Literature Events in Manchester and the North

From book launches to festival readings and open mics to creative writing workshops, activities and events in Live Literature Land continue virtually as mochas and pints have to accompany substantial meals, not just a garibaldi or a bag of Monster Munch. Still, we’re excited for the first-ever online incarnation of Manchester Literature Festival, taking place 23 to 25 October with guests ranging from Tori Amos to Nick Hornby – find out more about the programme and read our round-up here.

Dave Haslam launches his latest Art Decades tome – about Sylvia Plath’s Paris years – with Didsbury-based Confingo Press on Tuesday 20 October, talking about it to journalist and broadcaster Miranda Sawyer – for sign-up details, check out the publisher’s website and social media feeds. At the end of October, poet Kim Moore reprises her experimental choose-your-own online reading in the second Poetry and Everyday Sexism event. Kim’s Manchester Writing School colleague Rachel Genn presents her new novel, What You Could Have Won, gassing with Andrew McMillan on 5 November (he pops up again the next night as part of the online Todmorden Book Festival), and promising topics including “glamour, fashion, desires”, according to Twitter, while Nicholas Royle and Lara Williams delve into the world of short stories on 3 December.

Verbose were among the first regular spoken word night in Manchester to head into the ether, and continue to welcome audience and open micers to their monthly Zoom room (on 30 October with a Halloween special in collaboration with Switchblade Society), while after a brief foray into the great outdoors Liverpool’s A Lovely Word are back on the small screen – and their next night on 11 November (and creative writing workshop on 31 October) is organised alongside Homotopia.

Word Central has also been regularly hitting our living rooms (next up: 4 November, hosted by Tony Curry with special guest Kevin P Gilday), while the publisher behind the night, Flapjack Press, has been holding and has lined up numerous live stream book launches: 2 November sees Thick Richard and on 9 November there’s Rose Condo with guest Kieren King.

Poetry publisher Carcanet Press continues its online launch programme on 11 November with an evening, hosted by poet and academic John McAuliffe, presenting the final collection, The Historians, by the late Eavan Boland. Meanwhile fellow Manchester-based publishing house Comma Press hosts its annual National Creative Writing Industry Conference in partnership with MMU 26 to 30 October and launches The New Abject anthology with events – with Altrincham Word Fest on 29 October and with Northern Short Story Festival on 4 November – then revisits Resist: Stories of Uprising on 3 December with panellists including Zoe Lambert. December continues with Evan Jones talking about his two (two!) latest books, and Jessica Andrews chatting to Anita Sethi about all things glittery and Portico Prize. Watch this space for more on those…

Be sure to scroll down for more and check out our Guide To Bookshops In Manchester plus our literary guides to Liverpool, Leeds, Sheffield and Cumbria.

We are so grateful to National Lottery players, The National Lottery, DCMS and Arts Council England for supporting our freelance writers during this crisis. This means that, although venues remain shut and campaigns cancelled, our writers can be reengaged to help arts organisations and artists across the North of England share their online content with our culture-hungry readers.

Here are our picks