Literature events at Chorlton Arts Festival

The bunting’s up to celebrate Chorlton Arts Festival’s 23rd birthday, with the multi-venue event running 16 to 25 May, and serving up a whole host of literary arts and spoken word performances by contributors from the Manchester area, and beyond.

Literary proceedings get underway with a creative writing workshop courtesy Chorlton-based The Former Boy Wonder author Robert Graham on the morning of Saturday 17 May (10.30-12am, Chorlton Methodist Church), while Lindy Newns takes up the teaching mantle a week later, with flash fiction (2-4pm, The Lloyds) and poetry (6-8pm).

Various spoken word and performance events are chalked up for the festival, including readings by award-winning poet Suzanne Batty and novelist Nick J Brown.

The showcase event Word Of Mouth welcomes 10 writers for a “fun evening of spoken word” on Tuesday 20 May (7.30-9.30pm, Carlton Club). Headlining is special guest Robin Ince, who will be joined by writers and comedians Zena Barrie, Kate Hook, Jo Howard, Tom Jenks, Thomas Marsden, Melanie Neads, Fat Roland, Reshma Ruia and Dave Williams.

The following day (5-7pm, St Ninian’s) sees a spotlight shone on brand-new magazine The Aftershock Review, which explores poetry’s ability to transform pain into healing. This special Chorlton Arts Festival event hears from The Aftershock Review editor-in-chief Max Wallis, contributing editor Dr Anna Percy and contributor Oliver James Lomax as they discuss the resilience and recovery found within its pages, and present an open mic, welcoming local voices to share poems of survival, rage, tenderness and hope.

Also joining The Aftershock Review event is poet, fiction writer and singer with post-punk band The March Violets Rosie Garland, whose latest novel The Fates (Quercus) is a retelling of the Greek myth of the Fates. In 2023, she was made Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Queen of Tartan Noir Val McDermid has named her one of the most compelling LGBT+ writers in the UK today. Rosie’s new poetry collection This Is How I Fight (Nine Arches Press) is out in June 2025.