Literature Events in Manchester and the North

October wouldn’t be October without Manchester Literature Festival, including: Poet Laureate Simon Armitage chatting to Elbow frontman Guy Garvey; David Baddiel talking about his new book for young readers; Manc faves Dave Haslam reading from the second in his ‘Art Decades’ series with Didsbury publishers Confingo, We the Youth: Keith Haring’s New York Nightlife, and Lemn Sissay talking to Henry Normal about his Sunday Times number-one bestselling memoir My Name Is Why; Booker Prize shortlist readings including indie press Galley Beggar author Lucy Ullmann (Ducks, Newburyport), and previous Booker Prize shortlistee Deborah Levy.

Burnley Literary Festival runs the first weekend of October and includes a short-short fiction showcase in a caravan – Flash In The Van, natch, on Saturday 5 October, featuring our very own Literature Editor alongside Michael Conley, Kate Feld, David Gaffney, Tania Hershman and Fat Roland. It’s also the seventh Lakes International Comic Art Festival, the seventh Rochdale Literature & Ideas Festival and the seventh Gothic Manchester Festival (more below). Thursday 3 October is busy, with the special one-off Dancing With Words showcasing a trilogy of new performances for National Poetry Day, an evening with bestselling author Jojo Moyes, and the relaunch of the Centre For New Writing’s Literature Live programme at Martin Harris Centre following the academic break, starting with Paul Muldoon and Alice Oswald, recently named as taking on the prestigious role of Oxford Professor of Poetry. Meanwhile, big names in town include Bill Bryson at the Palace Theatre on 5 October and Armistead Maupin at The Lowry on 8 October.

October is über-scary this year as a result of the looming Brexit deadline – but also because there’s lots of spooky goings-on in Live Literature Land in the run-up to Halloween. Gothic Manchester Festival runs all month, and we’re excited about 15 October’s Writing Manchester Gothic: An Audience with Tania Hershman (Writer-in-Residence at Southern Cemetery – keep your ears open for a related BBC Radio 4 broadcast coming soon) and Rosie Garland – also donning her Writer-in-Residence hat on 17 October (6pm, free) and reading for the first time from the brand-new novel she’s been working on while holed up at The John Rylands Library.

On 19 October, head Peer Hat-wards for Rural Eerie, exploring the strange countryside through sounds and words with Helen Darby, Sarah Hymas, Emily Oldfield, Mark Pajak, Richard Skelton and Andrew Michael Hurley – recently seen at Rewriting The North (back on 31 October, this time with Anita Sethi and Paul Evans). Andrew is popping up again on 24 October for an evening of folk horror with Water Shall Refuse Them (Dead Ink) author Lucie McKnight Hardy at Blackwell’s (preview here). The University Green flagship bookstore also welcomes Jenn Ashworth and Lee Rourke – authors of new tomes Notes Made While Falling and Glitch respectively – on 29 October and, a week before, a special Slovak literature event, featuring Ivana Dobrakovová, Uršuľa Kovalyk and Balla in conversation with Glen James Brown (whose debut novel Ironopolis has just been announced on the Portico Prize list).

One of our favourite regulars, No Matter, is back on 23 October, this time at The King’s Arms (7.30pm, free), with New Matter #4 from Bhanu Kapil plus performances from Sascha Aurora Akhtar, Sarah Crewe and Callie Gardner. The following evening, 24 October, sees a special Manchester appearance by the editors and critically acclaimed contributors to literary journal Ambit, launching the latest edition plus an exhibition marking sixty years of the highly regarded publication. Readers at the one-off at No 70 Oxford Street (6pm, free but ticketed) will include editor Briony Bax and poet Liz Berry, who will be presenting the three winners of the 2019 Ambit Poetry Prize, Yvonne Roddick, Jane Lovell and Ella Duffy, plus Jade Cuttle and Maryam Hessavi.

Before you get back to your books, scroll down to our More in Literature stories, 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 and the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, Chet’s. Our updated Guide To Bookshops In Manchester is here, and there’s a regular secondhand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House; combine with a look at the new Ruskin exhibition on until July 2020. Fancy heading out of town? Our tips for trips include must-go Literary Places in Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Cumbria.

Here are our picks