Lara Williams, Keith Hutson and Oliver Harris online at Festival Of Libraries

As part of the inaugural Manchester Festival Of Libraries, you’re invited to an evening in with three very different writers who have lived, worked or studied in the city: Lara Williams, Oliver Harris and Keith Hutson. Their works range from a secret society for women who throw wild Bacchanalian-inspired feasts, a contemporary spy novel set in Kazakhstan and a collection of poems that explore the lives of variety performers. Rescheduled from April last year, Manchester Libraries, Read Regional and Manchester City of Literature have teamed together to host this event, which will be taking place online and is free to attend.

As part of the inaugural Manchester Festival Of Libraries, you’re invited to an evening in with three very different writers who have lived, worked or studied in the city: Lara Williams, Oliver Harris and Keith Hutson.

Lara Williams is a writer based in Manchester, where she teaches creative writing at Manchester Metropolitan University. Her debut short story collection, Treats (in the US, A Selfie as Big as the Ritz), was published in 2016 and was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Edinburgh First Book Award and the Saboteur Awards, and longlisted for the Edge Hill Prize. Her much anticipated debut novel, Supper Club, was published to rave reviews in spring 2019 by Hamish Hamilton and has been translated into five languages, won the Guardian Not The Booker Prize and was listed as a Book of the Year 2019 by TIME, Vogue and elsewhere. She has a piece in last year’s Comma Press anthology The New Abject and she features in Best British Short Stories 2017. Her writing has been in The Guardian, The Independent, Vice, Times Literary Supplement, Dazed and McSweeney’s, among other places, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. The Bookseller reported that her second novel is chalked to come out in spring 2022 with publishers Hamish Hamilton, title “to be revealed”.

Crime writer Oliver Harris was born in London but now lives in Manchester where he has been senior lecturer in creative writing (fiction) at Man Met’s Manchester Writing School since June 2018. He has published four novels: three feature the police detective Nick Belsey (The House Of Fame, The Hollow Man and Deep Shelter), and have been described by Ian Rankin as “pacey London noir” and by Val McDermid as “a great read”, while the most recent, A Shadow Intelligence, which came out with Little, Brown last May, is the first in a new series exploring the world of private intelligence agencies. The second Kane thriller, Ascension, centring on British spy Elliot Kane, is due out in July. In 2016, he published a study of Greek myth and philosophy in the work of Jacques Lacan: Lacan’s Return to Antiquity (Routledge). He has a degree in English Literature and an MA in Shakespeare Studies from UCL, and an MA in creative writing from UEA, and he is a reviewer for the Times Literary Supplement.

Keith Hutson graduated from Manchester Writing School in 2019 and lives in Halifax, where he teaches creative writing at The Square Chapel Theatre and delivers poetry and performance workshops to schools for The Prince’s Trust. He has written for Coronation Street and numerous well-known comedians. His poetry has been widely published in journals including The Rialto, The North, Stand, Magma and Agenda, and his work has appeared in The Guardian and on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb. His debut pamphlet, Routines, published by Poetry Salzburg, is a collection of 31 sonnets celebrating the lives of music hall and variety performers. He is a Poetry Business Yorkshire Prize winner and his pamphlet Troupers was a 2018 Laureate’s Choice, chosen by the former Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy, who Keith regularly tours and reads with. His debut full collection, Baldwin’s Catholic Geese, was published by Bloodaxe in 2019.

The Read Regional campaign aims to connect local authors from the north of England to local readers via promotions in libraries, bookshops, festivals and other venues. Each year they choose a selection of the best books to promote via an open submission process. This event is part of the Festival Of Libraries programme of events arranged by the Manchester City of Literature.