Amy McCauley book launch at The Peer Hat

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

Visit now

Amy McCauley book launch

The Peer Hat, Manchester
2 July 2018

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Poet Amy McCauley. Credit Francesca Sophia.
Poet Amy McCauley. Credit Francesca Sophia.
Book now

We’ve already featured June’s No Matter in our top five picks – as well we should, it being the latest live literature loiterer on the block – but we didn’t give many column inches to one-third of the headliners, award-winning poet Amy McCauley, as we’re going to do that here. Yes, Amy is one busy woman – not only is she performing at No Matter, she’s also heading over the hills on 24 June to read at our friends at Zarf’s night at Wharf Chambers – check out our new guide to Literary Places in Leeds for more about that here.

But this is her own bona fide standalone event, the launch of her first collection of poetry, Oedipa, which has just come out on Cornish-based Guillemot Press, self-described “independent publisher of pamphlets and beautiful books”. And, my, is this tome lovely looking. Designed and illustrated by Emily Juniper, Oedipa, the blurb tells us, is a poetic drama for an all-female cast which re-imagines aspects of the Oedipus myth. The book explores ambivalent female sexualities, women’s experiences of breakdown, and the claustrophobic, “incestuous” relationships which sometimes exist between mothers and daughters, and one reviewer calls it “ferociously intelligent and radioactive with subtextual menace”.

Amy tells us she will be presenting a one-woman performance of Oedipa using wooden spoons, lipstick, masking tape and scissors. Other noises will be courtesy electronic duo SALT, aka composer/performers Elspeth Brooke and Carmel Smickersgill, sharing new music written especially for the event, and fellow poets Kate Davis – who moonlights as a taxidermist – and the unmissable Rhys Trimble, famous for banging the floor with a large stick, shouting in Welsh and wandering wild-eyed among the audience. Kate’s first collection The Girl Who Forgets How To Walk is published by Penned in the Margins, while Rhys has authored more than 15 books of poetry, including Swansea Automatic, Anatomy Mnemonics For Caged Waves and Hexerisk.

Where to go near Amy McCauley book launch at The Peer Hat

Manchester
Restaurant
Public

New to Stevenson’s Square, Public is the Northern Quarter’s new local, from the team behind Evelyn’s.

Bakerie, Manchester. Courtesy Bakerie
Manchester
Restaurant
Bakerie

Bakerie in Manchester’s Northern Quarter is an open-plan restaurant which features comfy booths, ordinary tables and communal-style benches.

Slice Pizzeria in Stevenson Square Manchester.
Manchester
Restaurant
Slice

When was the last time you stumbled out of a bar and into a takeaway that served up food as fresh as Mama made? If your answer is “never”, we’re guessing you haven’t yet found new Manchester pizza parlour, Slice.

Northern Quarter
Restaurant
Flok

A much-needed addition to the fast-growing Stevenson Square area of the Northern Quarter. Flok offers sophistication, superb tapas-style food and an impressively well-stocked bar.

GET BAKED Opening Day
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
GET BAKED

Newly opened cakery in Stevensons Square, Northern Quarter Manchester. Get Baked brings all the Yorkshire charm and sweetness one of the city’s most popular squares.

Manchester
Yoga Soul

Yoga Soul is a people-driven hub of good vibes, which you can find on Newton Street in the Northern Quarter.

Stevenson Square
Manchester
Stevenson Square

Stevenson Square, the central hub of bars and cafes in Northern Quarter. Home to some of the best bars in the city.

What's on: Literature

LiteratureWest Yorkshire
Poetry at the Dusty Miller

Poetry at the Dusty Miller is a now regular night with invited readers, organised by poets Carola Luther and Ian Humphreys in the Coiners’ Room in the Mytholmroyd pub.

Free entry

Culture Guides

Theatre in Manchester and the North.
Theatre in the North

From outdoor shows to drama in the dark, our theatre guide celebrates genre-pushing work, new writing and contemporary performance.

Blondshell by Hannah Bon.
Music in the North

From Lyra Pramuk’s sacred synths to the sugar rush of YAANG, our latest music picks bring ritual, rebellion and ridiculous levels of fun.

Two women stand next to an orange car.
Cinema in the North

August brings a huge LGBTQ+ film festival, plus a reggae classic and a spotlight on Japanese animation.

Author portrait
Literature Events in the North

Our latest round-up features plenty of one-off live literature events to wrap your ears about, so get those diaries ticking over...