Literature Events in Manchester and the North

From local writing to international talent, we have heaps of online launches and in real life readings not to mention some extra special festival events coming our way in live literature land.

Blackwell’s bookshop has a packed programme as we head springwards, including in person poets from Manchester’s Carcanet Press – also serving up screen time with a number of online launches, from Joe Carrick-Varty with More Sky to Charlotte Eichler and Swimming Between Islands.

Elizabeth Gaskell’s House is also heading online with more from its Mary Barton season of talks and keep an eye out for on- and offline events marking International Mother Language Day, officially on 21 February, but with Manchester-based activities both before and after the date itself. Celebrating LGBT History Month in the Rainy City, there’s a literary salon special at the newly refurbished Portico Library and Outspoken takes to the stage again for Queer Contact.

On to the regulars… Speak Easy’s bumper open mic is at Dulcimer in Chorlton every first Thursday of the month and Crooked Poets in Prestwich is now going strong, with Anna Percy lined up for 7 February and Dominic Berry lined up for 7 March. Dominic crops up again at Word Central – found in Central Library’s events space on Tuesday 23 February – and at Verbose  in March. Taking place at the King’s Arms in Salford on the last Monday every month, the next Verbose is Fabulous Fiction February and features Tania Hershman and Gaynor Jones. The next Crime Central takes place 16 February, and don’t forget to check out Poets & Players at the Burgess Foundation on 25 February and The Other every two months at the Old Monkey (back on 9 March). Peter Barlow’s Cigarette is celebrating ten years in 2023 and other servings of avant-garde goodness include a one-off from indie press If P Then Q on 9 March at Peste, bringing Maggie O’Sullivan and Peter Jaeger to town.

Bolton sees Natter Bolton hosted by Romina Ramos and Stuart Beveridge return to the last or nearly last Tuesday of each month while the University of Bolton’s Creative Writing department has a new spring programme worth a look-see, as does the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing. Manchester Literature Festival has some spring events in the pipeline, and both Litfest in Lancaster and Huddersfield Literature Festival are crunching up the gears – watch this space for more on all the upcoming literary showcases…

In Liverpool, don’t forget to look up the regulars like A Lovely Word, Blast!, dead good poets society, Give Poetry A Chance, Liver Bards, Speakeasy and The Reader’s Spoken Word night at the Mansion House and/or their new town venue The Reader Bar & Restaurant and its weekly Poetry Walk in south Liverpool’s Calderstones Park. Across the water, there’s Limoncello and The River Poets, both Birkenhead, and in Chester, Testify is back. The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is also stopping by on his library tour, visiting Gladstone’s Library and also Ellesmere Port Civic Centre Library in March.

Over the Pennines, keep an eye out for Resonance and Nine Lives Poetry in Sheffield (and, en route, Glossop Bookfest’s monthly open mic); in Huddersfield, try Ink Spill at The Grove and monthly Attic Stories at Lawrence Batley Theatre, hosted by Rose Condo; in Farsley, Tubthumping is hosted by Matt Abbott and Maria Ferguson at The Constitutional, and, in Headingley, Soundbites takes place at the Enterprise & Arts Centre. Leeds sees Chemistry enjoy a Leeds Lit Fest special in March, and The Leeds Library’s Chelping will be back with a fresh helping in 2023. At Leeds Central Library, meanwhile, Gwendoline Riley is in conversation about her latest novel, My Phantoms, Lemn Sissay is at Carriageworks Theatre, Ian Duhig takes over Nowt But Verse and the Radical Reading Book Group rocks up at Left Bank.

For borrowing and browsing books, check out the Manchester Poetry Library, recently marking its first birthday, plus Deansgate’s John Rylands Library, the Portico Library, Chetham’s Library, and the Working Class Movement Library in Salford. If it’s book purchases you’re after, check out new bookseller on the block House of Books & Friends on King Street and save the date for the next Northern Publishers’ Fair, flick through our Bookshops in Manchester Guide and visit Elizabeth Gaskell’s House for the monthly book sale. If you’re venturing further afield from Manchester – celebrating five years as a UNESCO city of Literature – see our literary guides to Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Cumbria, and don’t forget to scroll down for more events and activities in the land of Literature.

Here are our picks