
screenplays, and the powerful memoir,
Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?
MLF and Hogarth Shakespeare are
delighted to present her latest project,
The Gap of Time: The Winter’s Tale Retold.
An energetic and ambitious retelling of
one of Shakespeare’s late plays, Jeanette’s
retelling moves from a London reeling after
the 2008 financial crash to a storm-ravaged
city in the US called New Bohemia. ‘All of us
have talismanic texts that we have carried
around and that carry us around. I have
worked with The Winter’s Tale in many
disguises for many years… and I love cover
versions’, the author said. Join us for this
unmissable event.
What happens when you try to write a city?
What is lost and gained when you transpose
a place from pavement to page? Comma
Press’ latest instalment in the City in Short
Fiction series brings together some of
Japan’s best writers in an anthology about
Tokyo. One of the contributers will read their
story and discuss the state of contemporary
literature in Japan with translators and
contributors Morgan Giles and Asa Yoneda.
An unmissable event for those interested
in Japanese, culture and literature in
translation, hosted by Comma’s Sarah
Hunt. Supported by The British Centre
for Literary Translation.
Tickets £12/£10
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
20
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Les Murray
Patricia Duncker
on George Eliot
Join us for an afternoon in the company of a
giant of contemporary poetry. Les Murray
was born in 1938 and grew up on a dairy
farm in New South Wales. He has published
more than 30 books and received numerous
awards, including the TS Eliot Prize, the
Petrarch Prize, the Mondello Prize, and The
Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry. His new
collection, Waiting for the Past, a Poetry
Book Society Choice, is published by
Manchester’s Carcanet Press. Rich in
topographies, it brings to life different
landscapes, people, places and ideas. Blake
Morrison called Les 'one of the finest poets
writing in English today, one of the super
league which includes Seamus Heaney,
Derek Walcott and Joseph Brodsky'. The
event will be introduced by John McAuliffe.
The eagerly anticipated new book from
virtuoso writer Patricia Duncker, Sophie
and the Sibyl spirits us away to 1870s Berlin
in the company of George Eliot. Populated by
characters and scenes from Eliot’s books
and steeped in the tradition of the Victorian
novel, it explores Darwinism, education for
women, the role of the narrator and the
thorny relationship between author and
publisher. Patricia is the author of five
previous novels including Hallucinating
Foucault (winner of the Dillons First Fiction
Award and the McKitterick Prize) and Miss
Webster and Cherif. Margaret Drabble
called her writing ‘stylish, surprising,
teasing, but above all grippingly readable’.
The event will be hosted by Libby Tempest
and is sponsored by Specsavers.
Central Library
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Portico Library
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
21
Main Event
Industry Insights
Andrew O’Hagan
& Owen Sheers
One on One with
Danny Brocklehurst
Two Faber writers with bold new novels
investigating masculinity and violence,
Andrew O’Hagan and Owen Sheers join
forces for an evening of reading and
discussion. The Illuminations, Andrew
O’Hagan’s fifth novel, is an epic story about
a young soldier and his grandmother that
sweeps the reader from Scotland and
Blackpool to Afghanistan. Named one of
Granta’s Best Young British Novelists in
2003, Andrew has won numerous awards
and is Editor at Large of the London Review
of Books. Owen Sheers’ I Saw A Man is a
gripping and elegant exploration of violence,
guilt and redemption that The Times called
‘a rare and luscious treat for the reader.’
Sheers is a poet, novelist and playwright
whose debut novel, Resistance, was made
into a film. Hosted by John McAuliffe.
If you’re an aspiring screenwriter then this
is your chance to gain valuable insights into
writing for television from Manchester’s
very own Danny Brocklehurst. The BAFTA
and International Emmy Award-winning
screenwriter will talk with Anne Edyvean,
Head of BBC writersroom, about his journey
from City Life critic to writer on shows
including Clocking Off, Shameless, Exile,
Accused, The Driver and Ordinary Lies.
Danny will share his experiences in writing
for television and offer advice on how to
make it in this fiercely competitive field.
This event is run in partnership with
BBC writersroom.
John Thaw Studio,
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
University of Salford, MediaCityUK
Book on mlfbbcwritersroom.event
brite.co.uk
23
Main Event
Val McDermid
& Mark Billingham
Literary Manchester
Walking Tour
An evening of chilling, thrilling crime writing
in the company of two giants of the genre.
Known for her incomparable ability to craft
a psychological thriller, Val McDermid is
the author of the bestselling Tony Hill
series and the creator of its hit television
adaptation, ITV’s Wire in the Blood.
Val will be introducing new book Splinter
the Silence. Mark Billingham is one of the
country’s most acclaimed crime writers.
His bestselling DI Tom Thorne books
include Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat.
He will be reading from Time of Death,
his new Thorne novel that is being
adapted into a BBC series. Chaired by
novelist Cath Staincliffe.
Stroll the city streets with guide Anne
Beswick and explore her love for local
literature. Manchester’s streets have
been home to so many great writers.
Hear about our men: Anthony Burgess,
Howard Jacobson, Walter Greenwood;
and our women: Shelagh Delaney, Dodie
Smith and Hilary Mantel. Realism, fantasy,
humour and sports writing all have a home
here. Did you know that Harry Potter was
born in Manchester? Find out more on this
fascinating walk that ends with coffee and
cake at the People’s History Museum.
Central Library
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
This event will be BSL interpreted
24
Tickets £12
(includes coffee and cake)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
New Commission
Main Event
Afternoon Tea
with Kate Clanchy
Anita Anand
Sophia: Princess,
Suffragette,
Revolutionary
Writer in residence at Manchester’s iconic
Midland Hotel, Kate Clanchy has been jointly
commissioned by MLF and The Midland to
write a story inspired by the hotel. Kate
is a novelist, poet and short story writer.
Her books include Meeting the English,
which was shortlisted for the Costa First
Novel Award, the highly acclaimed memoir
Antigona and Me, and the poetry collections
Slattern, Samarkand and Newborn. Her
most recent book is The Not-Dead and
The Saved and Other Stories, of which
The Guardian said: ‘moving swiftly
between the comic and the tragic,
Clanchy has an eager eye for each
and every detail in between.’ She won
the BBC National Short Story Award in
2009 and has written extensively for
radio. Come and hear her read and
discuss her work over tea and scones
with Festival Co-Director Cathy Bolton.
In 1876 Sophia Duleep Singh was born into
royalty – the daughter of a maharajah whose
lands were plundered by the British. She
and her family were forced into a gilded
exile in Suffolk, where she entered society
as the god-daughter of Queen Victoria.
But following a forbidden return to India,
Sophia came back a revolutionary, devoting
the rest of her life to fighting for Indian
independence, justice for Indian soldiers
in the Great War and female suffrage. Anita
Anand’s beautifully written new biography,
Sophia, follows the journey of a woman
whose bravery and spirit made her a key
player in some of the most defining
moments in British history. William
Dalrymple called it ‘a wonderful debut,
written with real spirit and gusto’. Anita
has been a broadcast journalist for
almost 20 years and is the presenter of
Any Answers? on BBC Radio 4. Hosted
by journalist and writer Anita Sethi.
Wyvern Suite, Midland Hotel
Tickets £20/£18
(includes tea and scones)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Portico Library
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
25
World Literature
Rising Stars
Care Santos
Paula Hawkins, Renée
Knight & Kate Hamer
Women in Crime
Three women in three centuries, connected
by one bone china chocolate pot. In her
award-winning novel Desire for Chocolate,
Care Santos follows the story of the cocoa
bean through the lives of her characters,
and demonstrates how we can understand
great shifts in history through the study
of small things. Writing in both Spanish
and Catalan, Care Santos is a multi-award
winning author of many novels and one of
Spain’s most popular children’s writers.
Her work has been translated into 15
languages, and Desire for Chocolate,
winner of the prestigious Ramón Llull
Prize, is her first novel to be translated
into English. Folllowing her reading, the
author will join Mariana Casale O’Ryan
for a conversation about culinary history
and Spanish literature.
Join us for an evening with three rising stars
of crime whose books feature strong female
protagonists. Paula Hawkins’ debut, The Girl
on the Train, was the blockbuster publishing
success of 2015, topping bestseller lists
worldwide. It follows Rachel, who sees
something unsettling from the window of
a commuter train that will change her life
forever. In Renée Knight’s debut, Disclaimer,
Catherine reads one of her darkest secrets
in a book, and must track down the author
before the story ends – in her death. Kate
Hamer’s moving first novel, The Girl in the
Red Coat, is a split-perspective story of child
abduction. Eight-year-old Carmel has
always been a strange, uncanny child.
When she disappears at a festival,
mother Beth must race to find her.
Chaired by Cath Staincliffe.
Thursday 15th October, 6.30pm
Instituto Cervantes
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
26
Main Event
True Harmony –
Yeats at 150
Rachel Holmes
on Eleanor Marx
At the 150th anniversary of the birth of
WB Yeats, this event celebrates the great
Irish poet’s interest in music, poetry and
performance, whose high point may well
have been his 1903 sell-out performance
in The Whitworth, which led The Guardian
to declare: ‘if we are ever to find a way
back to a true harmony between music
and poetry, it will almost certainly be by
consulting the poet.’ Returning Yeats to the
gallery, this one-off event will explore why
his work continues to fascinate readers,
writers and composers. It will include
American composer William Brooks’
celebrated response to Yeats’ work and
experiments with music, Everlasting Voices,
which will be performed by SoundWeave
(Dublin duo Nuala Hayes and Paul Roe).
This event will also include readings of
Yeats’ poems and responses to them
by poets Colette Bryce, Vona Groarke,
John McAuliffe, Michael Symmons Roberts
and Jeffrey Wainwright. This event is
sponsored by Specsavers.
Eleanor Marx made her name as
a pioneering trade union leader, feminist
and internationalist, but as Rachel Holmes
shows in a compelling new biography,
her achievements obscured an inner life
shadowed by tragedy. From her role as
personal secretary, editor and biographer
to her father, Karl Marx, to her littleremembered literary legacy, Rachel
delves into a gripping life story shot
through with the melodrama of a Victorian
novel. Jeanette Winterson called the book
‘superb’ and The Spectator described it
as ‘bold, fluent, scholarly and rewarding’.
Rachel Holmes is the author of two
acclaimed biographies, Scanty Particulars
and The Hottentot Venus: The Life and
Death of Saartjie Baartman, and she
co-edited the Virago anthology Fifty
Shades of Feminism. Join us for an
evening celebrating one of the most
magnificent women of her age. Rachel
will be in conversation with writer
and journalist Anita Sethi.
Thursday 15th October, 7.30-9.30pm
Tickets £10/£8
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Portico Library
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
27
New Commission
Ned Beauman &
Matthew Darbyshire
An Exhibition for
Modern Living
Love on the Dole
Walking Tour
Author Ned Beauman has been
commissioned by MLF to respond to
Matthew Darbyshire: An Exhibition for
Modern Living at Manchester Art Gallery.
The artist’s largest solo show to date, it
draws together ten of his sculptural
environments with new works and
investigates the links between collections,
objects and identity. Ned was named one
of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists
in 2013. He is the author of three highly
acclaimed novels: Boxer, Beetle, The
Teleportation Accident and, most recently,
the dazzling and inventive thriller Glow,
which The Independent praised as
‘unhinged, overwhelming and brilliant.’
Ned will perform his new work of fiction
and discuss the creative process in
conversation with Matthew Darbyshire.
Love on the Dole is an urgent, vivid
evocation of slum life in the 1930s
depression. Salford’s Walter Greenwood
was born and raised in Hanky Park,
the setting for his angry tale of hardship
and want. The Hardcastle family are the
working class fodder of pit and mill and
factory, discarded when times go bad.
This classic novel was written in Salford
about Salford. Join guide Anne Beswick to
explore its little-known literary past. The
streets of Hanky Park are still there, and
this tour will search out the elusive places
mentioned in the book. The Working Class
Movement Library will be open from midday.
Manchester Art Gallery
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Meet at the Working Class Movement
Library, Salford
Tickets £9
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
29
Main Event
New Commission
Love on the Dole
Film Screening
Introduced
by CP Lee
The Gaeia
Manchester Sermon:
Elif Shafak
A double treat for lovers of classic British
film and local literature: a rare cinema
screening of seminal British drama Love
on the Dole, starring Deborah Kerr as
a Lancashire mill girl fallen on hard times,
and Clifford Evans as the out-of-work
labourer she loves. This 1941 feature was
adapted from Walter Greenwood’s tale
of love and loss in Salford’s Hanky Park
during the Great Depression – and remains
a powerful and evocative work of social
history. The film will be introduced by CP
Lee, popular cultural commentator, author
and musician. This screening is part of the
BFI's Britain on Film Season supported
by Unlocking Film Heritage, awarding
funds from The National Lottery.
We are thrilled that Elif Shafak will
be delivering the 6th Gaeia Manchester
Sermon, reflecting on ethical issues
of the day. Born in Turkey and now based
in London and Istanbul, Elif is a writer of
fierce originality and relentlessly curious
intellect who blends the storytelling
traditions of East and West in her work.
Writing in both English and Turkish, Elif has
published 13 prize-winning books including
The Bastard of Istanbul, The Forty Rules of
Love, Honour and the memoir Black Milk.
Her journalism and commentary has
appeared in The Guardian, The New York
Times and la Repubblica. She is an
internationally-renowned TEDGlobal
speaker and her talk The Politics of Fiction
has been viewed more than one million
times. Her sermon will be followed by a
conversation hosted by Mariana Casale
O’Ryan. This event is sponsored by Gaeia,
ethical financial advisers based in
Manchester.
HOME
Tickets £8.50/£6.50
(online discounts available)
Book on 0161 200 1500 or
homemcr.org
30
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Young Readers
Kate Mosse
The Taxidermist’s
Daughter
Man on the Moon
‘The clock strikes twelve. Beneath the wind
and the remorseless tolling of the bell,
no one can hear the scream…’ In a Sussex
churchyard, villagers gather on the night
when the ghosts of those who will die that
year walk abroad, while nearby a woman
lies dead. Kate Mosse’s haunting new novel,
The Taxidermist’s Daughter, shows us
a woman trying to uncover the secrets
hidden in her own mind. Kate is the author
of numerous bestselling historical novels
including Labyrinth, The Winter Ghosts
and Citadel, which have been translated
into 42 languages. She is the co-founder
and chair of the board of the Baileys
Women’s Prize for Fiction. The event will
be held in the spectacular Living Worlds
gallery at Manchester Museum and will
be hosted by Katie Popperwell.
Calling all junior astronauts: join New
Writing North & Sage Gateshead as they
blast off on a superadventure into space
with Bob, the man on the Moon. Adapted
from the popular picture book by Simon
Bartram, Man on the Moon is a theatre
production with live music, brought to you
by the team that created The Worst Princess
and My Granny is a Pirate. Bob has a very
special job as a caretaker and tour guide on
the Moon. He knows practically everything
there is to know about the lunar landscape,
and if there is one thing Bob is sure about,
it is that there’s no such thing as aliens.
Then again, who could be making all that
mess? Find out as you sing and dance along
in a show that is out of this world. Suitable
for under 7s and their families. This event
is sponsored by Specsavers.
Manchester Museum
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Saturday 17th October, 11am
Central Library
Tickets £4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
31
World Literature
Main Event
Bidisha & Gulwali
Passarlay
Asylum & Exile
Don Paterson
& Rommi Smith
Poets & Players
The Manchester branch of Amnesty
International invites you to an afternoon
with two inspiring writers on the theme
of asylum and exile. We are pleased to
welcome back journalist, critic and
broadcaster Bidisha, who will introduce
her 5th book, Asylum and Exile: The Hidden
Voices of London, based on her outreach
work with refugees, asylum seekers and
undocumented people. She will be joined
by Gulwali Passarlay, whose first book,
The Lightless Sky: An Afghan Refugee
Boy’s Journey, documents his passage
from his homeland via Iran and the
Mediterranean to Lancashire. Gulwali
is about to graduate with a degree in
Philosophy and Politics from The
University of Manchester. Their talk will
be followed by a Q&A and book signing.
‘Paterson is simply one of the best living
poets in the UK,’ Jackie Kay wrote in 2009.
David Harsent praised his collection Rain
for its ‘enormous emotional depth’ and
Jan Schreiber singled out its ‘musical drive.’
He has won The Forward Prize for Best First
Collection in 1993, and the Forward Prize
for Best Collection in 2009, the Whitbread
Poetry Award, The Geoffrey Faber Memorial
Award, and the TS Eliot Prize twice. He is
also a composer, musician and librettist.
Join us to hear Don reading from his new
collection 40 Sonnets and playing his own
music, and to hear the poet and playwright
Rommi Smith. Rommi will be performing
from Poems From Mornings & Midnights,
her narrative sequence of poems inspired
by Jazz and Blues.
Cross Street Chapel
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
(Proceeds from this event will go to
Manchester Amnesty International Group)
32
Hallé St Peter’s
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
World Literature
Sarah Crossan,
Laura Dockrill
& Julie Mayhew
YA Panel: Rebels
and Outcasts
Diao Dou
& Adam Marek
The Modern Surreal
Being a teenage girl is hard, never mind
when you’re a conjoined twin, a mermaid
on land, or living under a modern-day Nazi
regime. Three of the finest Young Adult
authors writing today come together to talk
about the battles their protagonists face in
life, love and identity in their newest novels.
Sarah Crossan’s One delves into the highs
and lows of being physically attached to
your sibling. Laura Dockrill’s Lorali follows
a mermaid’s desire to be human and the
dramatic repercussions of her actions. Julie
Mayhew’s The Big Lie imagines a world in
which the outcome of WWII was different
and the people of Britain live under Nazi
rule. All three powerful and emotionally
driven novels will make for a lively and
impassioned afternoon of conversation
about YA, its writers and its readers.
Chaired by Steve Dearden. Suitable for 13+.
Two modern masters of the surreal
discuss the power of literary absurdism
in this one-off event. Diao Dou is arguably
China’s most daring contemporary satirist,
writing poetry, short stories and novels.
His first collection in English, Point of Origin,
is a stunning display of high wire literary
acrobatics. Adam Marek is the winner of
an Arts Foundation Fellowship for short
fiction and the author of two collections,
Instruction Manual for Swallowing and
The Stone Thrower. Alison MacLeod
described him as 'one of the best things
to have happened to the short story this
century.’ Join us for a conversation with
two writers shining a light into the darkest
recesses of our imagination. Presented
in partnership with the Confucius Institute
and Comma Press.
Central Library
Tickets £4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
33
Rising Stars
Boho Literary
Pub Walking Tour
Young Identity
Battle of the Minds
Combine books and beers on this relaxed
meander through the colourful literary life
of the city’s historic public houses. With
plenty of time to hear intoxicating extracts
(and get in a few swift halves) the tour will
stop at the regular haunts of Manchester
writers including Howard Jacobson, John
Cooper Clarke and Walter Greenwood as
well as the observant visitors who passed
through and captured their impressions of
the city before last orders. Led by Ed Glinert.
Young Identity, Manchester’s brightest
young orators, present their own take
on the curriculums of education and
knowledge, teaching life lessons and
sharing playground parables. Between
lunch time punch ups, discovering selfworth and devising a failsafe plan to avoid
P.E., our poets think out loud about what
they know and where they learned it from?
A 26-strong group of writers that formed
in Moss Side, Young Identity supports
teenagers and young adults by using poetry,
prose and performance to provide a
platform to explore issues important to
young people. Join us for an evening of raw,
honest and thoughtful life lessons from
some of the city’s freshest new performers.
Suitable for 14+.
Saturday 17th October, 5-8pm
Tickets £9
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Contact
Tickets £11/£6
Book on 0161 274 0600 or
contactmcr.com/battleoftheminds
34
Main Event
Main Event
Jesse Armstrong
& Tim Key
Kathryn Williams
Hypoxia
Two funny men bring their comedic
talents together for a lively evening
spanning scriptwriting, fiction and verse.
Jesse Armstrong is the BAFTA-winning
television writer whose back catalogue
includes Peep Show, Fresh Meat, The Thick
of It, and Charlie Brooker’s Black Mirror.
His debut novel Love, Sex and Other Foreign
Policy Goals concerns Andrew, a young
man in Manchester who attempts to win
a woman’s heart by writing a play that will
stop the Balkan conflict. A regular fixture
on BBC radio, Tim Key is a writer, actor
and comedian whose accolades include
the Edinburgh Comedy Award and Time
Out Comedy Performer of the Year.
The Evening Standard said ‘his deadpan
minimalist poems straddle the line between
genius and mockery.’ He will be reading
from his new book, The Incomplete Tim
Key, a wildly original collection filled with
his characteristic wit. Hosted by MLF’s
Kate Feld.
In 2013, singer songwriter Kathryn Williams
was commissioned by New Writing North
to write music to mark the 50th Anniversary
of The Bell Jar. Her deep re-engagement
with Sylvia Plath’s work became a revelation
for the artist, and the result is Hypoxia – an
album of heartfelt songs inspired by Plath,
her characters and her life. A meditative
and deeply felt collection that ranges from
brittle drama to dreamy, jangle-pop
introspection, Hypoxia showcases Kathryn’s
extraordinary voice and artistic talent.
She will perform the album in full with her
band, then discuss the project with Observer
writer Rachel Cooke. Join us for an intimate
and unforgettable evening of music that
will provide a new way to experience the
work of Sylvia Plath.
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Hallé St Peter’s
Tickets £15/£12
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
35
Elizabeth Gaskell
Coach Tour
Zachary Leader
The Life of
Saul Bellow
In the run-up to the 150th anniversary
of Elizabeth Gaskell’s death, visit many of
her main haunts on this coach tour with
guide Ed Glinert. See the Portico Library,
where the Rev William Gaskell, Elizabeth’s
husband, was chairman for 35 years (but she
wasn’t allowed to be a member); the lovingly
restored house where she lived in Chorltonon-Medlock, and then off to Knutsford,
which is captured in many of her writings.
Experience the place where Elizabeth was
raised, and is buried, not forgetting the
extraordinary Gaskell memorial tower
in the centre of the town.
In the centenary year of his birth, a
substantial new biography of Saul Bellow
is the first to consider his life and work in
its entirety. Created with unprecedented
access to the seminal American author’s
papers, family and close friends, the first
volume, To Fame and Fortune 1915-1964,
takes us from the author’s childhood to the
point when the publication of Herzog made
his name and his fortune. Zachary Leader
is Professor of English Literature at the
University of Roehampton. He is the author
of Reading Blake’s Songs, Writer’s Block,
Revision and Romantic Authorship and
The Life of Kingsley Amis. Ian McEwan
said of the book ‘a great writer has found
a great biographer.’ He will be introduced
by Matthew Frost. This event is sponsored
by Specsavers.
Sunday 18th October, 11am-4.30pm
Meet outside The Britannia Hotel
Tickets £16
(Food not provided; please bring a packed
lunch)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
38
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Rising Stars
An Evening with
Carol Ann Duffy
Manchester
Cathedral
Poetry Prize
Carol Ann Duffy has been a bold, original
voice in poetry since the publication of
Standing Female Nude in 1985 – she has
subsequently won every major poetry prize
in the UK, served as British Poet Laureate
and published books that have collectively
sold more than one million copies. She
is Professor of Contemporary Poetry and
Creative Director of The Manchester Writing
School at MMU, and is a long-time resident
of the city, so it’s fitting that we celebrate
the launch of her first Collected Poems.
Drawing together in a single volume the
best of eight collections spanning 30 years,
alongside a handful of new poems, it’s
a major event in the publishing world.
Join us for this special evening, where
Carol Ann will join author and journalist
Rachel Cooke for a conversation about
her writing and her passion for words,
interspersed with readings of some
favourite poems. This event is
sponsored by Spinningfields
Erotic and knowing, consumed with doubts
or full of longing – these are just some of
the themes of sacred poetry. The winner
of this year’s international, interfaith
poetry competition will be announced
at this celebratory event, featuring wideranging readings from the shortlisted
poets and competition judge Kim Moore.
Kim’s first collection The Art of Falling was
published in April 2015. She won a Northern
Writers’ Award in 2014 and an Eric Gregory
Trust Fund Award in 2011. Her poem In
That Year is shortlisted for the 2015
Forward Prize for Best Single Poem.
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Sunday 18th October, 7.30pm
Hallé St Peter’s
Tickets £12/£10
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
39
New Commission
Joanne Harris
Why I Write –
A Writer’s Manifesto
Nick Channer
Writers’ Houses:
Where Great Books
Began
Writing is, at the most basic level, an act
of communication. But are writers thinking
enough about how they connect with their
readers? What are the social responsibilities
of being a writer – and who decides where
the boundaries lie? MLF and Writers Centre
Norwich present the latest instalment in the
thought-provoking National Conversation,
a series of discussions about how we
produce and engage with writing. Joanne
Harris, the award-winning author of 14
novels including the bestselling Chocolat,
Peaches for Monsieur le Curé and The
Gospel of Loki has created a modern
manifesto for writers. Join her and our
panel as we discuss why writers write,
why readers read, and what needs to
happen for both to flourish.
Readers have always been fascinated
by their favourite authors’ daily routines –
proof that they are people like us, with lives
of their own off the page. In his insightful
new book, Writers’ Houses, Nick Channer
takes us inside homes with strong literary
connections, exploring the links between
place and the act of creation. Fittingly,
he comes to Elizabeth Gaskell’s House
to discuss residences associated with
the author of North and South and Mary
Barton. From the homes of friends and
contemporaries Charles Dickens,
Thomas Carlyle, Henry James and George
Eliot, to the Brontë Parsonage at Haworth
and other notable writers’ houses in the
North. Get beyond the bricks and mortar
and into the inner sanctums of these
literary legends. This event is sponsored
by Specsavers.
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
40
(doors open 6pm)
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Rising Stars
Melvyn Bragg
Carcanet New
Poetries: Joey
Connolly, David
Troupes, John Clegg
& Judith Willson
Melvyn Bragg is an award-winning writer
and broadcaster. His novels include the
Booker-longlisted A Son of War, Crossing
The Lines, Without a City Wall (winner of the
John Llewellyn Rhys Prize), and The Hired
Man. He presents In Our Time on BBC Radio
4 and The South Bank Show on Sky, and
has written several books of nonfiction.
Now is the Time, his much anticipated
new historical novel about the Peasants’
Revolt of 1381, is a masterful blend of fact
and invention that is sure to be appreciated
by readers of engaging literary histories
such as Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. The
fast-paced, compelling narrative follows
the key players of the revolt, as the
commoners march to the city of
London to demand an end to the
King’s crippling taxes.
From the first New Poetries anthology
in 1994 to this sixth volume, Carcanet has
showcased the work of some of the most
engaging and inventive new poets writing
in English, many of whom have gone on to
notable success. Hear from four selected
for the latest edition: John Clegg received
an Eric Gregory Award in 2013 and his
pamphlet Captain Love and the Five
Joaquins is published by Emma Press;
Joey Connolly edits poetry journal
Kaffeeklatsch, received an Eric Gregory
Award in 2012 and has a first collection
forthcoming from Carcanet; David Troupes
has published two collections and his
comic strip Buttercup Festival appears
in PN Review; Judith Willson’s edition of
Selected Poems by Charlotte Smith and
an anthology of Victorian women poets
are published by Carcanet. Join us for
an afternoon of fresh, contemporary verse
hosted by Michael Schmidt.
Tickets £10/£8
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
42
Central Library
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Rising Stars
Precarious Passages
Natalie Bradbury,
Bob Dickinson,
Steve Hanson
& David Wilkinson
Alexandra Harris
Virginia Woolf:
Reader, Writer,
Pioneer
In the tradition of psychogeography and
discursive writing rooted in both place
and personal perspective, Manchester
Left Writers read their Precarious
Passages (a chain of call and response
writing) over treasured footage from the
North West Film Archive. Precarious
Passages are collaborative pieces of
writing laid out in two columns. The event
will include a new work inspired by daily
journeys along the A6, travelling by bus
and bicycle, performed in tandem with a
Mitchell & Kenyon film of horse drawn
trams in Manchester. Free copies of
Precarious Passages will be available
at the event.
Virginia Woolf did things differently.
She could describe a love affair by watching
its effect on plates and forks in a restaurant.
She could evoke the balminess of a summer
evening simply through the rhythm of
a conversation. She could range through
life's possibilities while peering at a mark
on the wall. Alexandra Harris will explore
some of the small changes of perspective
that make Woolf’s fiction continually
surprising, and celebrate some of the
literary essays in which we discover Woolf
as a pioneering reader as well as a great
modern writer. Alexandra is the author
of RomanticModerns (which won both
the Somerset Maugham and Guardian
First Book Awards), Virginia Woolf and
Modernism on Sea. This event will provide
a rare chance to lift the veil of history
and peer into one of the most exquisitely
furnished minds in British writing.
This event is sponsored by Specsavers.
Central Library
Book in 0843 208 0500 or
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
43
Main Event
Wives and Daughters
A Celebration of
Elizabeth Gaskell
with Andrew Davies
Tracey Thorn
& Dave Haslam
Jukebox Choice
When Elizabeth Gaskell died in 1865,
she was at work on Wives and Daughters,
the novel many consider her finest.
To mark the 150th anniversary of her death
and the subsequent publication of her final
novel, we are delighted to welcome one of
the UK’s most successful screenwriters,
Andrew Davies, whose superb BBC
adaptation of Wives and Daughters remains
a favourite with the public. We also welcome
the Garrick Players who will be reading
scenes from the novel, dramatised by
acclaimed local author Sherry Ashworth.
This event is presented in partnership
with the Gaskell Society and is sponsored
by Specsavers.
What makes a singer great? How much
is talent and how much skill? Tracey Thorn,
musician and author of the bestselling
memoir Bedsit Disco Queen, recalling her
life in indie pop duo Everything But The
Girl, returns with Naked at the Albert Hall:
The Inside Story of Singing. The possessor
of one of the most distinctive voices in
music, she draws on her own experiences
and those of fellow singers to consider
the art of singing, from opera to Auto Tune.
Former Haçienda DJ Dave Haslam’s new
book, Life After Dark: A History of British
Nightclubs & Music Venues, explores how
these places can come to define a town or
a generation. At this event, Tracey and Dave
will share and discuss their favourite songs,
chosen to illuminate material from their
books and key moments in their lives.
The evening will include a Q&A and
book signing.
Portico Library
Tickets £10/£8
(includes sherry and cake)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
44
Gorilla
Tickets £10/£8
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Industry Insights
Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze,
Shruti Chauhan &
Lydia Towsey
Three the Hard Way
Spanish Translation
Workshop Cortázar
for Children
Join three electric poets – Jean ‘Binta’
Breeze MBE, Lydia Towsey and
Shruti Chauhan – as they explore
contemporary women’s issues and
culture across three continents and
three generations. Raised and educated
in Jamaica, Jean emigrated to the UK at 30
to become a key figure in the nascent dub
poetry scene. She has created seven
publications, several recordings and has
written for stage and screen. Lydia Towsey
is a poet and performer who has been
shortlisted for the Bridport Poetry Prize.
Her work appeared in Bloodaxe Books’
Raving Beauties anthology, and her first
collection, The Venus Papers is forthcoming
from Burning Eye. Shruti Chauhan is a poet,
writer and spoken word artist based in
Leicester who has performed at festivals
and events across the Midlands. With a
curtain-raiser performance from spoken
word poetry collective Young Identity.
Suitable for 16+.
‘For me, literature is a form of play… it’s
a game, but it’s a game one can put one’s
life into. One can do everything for that
game’ – Julio Cortázar. This workshop will
give participants the opportunity to translate
or rewrite a children's story by Argentine
writer Julio Cortázar, widely considered
one of the greatest writers of the Latin
American world. In addition to focusing
on word-by-word translation, the session
will give special attention to the relationship
between the book's text and illustrations.
Informed by the exuberant imagery
of Cortázar, participants can discover
translation as an absorbing and rewarding
creative activity, or further refine already
established skills. This special, two-hour
session led by writer and translator
Rob Rix will be conducted in both Spanish
and English, and is open to speakers of
both languages.
Contact
Tickets £11/ £6
Book on 0161 274 0600 or
contactmcr.com/threethehardway
Wednesday 21st October, 6-8pm
Instituto Cervantes
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
45
Main Event
Main Event
Iain Pears
Arcadia and
Interactive Stories
Jon McGregor
The Letters Page
Henry Lytten, spy turned academic
and writer, sits at his desk in Oxford
in 1962, dreaming of other worlds. But as
his invented narratives unfurl and overlap,
our hero becomes unsure of how he wants
his stories to end – or even who is imaginary.
In an innovative new publishing venture
from Faber, Arcadia will be simultaneously
published in book form and as an interactive
app that promises to stretch the form
of storytelling as we know it. Iain Pears
is the author of bestselling historical novels
An Instance of the Fingerpost, The Dream
of Scipio and Stone’s Fall. He has also
written several detective novels, a book
of art history and an extensive body
of journalism. He will discuss digital
storytelling with writer David Gaffney,
the author of Sawn-Off Tales.
A literary magazine in epistolary
format, The Letters Page, is reviving
interest in the art of letter writing while
pushing the form into new creative
territories. With contributors including
George Saunders, Eimear McBride and
Ian McMillan, the letters range from
urgent declarations, to reportage, to
rambling meditation. Editor Jon McGregor
will read a few and discuss the role
of correspondence in literary tradition.
Jon is Professor of Creative Writing at
The University of Nottingham, the author
of the story collection This Isn't The Sort
Of Thing That Happens To Someone Like
You, and the novel Even the Dogs, winner
of the 2012 International IMPAC Dublin
Literary Award. The Guardian recently
named him one of the top ten writers to see
live. Explore what letter writing means to us
in the house of one of its great champions.
Wednesday 21st October, 6pm
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
46
(doors open 6pm)
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Polly Samson
& Virginia Baily
First Editions
& Rarities
Walking Tour
Two of our finest novelists read and
discuss tales of love, loss, rescue
and betrayal. Polly Samson is the author
of two short story collections including
Sunday Times Fiction Choice of the Year,
Perfect Lives, and has written lyrics for
three bestselling albums. Her new novel
The Kindness was inspired by Milton’s
Paradise Lost and focuses on a couple
who give up all they have to be together.
The Independent called it ‘a gorgeously
chilling novel about grief and betrayal.’
Virginia Baily’s new novel, Early One
Morning, is the moving story of a Roman
woman who shelters a Jewish child
during the German occupation – and
the unforeseen way this act of kindness
will connect her to a young Welsh girl.
Her first novel, Africa Junction, won the
2012 McKitterick Prize, and she is the
founding editor of short story journal
Riptide. Hosted by Katie Popperwell.
Rare book aficionados, here’s an
incomparable chance to get a closer look
at some of the priceless literary treasures
held in the collections of Manchester’s great
libraries. Tour-goers will be able to admire
the earliest editions of Ulysses, Mary Barton
and Confessions of an English Opium Eater,
take a gander at Henry VIII’s own signed
copy of St. Prosper of Aquitaine and
inspect an original Tyndale Bible. Author
and Manchester city guide Ed Glinert will
relate some bookish history between stops.
Thursday 22nd October, 1.30-5pm
Meet at the tiled wall map, Victoria Station
Tickets £11
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Portico Library
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
47
Young Readers
Wordsmith
Showcase
Zena Edwards
& King Burga
Simon Armitage
Join us for this special celebration of new
talent, as students from four Manchester
secondary schools perform original poetry
created as part of a term-long project
delivered by Wordsmith – an arts
organisation whose work focuses on
inspiring creativity in schools. Produced
as part of Black History Month 2015,
this vibrant and empowering multi-arts
showcase also features performances
from poet and singer Zena Edwards, who
was the winner of the Hidden Creatives
Award in 2012 and was nominated for the
Arts Foundation Award for Performance
Poetry in 2007. Lyn Gardner called her
‘a superb performer.’ Sharing the bill is
Manchester’s talented young producer,
MC and singer King Burga. This event is
sponsored by Specsavers and supported
by the Madeline Mabey Trust.
For his bestselling book Walking Home,
poet Simon Armitage trekked the Pennine
Way; ‘living on his wits and hawking
his stanzas and stories from one remote
community to the next’. Now he’s poetrybusking his way through Somerset,
Devon and Cornwall. The sequel, Walking
Away: Further Travels With a Troubadour
on the South West Coast Path, recounts
his journey from the pleasures of Butlin’s
in Minehead to an ill-fated attempt to walk
on water in The Isles of Scilly. Simon was
recently elected Professor of Poetry at
Oxford University and his writing has won
the Forward and Sunday Times Book
of The Year prizes. His poetry collections
include Seeing Stars, Sir Gawain and the
Green Knight and, most recently, Paper
Aeroplane: Poems 1989-2014. Simon will
be introduced by John McAuliffe of the
Centre for New Writing.
Thursday 22nd October, 5pm
Z-arts
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0161 226 1912 or
z-arts.org
Central Library
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
49
Main Event
New Commission
Paul Mason
PostCapitalism:
A Guide to
Our Future
An Ape’s Progress
Iain Ballamy,
Matthew Sweeney,
Dave McKean &
The Pepper Street
Orchestra
What comes after Capitalism? And are we
there yet? In his urgent and clear-eyed new
book, PostCapitalism: A Guide to Our Future,
Paul Mason argues that we are on the verge
of a profound change to how we do business
and function as societies. New ways are
emerging: from parallel currencies to time
banks, from cooperatives to self-managed
online spaces. We now have the chance to
create a more socially just and sustainable
global economy – but will we seize it?
The Economics Editor at Channel 4 News,
Paul Mason is an award-winning journalist,
broadcaster and filmmaker whose books
include Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere:
The New Global Revolutions, Live Working
or Die Fighting: How The Working Class
Went Global and the novel Rare Earth.
Paul will be in conversation with Katy
Shaw, Principal Lecturer in Contemporary
Literature at Leeds Beckett University
and the author of Crunch Lit, a new book
looking at how authors have responded
to the financial crisis and credit boom.
MLF and manchester jazz festival unite
for a major new commission to celebrate
their respective tenth and twentieth
anniversaries. In a playful reimagining
of Hogarth’s A Rake’s Progress, three
critically acclaimed artists create a unique
multimedia performance combining words,
music and visual art to tell the story of
an immigrant’s journey to Manchester.
Irish poet Matthew Sweeney is a
consummate storyteller famed for his
strong sense of noirish filmic narrative;
poems for this piece are inspired by time
spent in Manchester observing its people
and places. Saxophonist and composer
Iain Ballamy is an internationally
recognised musician producing eclectic,
original work. Dave McKean is a comic
artist, illustrator, and filmmaker who has
worked with Richard Dawkins, Neil Gaiman,
Alice Cooper and Tori Amos. The music
will be performed by an international
ensemble including Norwegian virtuoso
Stian Carstensen, pure-toned Swedish
vocalist Emilia Mårtensson and young
British Mercury contender Kit Downes.
Supported by the Foyle Foundation and
The Granada Foundation.
RNCM
Tickets £10/£8
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
50
Tickets £17/£15
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Charles Dickens
Walking Tour
Grevel Lindop
& Matthew Sweeney
Britain’s most celebrated novelist came
to Manchester 19 times, taking the platform
at a fundraiser for the Athenaeum alongside
notables such as Benjamin Disraeli and
Richard Cobden; partying with his pal
and fellow novelist Harrison Ainsworth;
and visiting his sister in then-desirable
Ardwick. He also spoke at the Free Trade
Hall and was the guest of honour at the
opening of the Free Library in 1852. Yet he
produced only one work directly connected
with the city – Hard Times – set in a mythical
Coketown, possibly Manchester but also
based on Preston. With tour guide Ed linert,
visit the haunts of those he met and knew,
stop by locations he might just recognise
today, and drop into the elegant Portico
Library where the catalogue in the 1840s
was organised by his friend James Crossley.
An afternoon in the company of two
distinguished poets writing from diverse
traditions. One of the most respected Irish
poets of his generation, Matthew Sweeney’s
collections include A Dream of Maps, Black
Moon (shortlisted for the TS Eliot Prize),
and Horse Music. Marked by a preference
for plain-spoken narratives and surreal
happenings, his poems are close kin to short
stories. A recipient of the Cholmondeley
Award and the Arts Council England Writers’
Award, Ruth Padel called him ‘a force for
good in British poetry.’ Grevel Lindop is
a poet, academic and literary critic who
frequently contributes to The Times
Literary Supplement, Stand Magazine and
PN Review. He has published six collections
including Playing With Fire and will be
reading from his new Carcanet collection
Luna Park.
Friday 23rd October, 12-1.45pm
Meet outside The Portland Thistle Hotel
Tickets £8
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Central Library
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
51
Main Event
Rising Stars
Louis de Bernières
Commonword
Superheroes of
Slam Final
The first new novel in a decade from
the bestselling author of Captain Corelli’s
Mandolin, The Dust That Falls From Dreams
is a sweeping story of love and loss in the
Great War. Rosie McCosh and her sisters
have a peaceful and happy childhood in Kent
until the Edwardian age dissolves into chaos.
They are forced to grow up quickly and
salvage what happiness they can in a
complicated new world. A much-loved
writer and musician with a flair for exotic
locales and historic settings, Louis de
Bernières’ most recent books are Birds
Without Wings and A Partisan’s Daughter,
the short story collection Notwithstanding
and poetry collection Imagining Alexandria.
The Washington Post called him ‘a master
storyteller.’ He will be in conversation
with Libby Tempest.
Commonword presents the Grand Final
of Superheroes of Slam, their eternal quest
to find the ultimate slam poet with spoken
word superpowers. Hosted by the inimitable
Heena Patel, the final sees nine heat
winners from across the UK battle it out
over two rounds in an awesome display
of oratory, logic and stagecraft, all the
while trying to conceal their aching hearts
and Achilles’ heels. Who will come away
with this year’s coveted Dike Omeje Slam
Poetry Trophy? Be there in the audience
for a night of thrills, spills and lyrical chills
from some of the finest slam poets around.
For more details on Slam heats visit
cultureword.org.uk
Portico Library
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
52
Three Minute Theatre
Tickets £5/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Main Event
Main Event
Dave McKean
The Sequel
Manchester
Camerata with
Martynas Levickis
& David Fielder
An evening of conversation and illustration
with one of the most inventive graphic
novelists working today. Dave McKean
has illustrated more than 50 books,
collaborating with authors including
Neil Gaiman, Richard Dawkins, Heston
Blumenthal and John Cale. His titles
include the cult graphic novels Arkham
Asylum, Mr. Punch and Signal to Noise,
as well as books for children including
Coraline, The Graveyard Book and The
Savage. He wrote the multi-award winning
Cages and Pictures That Tick collections,
and has directed several short films and
three features: MirrorMask, Luna and The
Gospel of Us with Michael Sheen. Ideal for
enthusiasts and newcomers alike, this talk
will give an overview of McKean’s work,
and will include discussion of his multi-arts
collaboration An Ape’s Progress, jointly
commissioned by manchester jazz festival
and MLF. The event will be hosted by author
David Gaffney.
‘A voice comes to one in the dark. Imagine...’
So begins Samuel Beckett’s Company,
in which a man at the end of his life recalls
his past and comes to terms with a profound
solitude. Philip Glass’ String Quartet
No.2 was originally written to accompany
a 1984 stage adaptation of the short story.
When beginning the project, the composer
received a single instruction from Beckett:
‘the music should go into the interstices
of the text, as it were.’ Experience Glass’
atmospheric score performed by
Manchester Camerata alongside a spinetingling narration from renowned RSC
actor David Fielder. The programme also
features string orchestra works by Arvo
Pärt and Ástor Piazzolla, and a special
guest appearance by magnetic young
accordionist Martynas Levickis.
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Tickets £14-£37, £5 under 18s
Book on 0161 907 9000 or
bridgewater-hall.co.uk
53
Young Readers
Young Readers
Family Reading Day
Artful Playground,
Jonny Duddle,
Yasmeen Ismail,
Lydia Monks,
Kristina Stephenson
Comic Art
Masterclass
Kev F Sutherland
Help us celebrate our 10th anniversary
in style! Come dressed as your favourite
fictional character to a day that sees
popular children’s authors, illustrators
and performers bringing stories to life.
Jonny Duddle reads from his new book
The Jolly Rogers and the Cave of Doom
in his pirate themed event. Yasmeen Ismail
entertains us with her beautiful illustrations
and stories, including Specs for Rex. Theatre
Company Artful Playground help
us celebrate our birthday with stories,
dancing & musical instruments in
The Toothy Adventure of Davy Denture.
Kristina Stephenson leads us on a brilliant
interactive storytelling adventure around
the Sir Charlie Stinky Socks series, and
Lydia Monks pays a visit to tell us all about
What the Ladybird Heard Next. You can
also drop in to our Market Place at any
time throughout the day for free crafts
and activities. Suitable for children aged
3-8 years and their families. These events
are sponsored by Specsavers.
Fancy having a go at making your own
comic? Cartoonist and writer Kev F
Sutherland joins us to run two comic
art workshops ideal for children 8+.
The Beano and Marvel artist will show
you all there is to know about making
comic strips, and will teach you the tricks
of the trade. At the end of the workshop,
you’ll take home a completed caricature
of yourself. Kev’s skills as a stand-up
comedian promise to make the workshop
entertaining and fun as well as a brilliant
opportunity to try something new.
Workshops last two hours and children
must be accompanied by an adult.
Saturday 24th October, 10am-4.30pm
Central Library
Tickets £3 per event
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
54
Central Library
Tickets £10 (accompanying adult free)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Rising Stars
Louise Stern
& Benjamin Wood
A History of
Manchester
in Ten Poems
A pair of gifted young writers discuss their
ambitious novels exploring the nature of
community and creativity. Benjamin Wood’s
new novel, The Ecliptic, is a literary mystery
following a celebrated painter who arrives
at an artists’ colony off Istanbul and finds
herself drawn into the orbit of a young man
walking the border between creative
genius and madness. His first novel,
The Bellwether Revivals, won the
Commonwealth Book Prize and the
Prix du Roman Fnac. Louise Stern grew up
in Fremont, California, the fourth generation
born deaf in her family. She has written
for radio and theatre and Tracy Chevalier
described her short story collection
Chattering as ‘Exactly what I want of fiction’.
Set in an insular Mayan community in rural
Mexico, her debut novel Ismael and
His Sisters is a wondrous tale of love, family,
identity, language and what happens when
daily rhythms are disrupted. Beautifully
paced, it’s brimming with rich language
and vivid imagery. The event will be hosted
by MLF’s Kate Feld.
In the nearly two millennia that have
passed since the Romans first settled
here, we’ve had a lot to say in Mamucium/
Mamcestre/Manchester, and – as is so
often the case – the voices of our poets
have proven the most enduring. In this
special literary tour organised in honour
of the Festival’s 10th birthday, walk the
streets with tour guide Anne Beswick,
have a look at some of our most remarkable
buildings, and hear ten poetic comments
on Manchester and Mancunians from
Rudyard Kipling, Carol Ann Duffy,
John Cooper Clarke and others.
Meet on the Town Hall steps, Albert Square
Tickets £9
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Saturday 24th October, 12 noon
Tickets £4/£3
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
by Oliver Pouliot.
55
Rising Stars
Rising Stars
Mary Costello
& Stuart Evers
Stephen Kelman
& Sunjeev Sahota
Two compelling and critically acclaimed
authors come together to read and discuss
fiction that explores how we make – and
lose – personal connections and develop
character amid the tumult of everyday life.
Mary Costello’s first short story collection,
The China Factory, was nominated for the
2012 Guardian First Book Award and her
debut novel, Academy Street, won Irish Book
of the Year. Anne Enright said ‘Costello’s
writing has the kind of urgency that the great
problems demand’. Stuart Evers’ new book,
Your Father Sends His Love, is a collection
of 11 unforgettable stories of parental
love and parental mistakes that Jenny Offill
called ‘thrillingly inventive.’ He is the author
of the London Award-winning story
collection Ten Stories About Smoking
and a novel, If This is Home. They will
be in conversation with MLF’s Kate Feld.
Be transported to India and back with two of
our hottest young writers. Stephen Kelman’s
debut novel, Pigeon English, was shortlisted
for the Man Booker, Desmond Elliot and
Guardian First Book prizes, and is now a
set text on the GCSE syllabus. His new
novel, Man on Fire, introduces us to Bibhuti
Nayak, Mumbai journalist and fitness freak.
When he enlists Englishman John Lock in
a World Record attempt, the two embark
on a surprising friendship with enormous
consequences. Sunjeev Sahota’s widely
acclaimed first novel Ours are the Streets
led him to be named one of Granta’s Best
of Young British Novelists in 2013. In his
luminous and arresting new novel The Year
of the Runaways, three young men share
a house in Sheffield, having arrived from
India in search of a new life. Salman Rushdie
said ‘all you can do is surrender, happily,
to its power.’ The event will be hosted by
MLF’s Kate Feld.
Tickets £4/£3
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Tickets £4/£3
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
57
Adam Sisman
on John le Carré
Wuthering Heights
Coach Tour
Finally, a definitive, all-access biography
of one of the world’s most famous living
writers: John le Carré – a man whose own
history has long been obscured by his
compelling fictional worlds. After a difficult
childhood he was recruited by MI5 and MI6
before becoming the ultimate double agent:
a spy who writes espionage novels. From
stunning debut The Spy Who Came in from
the Cold to the assured brilliance of the
Smiley novels, to his many television and
film adaptations – no writer is more deeply
associated with the spy novel in the popular
imagination. Biographer Adam Sisman is
the author of Boswell’s Presumptuous Task,
shortlisted for The Whitbread Award and
winner of the US National Book Critics
Circle Award, and has written acclaimed
biographies of historians AJP Taylor and
Hugh Trevor-Roper. Adam will discuss the
master of disguises with Matthew Frost.
Out on the wily, windy moors we’ll rove,
searching out the literary locations of West
Yorkshire. Join tour guide Ed Glinert as we
investigate the poetic haunts of Ted Hughes’
Elmet, the Heptonstall grave of Sylvia Plath
and, in particular, the sights and sounds of
Wuthering Heights, on the trail of the Brontë
sisters, whose 200th anniversaries are
imminent. We will spend time in Haworth
while recalling Mr Earnshaw’s walk from
there to Liverpool in search of Heathcliff.
An enjoyable outing for lovers of Yorkshire
and literature alike.
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
58
Sunday 25th October, 10.30am-5pm
Tickets £18
(Lunch stop in Haworth or bring
a packed lunch)
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Granta Presents:
What Have We Done?
Tim Dee, Fred Pearce
& Adam Thorpe
Sarah Hall
& George Monbiot
Three writers featured in the Autumn issue
of Granta come together to launch the issue
and discuss its theme: the environment
and our destruction of both rural and urban
landscapes. One of the very best of the
new nature writers, Tim Dee is a BBC radio
producer, birdwatcher and author. His books
include The Running Sky: A Birdwatching
Life, the 2014 Ondaatje Prize shortlisted
Four Fields and The Poetry of Birds coedited with Simon Armitage. Fred Pearce
is the environment consultant for New
Scientist magazine and has published many
urgent and brilliantly-written books about
nature and the environment including
The Landgrabbers, When The Rivers Run
Dry and The New Wild: Why Invasive Species
Will be Nature’s Salvation. Poet, playwright
and novelist Adam Thorpe is the author
of numerous books of poetry, short stories
and novels including The Rules of
Perspective, Ulverton and Flight. Adam has
been shortlisted for the 2007 BBC National
Short Story Award and the 2010 Sir Walter
Scott Prize for Historical Fiction. The event
will feature all three authors reading and
discussing their work with Granta editor and
publisher Sigrid Rausing.
What do we mean when we say ‘wild’?
And once something has been tamed,
can it ever be made wild again? Join us
for a conversation between two writers
whose work addresses our fraught
relationship with the natural environment.
Rewilding is at the heart of Sarah Hall’s
visceral new novel, The Wolf Border, which
imagines an attempt to reintroduce wolves
to the Lake District amid political power
struggles and land reform. An awardwinning writer, Sarah is the author of five
novels and the short story collection
The Beautiful Indifference. George Monbiot
was awarded the UN Global 500 Award for
outstanding environmental achievement.
His latest book Feral: Rewilding the Land,
Sea and Human Life argues passionately
that we need to reconnect with the richer,
rawer world we’ve lost, laying out a radical
new environmentalism. He recently
launched Rewilding Britain, an organisation
aiming to restore Britain's lost ecosystems
and reintroduce native species including
beavers and, eventually, wolves and lynx.
Sunday 25th October, 12 noon
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Tickets £8/£6
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
59
Main Event
Oliver Morton
The Planet Remade:
how geoengineering
could change
the world
Portico Prize:
The Fiction Shortlist
'The way a society imagines its future
matters. And who gets to do the imagining
matters.’ With his bold new book The
Planet Remade: How GeoEngineering
Could Change The World, Oliver Morton
chronicles the rich history of climate
change and the science and politics that
underpin it. Accepting that getting humans
to stop warming the planet is proving
impossibly hard, he examines some of the
dramatic technological and geoengineering
alternatives that could slow or stop the
warming, from a stratospheric veil against
the sun to a fleet of unmanned ships seeding
clouds. Come and hear him explore the
science, history, politics and plausability
of these new technologies and consider
why they are so passionately opposed.
Oliver is an award-winning writer and
journalist. His books include Eating the Sun:
How Plants Power the Planet and Mapping
Stars: Science, Imagination and The Birth
of a World.
Join us for an evening showcasing the five
talented writers shortlisted for this year’s
Portico Prize for Literature. Established
in 1985 by Manchester’s Portico Library to
celebrate the literary heritage of the North,
this year marks the 30th Anniversary of the
Prize. At this event, a selection of the poetry
and fiction finalists will read extracts from
their work followed by a panel discussion
with host Jon Atkin. Past shortlisted writers
have included Sarah Hall (twice winner
of the Prize), AS Byatt and Simon Armitage.
Authors for the event will be confirmed in
September when the shortlist is released.
For more information, visit theportico.org.
uk.
Tickets £6/£4
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
60
Sunday 25th October, 5-7pm
Portico Library
Book on 0843 208 0500 or
Industry Insights
Northern
Lights Writers’
Conference 2015
Creative Industries Trafford and MLF
are delighted to announce the return of
Northern Lights for its third annual event.
This year, the conference focuses on the
craft of writing for different platforms:
print, broadcast, blogs and stage. A range
of talks, panel discussions and workshops
will address the fast-changing skills writers
need to diversify their work and develop
a sustainable career. The keynote speaker
is writer, journalist and broadcaster
Louise Doughty (Apple Tree Yard, A Novel
in a Year), appearing alongside novelist
and performance poet Rosie Garland
(Vixen), Green Carnation Prize winner
Anneliese Mackintosh (Any Other Mouth),
Blog North Award winner Len Grant, BBC
Radio 4 producer Gary Brown and experts
from the publishing world. Supported by
Arts Council England, the Writers’ & Artists’
Yearbook and Cold Star Media Limited.
Hosted by Kate Feld and Ric Michael.
Saturday 14th November, 10am-5.30pm
Waterside Arts Centre
Tickets £30/£25
Book on 0161 912 5616 or
creativeindustriestrafford.org/events/
nlwc2015/
61
MLF 2015 Venue List
For Google map links and further information on venue accessibility,
please check the festival website: manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
1. Britannia Hotel
Portland Street
Manchester M1 3LA
2. Central Library
St Peter’s Square
Manchester M2 5PD
0161 234 1983
3. Contact
Oxford Road
Manchester M15 6JA
0161 274 0600
4. Cross Street Chapel
Cross Street
Manchester M2 1NL
0161 834 0019
5. Elizabeth
Gaskell’s House
84 Plymouth Grove
Ardwick
Manchester M13 9LW
0161 273 2215
6. Gorilla
54-56
Whitworth Street West
Manchester M1 2DQ
0161 407 0301
7. Hallé St Peter’s
40 Blossom Street
Ancoats
Manchester M4 6BF
0161 236 9133
62
8. HOME
2 Tony Wilson Place
Manchester M15 4FN
0161 200 1500
9. Instituto Cervantes
326-330 Deansgate
Campfield Avenue Arcade
Manchester M3 4FN
0161 661 4200
10. International Anthony
Burgess Foundation
The Engine House
Chorlton Mill
3 Cambridge Street
Manchester M1 5BY
0161 235 0776
11. Manchester Art Gallery
Mosley Street
Manchester M2 3JL
0161 235 8888
12. Martin Harris Centre
for Music and Drama
Bridgeford Street
The University of
Manchester
Manchester M13 9PL
0161 275 8951
13. Manchester Cathedral
Victoria Street
Manchester M3 1SX
0161 833 2220
14. Manchester Museum
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
0161 275 2648
15. Manchester Town Hall
Albert Square
Manchester M60 2LA
16. Midland Hotel
Peter Street
Manchester M60 2DS
0161 236 3333
17. Portland Thistle Hotel
3-5 Portland Street
Manchester M1 6DP
18. Portico Library
57 Mosley Street
Manchester M2 3HY
0161 236 6785
19. Royal Exchange
Theatre
St Ann’s Square
Manchester M2 7DH
0161 833 9833
20. Royal Northern
College of Music
124 Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9RD
0161 907 5200
21. St Ann’s Church
St Ann Street
Manchester M2 7LF
22. Three Minute Theatre
Afflecks Arcade
35 -39 Oldham Street
Manchester M1 1JG
0161 834 4517
23. University Place
University of Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M13 9PL
0161 275 2924
24. University of Salford
MediaCityUK
Salford M50 2EQ
0161 886 5300
25. Victoria Station
Todd Street
Manchester M3 1PB
26. Waterside
Arts Centre
1 Waterside Plaza
Sale M33 7ZF
0161 912 5616
27. Waterstones
Deansgate
91 Deansgate
Manchester M3 2BW
0161 837 3000
28. Whitworth
Art Gallery
The University of
Manchester
Oxford Road
Manchester M15 6ER
0161 275 7450
29. Working Class
Movement Library
51 Crescent
Salford M5 4WX
0161 736 3601
30. Z-arts
335 Stretford Road
Manchester M15 5ZA
0161 226 1912
25
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Manchester
Town Hall
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A5103
DeansgateCastlefield
T
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Piccadilly
Gardens
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24
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28
GET CLOSER
MEMBERSHIP
Become a Member of our Get
Closer Membership scheme.
Support the Festival, be the first to hear
the latest MLF news, enjoy priority booking
and join us for special members-only events.
Join now and receive these benefits:
Member: £20pa
• 10 days priority booking for main Festival
from 7 August ahead of general public
‘on-sale’ from 17 August and 7 days
priority booking on year round events
• Members only ‘meet the author’ events
during the year
• Subscription to members only monthly
e-newsletter (featuring must-read
new authors, publication dates for
new anticipated best-sellers, exclusive
interviews with MLF authors and
suggested reading from the Festival team
etc)
• 10% off books purchased at festival
events with our partner Waterstones
• Occasional ticket offers and discounts
from our partners
J o in tod a y
f r o m ju s t
£ 20 p a
Premium Member: £50pa
Membership is strictly limited
to 50 persons
Go the extra mile and receive
all Members’ benefits plus:
• Reserved seating
• Invitation to annual VIP Festival
Launch event with Drinks Reception
• Annual Premium members-only
special event
To join, simply add the preferred
membership to your shopping basket
when you book tickets* at
We look forward to welcoming you!
*Terms and conditions apply.
(Y)
It’s good
to be ambitious,
especially when it
comes to holidays.
It’s the passion for adventure that
your children have inherited from
you. It’s that decision you made on a
whim that turned into a treasured
family memory. It’s all the different
aspects of your life together that
makes up your personal economy.
And it’s only when we step back that
we see how they are all connected,
unique to you, and constantly
changing. So at HSBC Premier we
focus on providing personal support,
for your personal economy.
Find out more at
hsbcpremier.com/personaleconomy
HSBC Premier is subject to financial
eligibility criteria.
(-X)
(X)
(-Y)
Issued by HSBC Bank plc. AC32834
Premier PE_Manchester Lit Festival_A5_07-15.indd 1
23/07/2015 12:24
The finest
hospitality in
the heart
of Manchester
The iconic Midland Hotel, in the heart of
Manchester effortlessly mixes decadent
glamour with 21st century sophistication.
With two critically acclaimed restaurants
by Michelin starred Chef Simon Rogan:
The French offers one of the finest dining
experiences in the UK and Mr Cooper’s
House & Garden is included in the Condè
Nast Traveller Gold List 2015.
The newly opened Spa at the Midland is
Manchester’s first luxurious spa dedicated
to helping guests relax, unwind and
experience innovative treatments.
www.SpaAtTheMidland.co.uk
For further information or to
make a booking please
call 0044 (0)161 236 3333 or
visit www.QHotels.co.uk
Thanks to our Sponsors
and Partners
Principal Sponsor
Public Sector Funders
Main Partners and Project Funders
Festival Friends
Hotel Partner
Media Partners
68
Thanks to our
Partner ORGANISATIONS
Event Partners & Sponsors
69
CREDITS AND
INFORMATION
Booking
Please see individual events for booking
details – tickets for most events can
be booked through our main box office
agent Quay Tickets on 0843 208 0500
or online via the festival website:
or quaytickets.com.
When you book directly through Quay
Tickets, you won't have to pay any additional
booking fee on your tickets. The only cost
on top of the ticket price is £2 postage or
75p e-ticket per transaction.
Access
We endeavour to make festival events
accessible to all and welcome you to
contact us at the address below regarding
any specific requirements you may have
to enable your participation in the festival.
Manchester Literature Festival
The Department Store, 5 Oak Street,
Manchester M4 5JD
0161 236 5555
office@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
Company Registration No. 4369668 Charity Registration No. 1121276
To the best of our knowledge,
all programming information was
correct at the time of going to print.
70
Festival Staff
Festival Co-Directors:
Cathy Bolton & Sarah-Jane Roberts
Children and Young People’s
Programme Coordinator: Jennie Brown
Festival Fundraiser: Charlotte Platt
Digital Engagement Coordinator
& Copywriter: Kate Feld
Event Managers:
Jon Atkin, Ian Hyde & Clare McCann
Freelance Administrator: Liz Coupe
Board of Trustees
Katherine Beacon, Jan Bradley,
Martin Carr, Ed Farrelly, Jerome de Groot,
Matthew Frost, Colette Morgan-Ford,
Punam Ramchurn & Alison Spenceley.
Festival Patrons
Paul Abbott, Carol Ann Duffy, Jenni Murray,
Miranda Sawyer & Michael Schmidt.
Press & PR
Catharine Braithwaite & Shelagh Bourke,
Lethal Communications
07947 644110 / 07971 819016
Design
MARK
0161 237 3712 / markstudio.co.uk
Hotel Partner
The Midland Hotel
0161 236 3333 / qhotels.co.uk
Festival Bookshop
0843 290 8485 / waterstones.com
CREDITS AND
INFORMATION
MLF 10th anniversary
Thanks
We are truly grateful for the continued
support of the Festival’s Principal Sponsor
HSBC and our main public funders Arts
Council England and Manchester City
Council for enabling us to produce our most
ambitious celebration of literature so far.
We would also like to extend a huge thank
you to all our project and event partners
and sponsors, Get Closer Members,
participating artists, publishers,
and our dedicated team of freelance
associates, volunteers, trustees and
business advisors for helping us put
this year's Festival together.
To help us celebrate Manchester
Literature Festival’s 10th anniversary we
invited festival authors to send us photos
of themselves aged 10. Warm thanks to:
Donate to MLF
Manchester Literature Festival is a
registered charity and operates on
modest means. To help support the
festival’s valuable work in programming
and commissioning the best contemporary
literature from across the world, please
make a donation via the festival website.
Manchester Literature Festival is sponsored
by Manchester City Council as part of the
Council’s Unmissable Manchester events
programme which includes live music,
multicultural festivals and world class
sport. For the full programme go to
www.manchester.gov.uk/mcrevents
This brochure is printed
on 100% recycled paper.
Mai Al-Nakib
Anita Anand
Margaret Atwood
Kevin Barry
Ned Beauman
Bidisha
Danny Brocklehurst
King Burga
Shruti Chauhan
Mary Costello
Andrew O’Hagan
Alexandra Harris
Joanne Harris
Rachel Holmes
Anthony Horowitz
Yasmeen Ismail
Tim Key
Renée Knight
Gulwali Passarlay
Michael Rosen
Polly Samson
Care Santos
Sunjeev Sahota
Kristina Stephenson
May Lan-Tan
Lydia Towsey
Kirmen Uribe
Kathryn Williams
Follow us on Twitter and Facebook and look
out for more photos and lists of our authors’
10 favourite words. We’ll be using the
hashtags #10yearsyoung and #10words
If you are tweeting about the Festival
please use the hashtag #MLF15.
71
Manchester Literature Festival
The Department Store, 5 Oak Street
Manchester M4 5JD
office@manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
www.manchesterliteraturefestival.co.uk
Twitter @McrLitFest

MANCHESTER LITERATURE FESTIVAL 2015 12—25 OCTObER

Transcription

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