Literature Events in Manchester and the North

The New Year has a few magical treats up its sleeve, not least Isabel Allende in conversation with Jeanette Winterson on 11 February – heralding the start of Manchester Literature Festival’s 2020 programme – and Eimear McBride talking to poet Vona Groake on 17 February, marking the second MLF outing of the year. Vona also appears as part of the stellar line-up celebrating the 25oth issue of PN Review, with a special launch party in the old Science Library of Owens College, while another launch of note is that of Emma Jane Unsworth’s third novel, Adults, at Waterstones on 29 January. You can also catch the author of Animals (the film version is just out on DVD) chatting to Luke Brown about his second publication, Theft (published by And Other Stories), at the Burgess Foundation on 10 February.

January sees the year-round Poets & Players programme back in action at The Whitworth, with three readers in the form of Kim Moore and Jennifer Lee Tsai alongside multi-award-winning Jo Shapcott, plus a musician, all lined up to ease you into the swing of things again. Meanwhile, old fave That’s What She* Said returns to form in February, welcoming poet Louise Fazackerley for a second appearance and the launch of her new collection. Verbose is back on 27 January at Fred’s, with headliners Neil Bell and Juliette Van der Molen, Bad Language returns to Gullivers on 29 January, featuring Ian Humpreys, and, over at The Castle, No Matter presents more New Matter on 5 February with Sharon Kivland, Aurelia Guo and NJ Stallard, while Peter Barlow’s Cigarette pops up again at Waterstones on 22 February with four readers Mau Baiocco, Tessa Berring, Peter Hughes and Nell Osborne.

The Complete Works series of events from the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing in partnership with HOME is continuing on 20 January and again 19 February – with Canongate editor Ellah Wakatama Allfrey talking first to novelist and essayist Aminatta Forna, and then to Channel 4 News International Editor Lindsey Hilum. Also taking up space in the January and February schedule are two important prizes, both in association with Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. To start, the six shortlisted writers in the running for The Portico Prize 2019 – the Booker of the North – will be whittled down at a ceremony hosted by The Portico Library, while the annual Manchester Prizes Gala, presenting both the Manchester Poetry Prize and the Manchester Fiction Prize, takes place in the atmospheric surrounds of the Baronial Hall at Chetham’s Library. News now in of the two shortlists – hit that link!

Music meets literature, meanwhile, with Blackwell’s bookshop hosting first Suede’s Mat Osman, talking about his debut novel The Ruins to Stuart Maconie on 12 February, and then, on 4 March, Dave Haslam launching the third of his Art Decades books, Searching For Love: Courtney Love in Liverpool, 1982. If you missed out on tickets for the latter, try 2 March at the British Music Experience Museum of Popular Museum in Liverpool’s iconic Cunard Building. We all want to be the girl with the most cake…

International Mother Language Day is marked on 21 February, with events and activities taking place at Central Library (also hosting an evening with Jess Kidd, on 26 February) and beyond, while the team at the UNESCO-endorsed Manchester City of Literature is taking shape – and exciting things are promised…

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, the Portico Library and the oldest public library in the English-speaking world, Chetham’s. Our Guide To Bookshops In Manchester is here, and there’s a regular secondhand book sale at Elizabeth Gaskell’s House (the next sale is 12 January, then 9 February, 8 March, 12 April and so on); combine with a look at the new Ruskin exhibition on until July 2020 and the award-winning garden, inspired by the author.

Fancy heading out of town? Pop The Reader’s recently refurbished and reopened Mansion House in Liverpool’s Calderstones Park on your list – their Poetry Walk takes place in the grounds every Tuesday, giving you the opportunity to be active creatively or creative actively, whichever way you like to think of it. Fancy more poetry in Liverpool? Catch three leading contemporary female poets at the Bluecoat. Find more tips for trips further afield in our literary guides to Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Cumbria.

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