Centre for New Writing at bluedot
Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
The University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing will be at this weekend’s bluedot festival for the second time since the inaugural event last year, presenting varied readings from a number of writers in the atmospheric setting of the Dome planetarium plus book-signing in the Blackwells Bookstore tent.
There will be three threads of literature on Sunday afternoon: Science and SF, Poetry at bluedot and New Fiction from Manchester. Award-winning sci-fi author and Centre for New Writing lecturer Geoff Ryman will be reading in the 2.30pm slot, then he’ll be chatting to his colleague John McAuliffe, co-director of the department.
From 3.10pm, poet John will head up the poetry section, featuring PhD student Janet Rogerson and lecturer Vona Groarke. The New Fiction from Manchester readings will start at 4.10pm and feature flash fiction specialist and novel writer David Gaffney, a former visiting fellow at the Centre for New Writing, plus alumni Usma Malik and Valerie O’Riordan, and Booker Prize-shortlisted novelist and Centre for New Writing co-founder Ian McGuire.
