Manchester Literature Festival online

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor

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Manchester Literature Festival online

23-25 October 2020

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

Poet Rachel Long.
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It’s all change this year as Manchester Literature Festival goes digital and reduces itself down to a tasty jus of 16 online events during its weekend celebration of words, running Friday 23 to Sunday 25 October. Tickets for #MLF20 are now available to book via the MLF website, with the menu dishing up leading writers and the literary stars of tomorrow, from the local scene to the international stage. Says MLF: “Our shared humanity has never been clearer. This year’s Manchester Literature Festival celebrates this connection through stories that deserve to be heard, voices that call for change, and powerful expressions of hope and resilience.”

We’re looking forward to hearing from Daisy Johnson and Sophie Mackintosh, hosted by the Centre for New Writing’s Jeanette Winterson. Author of short story collection Fen, Daisy Johnson’s debut novel, Everything Under, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2018, when she was not yet 30, making her (beside Eleanor Catton) the youngest nominee in the prize’s history – Sophie Mackintosh’s debut The Water Cure was up for the gong the same year. The pair will be reading extracts from and discussing their latest novels – described as “powerful and disturbing” – Sisters and Blue Ticket respectively.

Jackie Kay hosts a Picador showcase featuring Raymond Antrobus, Jericho Brown, Rachel Long and Safiya Sinclair – “four prominent Black poets who speak powerfully to our present moment”

The #MLF20 programme also includes performances courtesy the new Manchester Poetry Library, work in translation, activities for families to enjoy together plus two partnership projects, including the participatory Poetry Exchange. Poet, playwright and recording artist Kae Tempest talks non-fiction with acclaimed author Max Porter, 2020 Booker Prize shortlistee Maaza Mengiste discusses her process with former Women’s Prize for Fiction winner Kamila Shamsie, and legendary writer, campaigner and civil rights activist Angela Davis is in conversation with poet and Scottish Makar Jackie Kay.

Jackie Kay, also a Patron of MLF, is then back to host a Picador showcase featuring Raymond Antrobus, Jericho Brown, Rachel Long and Safiya Sinclair – “four prominent Black poets who speak powerfully to our present moment and fuse the personal with the political”. Ted Hughes Award-winning Raymond Antrobus will read new work alongside poems from his debut collection The Perseverance, US poet and winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry Jericho Brown will present work from his collection, The Tradition, and Jamaican poet Safiya Sinclair will read from Cannibal.

British poet Rachel Long, meanwhile, will gives us a flavour of My Darling from the Lions – currently shortlisted for the Forward Prize for Best First Collection, and described by Stylist as “the modern poetry we need to read right now”. Man Booker winner Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other, heaps on the praise: “An enchanting and heartwarming new voice in poetry.” Not to be missed.

Where to go near Manchester Literature Festival online

Manchester
Gallery
Black Redstart Gallery

Black Redstart Gallery is located in the Northern Quarter and runs a busy programme of exhibitions from emerging and established artists.

RJC Dance Xmas Show
Leeds
RJC Dance

RJC Dance, based in Chapeltown, Leeds, champions youth and education, leading inclusive Black dance in the North through national partnerships.

texture logo
Manchester
Gallery
texture mcr

Possibly one of the city’s most mysterious art galleries, texture is a small and perfectly-formed independent space in Ardwick.

The Beacon at Cliffe Castle Park
Bradford
Park
Cliffe Castle Park

Cliffe Castle Park hosts the Beacon, a stunning performance space that will be touring the district throughout Bradford UK City of Culture 2025.

Hern Food
Leeds
Restaurant
Hern

This produce-driven bistro in Chapel Allerton, Leeds, prides itself on cooking with the only finest ingredients and his headed up by Cordon Bleu-trained chef Rab Adams.

Indie Makers
Leeds
Shop
Indie Makers

Indie Makers, located in Leads’ corn exchange, trades in art and gifts from independent makers across the UK.

Plant Point
Leeds
Shop
Plant Point

Plant Point is designed to help you bring the jungle into your urban or suburban space. The home of beautiful plants in Leeds.

Leeds
Restaurant
Eat Your Greens

Eat Your Greens is a vibrant, organic restaurant bringing a hint of European flair to the city’s plant-based dining scene.

What's on: Literature

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LiteratureManchester
Jo Bell at The Portico Library

Poet and now memoirist Jo Bell invites you to join her “for a friendly evening” at The Portico Library when she’ll be talking about her new “smart, funny” memoir Boater.

From £6.00
Culain Wood
LiteratureManchester
Crooked Poets at the Crooked Man

Hosted by John Darwin, Crooked Poets is a monthly spoken word night at the Crooked Man bar in Prestwich, featuring a special guest and open mic.

Free entry
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

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