Literature Events in Manchester and the North

Events for readers meet events for writers, with plenty of book launches, open mics, literature festivals, writing conferences and poetry showcases to pop into your diary for the remainder of September pushing into October, both online and in person.

Flapjack-run Word Central is back in real life at Central Library on 27 September with Gus Jonsson headlining – also pop 20 September in your diary, when WC host Tony Curry introduces An Evening Out With Flapjack Press at The Edge theatre as part of Chorlton Book Festival (which runs in person and online 19-24 September – more here), with performers including Rose Condo, Rob Steventon, Anna Percy, Thick Richard and Geneviève L Walsh.

Saturday 18 September sees words in the woods as Poetry Reverb heads into the great outdoors once more with a showcase of talent at the Into The Wild coffee shack just outside Altrincham. The Coalition open mic poetry and prose night rocks up again at Stockport’s Petersgate Tap on 30 September (it’s every last Thursday of the month) and Speak Easy returns to Dulcimer in Chorlton on 7 October, coinciding happily with National Poetry Day. Also back IRL is Verbose, following its recent Levenshulme Pride show and Seven Bro7hers pop-up with a return to the usual last Monday of the month from 25 October, but at new venue King’s Arms on the cusp of Salford and Manchester city centre.

Author and DJ Dave Haslam continues on his multiple-date book tour, including heading Sheffield way on 21 September (all the dates are in our preview here). He’s launching All You Need is Dynamite: Acid, the Angry Brigade, and the End of the Sixties, the fifth book to join the “Art Decades” series, out with Manchester-based Confingo Publishing. Fellow Manchester indie Carcanet Press are continuing to run their book launches by the magic of Zoom: Jane Duran and Sheri Benning pick up the torch on 22 and 29 September respectively, with the launch of Poems And Satires by Edna St Vincent Millay, newly published as a Carcanet Classic, edited by Tristram Fane Saunders chatting to poet Abigail Parry on 6 October. Gabriel Josipovici follows on 27 October.

Meanwhile, Comma Press author Sarah Schofield launches her new collection at a special short story showcase that also features Lucie McKnight Hardy and Vanessa Onwuemezi, taking place at Blackwell’s Bookshop on 13 October, hotly pursued by Jenn Ashworth and Kylie Whitehead in conversation on 19 October (we’ll have more on their events programme lined up for the autumn here soon). The first HarperNorth event takes place on 28 September as Tony Redmond launches his new title in conjunction with EJ Morten Booksellers in Didsbury.

Back in real life in Wigan is the Write Out Loud open mic (the longest running open mic poetry night in Wigan, in fact) on 14 October, while in Liverpool A Lovely Word returns to the Bistro at the Everyman on Hope Street, 8pm on 7 October with UK Poetry Slam Champion 2020 Tyrone Lewis, followed by a Homotopia special on 28 October (note that this is a week early), then 2 December.

Also in Liverpool, The Reader’s Spoken Word at the Mansion House in Calderstones Park enjoys another outing on 23 September – with Saint Vespaluus curating a line-up featuring Beija Flo, Louise Evans, Mark J and poet Jennifer Lee Tsai. The Reader’s weekly Poetry Walks and Shared Reading groups also continue afoot, and there’s a new interactive map to follow either the Literature Trail or the Heritage Trail (or indeed both!), so if you like your literature served with a side order of inspiring surroundings, find out more here.

On the festival front, the eighth Northern Lights Writers’ Conference takes place at Waterside Arts on 25 September with keynote speaker Kate Mosse, and the European Poetry Festival’s European Camarade returns to the International Anthony Burgess Foundation on 1 October. Also for your diary: Lancaster Litfest runs online 7 to 12 October, and features readings by Man Met’s Kim Moore; Manchester Literature Festival returns in the autumn, offering events both online and in real life, with some tickets already on sale (MLF Live will run 8 to 17 October, with MLF Digital following from 1 to 14 November), and the Corridor of Light and Language is chalked up for 21 to 23 October. More on those soon…

The Elizabeth Gaskell’s House book sale is running monthly, so get your place booked as soon as possible, and check out our Guide To Bookshops In Manchester. Guided tours are back at Chetham’s Library, the Portico is the place to go to see the Refloresta! exhibition by world-renowned Brazilian artist Maria Nepomuceno (on until November), and the Pankhurst Centre has reopened. And don’t forget to scroll down for more events and activities, or see our literary guides to Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Cumbria if you’re venturing further afield.

Here are our picks