Books by and for independent women

Manchester Literature Festival 2010

Hold on to your book bags, the programme for the 5th Manchester Literature Festival is a corker!

For 12 days in October (14th-25th), a host of international and local writers will descend on the Rainy City – there will be readings, children’s events, interactive projects, exclusives and even a Boho literary pub crawl. A number of events will celebrate the work of Anthony Burgess (making good use of the newly opened International Anthony Burgess Foundation) and Elizabeth Gaskell (200 years young this year), but the action extends well beyond the Manchester literary scene. Here’s a glimpse of what’s on offer:

Fleur Adcock, Martin Amis, Seamus Heaney, CK Williams and Lionel Shriver will all make appearances, as will Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. The wonderful Jeanette Winterson will be delivering the inaugural Manchester Sermon which, similarly to the Southbank Annual Lecture at the London Literature Festival, promises to be a festival highlight. For comedy, see Alexei Sayle perform excerpts from his new book, Stalin Ate My Homework, and have your ribs tickled by The Comedy Poetry Slam and Robin Ince’s Bad Book Club. Or on the international front, there’s  Miguelanxo Prado, one of Spain’s most celebrated comic book artists, and Czech novelist Jachym Topol.

For the aspiring scribblers amongst you there are poetry competitions, the Manchester Blog Awards and “Is there a novelist in the house?”, giving unpublished writers the opportunity to pitch their work to judges in front of a live audience.  If you’re feeling flush, £55 gets you a 3 course meal, champagne reception and ticket to the Manchester Poetry Prize Gala Dinner.

If you want to make a day of it, towards the end of the festival, Lyndall Gordon will be discussing her latest book, Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family’s Feuds, followed by Sophie Hannah and Val McDermid discussing women and crime fiction, and then there’ll be slam poetry and music from The Saul Williams Experience. Phew.

Mix it up with lit-meets-science-meets-discovery in Eureka Commissions, spine-chilling horror writing at Grimm Reading or The World of Moomin. If that’s not an enticingly weird combination I don’t know what is! You might think the festival is a long way off, but tickets are on sale now so have a gander and get booking!

If you can’t possibly wait ‘til then, join Manchester Reads the ‘60s, one of a series of Decades Readathons to celebrate Penguin’s 75th birthday, taking place on October 1st as part of Creative Tourist’s Manchester Weekender.

Blimey, I think I need a cup of tea and a sit down after all that excitement.

Is there anything here you’ve already got your eye on? Let us know if so and we’ll try to be there too so we can report back!

Post by Alex Herod