Mariko Nagai and Richard Lloyd Parry at Martin Harris Centre

Sarah-Clare Conlon, Literature Editor
Writer Mariko Nagai.
Writer Mariko Nagai.

Literature Live: Mariko Nagai and Richard Lloyd Parry – Japan Now at Martin Harris Centre for Music & Drama, Manchester 26 February 2018 Tickets from £5.00 — Book now

This second special Live Literature event presented by the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester to flag International Mother Language Day paints a poignant picture of Japanese society today via two very different books, albeit with similar themes. How do writers – both natives and ‘outsiders’ – respond to tragedy and recount the lived experience of survivors? This is the topic for discussion, and authors Mariko Nagai and Richard Lloyd Parry will be offering their views, as well as reading from their work. Japanese novelist, poet and photographer Mariko Nagai sifts through landscape and history to present the contemporary life of four Japanese cities marked by catastrophe in her latest book Irradiations, while British foreign correspondent and writer Richard Lloyd Parry delves into the 2011 Japanese tsunami. Based in Tokyo, he is the Asia Editor of The Times, and his book Ghosts Of The Tsunami is a painstaking dispatch from the disaster and a study of the spiritual and psychological landscape left in its wake, described as ‘a brilliant, unflinching account’ by The Observer‘s Rachel Cooke.

Literature Live: Mariko Nagai and Richard Lloyd Parry – Japan Now at Martin Harris Centre for Music & Drama, Manchester 26 February 2018 Tickets from £5.00 Book now

Where to go near Mariko Nagai and Richard Lloyd Parry at Martin Harris Centre

Manchester Academy music venue on Oxford Road Manchester.
Manchester
Music venue
Manchester Academy

The Manchester Academy is a mid size, modern warehouse venue adjacent to the University of Manchester Students’ Union. It lacks any architectural merit and has always been a difficult place…

Christie’s Bistro, Manchester. Courtesy Christie’s Bistro
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Christie’s Bistro

This wood-panelled former science library – part of a cluster of neo-Gothic buildings designed for the University of Manchester by Alfred Waterhouse (he of Manchester Town Hall and London’s Natural History Museum fame) – has a wonderfully bookish interior that turns lunch into something of an event.

Whitworth Park, Manchester
Manchester
Park
Whitworth Park

This 18-acre park opposite the Manchester Royal Infirmary provides a welcome patch of green in an otherwise densely populated and heavily used part of the city.

Cafe at the Museum
Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
The Cafe
at the Museum

Manchester Museum’s cafe is run by the people behind award-winning cafe Teacup Kitchen. The menu features home-baked cakes, the finest loose leaf teas and breakfast, as well as a wide selection of mains and meals for kids.

Manchester
Music venue
Manchester Academy 3

Brilliant venue for catching a touring band on the rise. The boringly titled Academy 3 or more interesting Hop and Grape, as it was once known, is a self contained…

Manchester
Shop
Want Not Waste

Want Not Waste is a student-run, not-for-profit zero waste shop operating out of Academy 1 at the University of Manchester Students’ Union.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Big Hands

Big Hands is the one-time haunt of legendary Manchester band Elbow; it’s shabby, loud and dark, with a jukebox and excellent roof terrace.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Kro Bar

Kro Bar, Manchester is an independent pub and music venue housed (somewhat ironically) in the former Temperance Society building.

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