Literature Events in Manchester and the North

As June hits its midway point, Bad Language present a special one-off short-short story slam special on 18 June at Gullivers, with a great line-up, then avant poetry purveyors No Matter are back next day over the way at The Castle featuring a New Matter commission by Lisa Robertson. The following week sees the launch of flash fiction anthology Story Cities at shiny new bookshop Blackwell’s, with free readings, free wine and, possibly, free cake…

Festival season continues apace, including the first Weekend of Words at Victoria Baths, featuring creative writing workshops (and a creative writing competition seeking submissions until 4 August – see the VB website for more) with Tania Hershman (also at Didsbury Arts Festival), Mark Pajak and The Real Story, a poetry panel with Clare Shaw, Ella Duffy and Lenni Sanders, whose pamphlet Poacher is just out on Emma Press, plus an appearance by our very own Literature Editor, Sarah-Clare Conlon wearing her Victoria Baths Writer-in-Residence hat and reading a brand-new short story alongside five other special commissions from writers Kate Feld, David Gaffney, Phil Olsen, Joe Stretch and Lara Williams, whose much anticipated debut novel, Supper Club, is published this summer with a launch event at Waterstone’s on Wednesday 3 July.

Didsbury Arts Festival runs 22-30 June, and this year has a strong literature thread, with readings, book launches and talks a-go-go from the likes of Lemn Sissay, Henry Normal, Neil Campbell, Caroline England, Hilary Robinson and plenty more besides, and the official launch of Manchester indie publisher Some Roast Poet. Check out the DAF website for the full programme and details of tickets. Manchester International Festival has its first focus on literature, with the specially commissioned Studio Creole project running for three nights 12-14 July and featuring new work and performances by seven award-winning and critically acclaimed writers from around the world.

Highlights for July we’re looking forward to include the latest That’s What She Said, with poet Rebecca Tamás taking on headliner duties, another Carcanet triple bill, with Lucy Burnett, Jeremy Over and Helen Tookey chaired by Michael Schmidt at the International Anthony Burgess Foundation, the summer launch of PN Review at Castlefield Gallery, and the third in the Rewriting The North reading series, organised by The Portico Library and Man Met’s Centre for Place Writing, this time with fiction writers Fiona Mozley and Andrew Michael Hurley (June welcomes Rosie Garland and Livi Michael).

Before you get back to your books, scroll down to our More in Literature stories, where you’ll find plenty about the Peterloo events – Lines on the Wall will see performances at Friends’ Meeting House on 4 July by TS Eliot Prize-winning poet Philip Gross and acclaimed short story writer, poet and Southern Cemetery Writer-in-Residence Tania Hershman, with an open mic on the theme of walls, division or borders. And don’t forget to check out our guide to the UNESCO City of Literature, where you’ll find some bookworm-friendly go-tos, including John Rylands Library (where Rosie Garland is Writer-in-Residence) and the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, Chet’s – with events including an Iris Murdoch evening on 20 June.

Our updated Guide To Bookshops In Manchester is here, and there’s a regular secondhand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House – next up, on Sunday 14 July and Sunday 11 August (11am-4pm) – and a birthday party for Emmeline Pankhurst with storytelling and more at the nearby Pankhurst Centre on the afternoon of Sunday 14 July, but if you fancy venturing further afield, then our tips for trips include must-go Literary Places in Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Cumbria.

Here are our picks