David Nicholls in Conversation
2024-04-22 19:00 - 20:00 UTC | Performance Space
THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT
Presented by Manchester Literature Festival
A welcome return to Manchester Literature Festival for one of the UK’s best loved authors. David Nicholls joins us to discuss his witty and engrossing new novel, You Are Here. The story of two lonely people, thirty-eight-year-old Marnie and forty-two-year-old Michael, battered by break-ups and the loss of the futures they’d hoped for. Brought together by a mutual friend, they embark on the Coast to Coast walk. As they travel through stunning landscapes and pouring rain, Marnie and Michael are reminded how to open up to new people, how to have fun in sometimes arduous conditions, and, ultimately, how to love.
David is the best-selling author of five previous novels including Starter for Ten, which has recently been turned into a musical, and One Day, which has been adapted into a new Netflix series starring Ambika Mod and Leo Woodall. He is also a talented screenwriter, garnering an Emmy nomination and a BAFTA win for best writer for his adaptation of Edward St Aubyn’s Patrick Melrose novels, starring Benedict Cumberbatch.
Presented in partnership with LibraryLive, the Centre for New Writing, Creative Manchester and Waterstones Deansgate.

George the Poet
2024-04-24 18:00 - 20:00
TRACK RECORD – George the Poet in conversation with Okechukwu Nzelu
Join us for the Manchester launch of TRACK RECORD – the ground-breaking new memoir from acclaimed rapper and podcast host, George the Poet.
We’re thrilled to be hosting the Manchester launch of George the Poet’s ‘Track Record: Me, Music and the War on Blackness’. Part memoir, part interrogation of politics, capitalism and race, Track Record is a powerful and brutally honest look at the world in which we live and a searing piece of social commentary that radically shifts the conversation around race and power. George will be in conversation with Okechukwu Nzelu (Here Again Now)
Doors: 6.00, starts: 6.30
Tickets are £8 or free when pre-ordering a copy of the book. TRACK RECORD will also be available to purchase on the night and George will be signing copies after the talk. If you would like a signed copy but cannot make the event, please contact us on 0161 274 3331 or manchester@blackwell.co.uk and we can arrange this for you.
About the book:
‘When Grime became the soundtrack to our lives, it gave a voice to the hustle. We were all looking for money, but it was deeper than that; we were looking for a future.’
George the Poet knows better than anybody the importance of understanding your surroundings.
Born to Ugandan parents on the St Raphael’s Estate in Neasden, north-west London, George Mpanga has always been aware of his community. It was both his teacher and his inspiration – giving him the language, the experiences, and the skills to become the person he is today.
In Track Record, George unveils the power dynamics that shape our world, shedding light on the forces that restrict Black creativity and put limits on Black excellence. By interrogating the history of colonialism and exploring capitalism’s racist legacy, George offers a fresh perspective on the world around us.
Delving into the music scene and crucial political and economic moments in history, this book provides the backstory of where we are today.
Honest, thought-provoking, and passionate, Track Record is a ground-breaking memoir by one of the UK’s most unique voices.

Olivia Laing: The Garden Against Time
2024-05-10 19:00 - 20:00
Presented by Manchester Literature Festival.
‘A garden is a time capsule, as well as a portal out of time.’
In her compelling new work of non-fiction The Garden Against Time, Olivia Laing brings to life her own slice of paradise: the restoration of a garden designed by Mark Rumary of Notcutts. Alongside her own endeavours, Olivia explores the idea of paradise and gardens, real and imagined, through the work of Derek Jarman, W.G. Sebald, John Milton, John Clare, William Morris and many others. She considers how gardens are political and how these slices of Eden survive war, offer a place for rebel outposts and communal utopias, and and bring joy during difficult times.
Simply one of our most exciting writers’ – The Observer. Olivia is a widely acclaimed author and critic. She is the author of seven books including The Lonely City, The Trip to Echo Spring, Everybody: A Book About Freedom and Funny Weather: Art in an Emergency. Her first novel, Crudo, was a Sunday Times bestseller and won the 2019 James Tait Memorial Prize. In 2018 she was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize for non-fiction and has written extensively about writers, art and creativity, including essays and forewords on Virginia Woolf, David Wojnarowicz, Cookie Mueller, Chantal Joffe and Wolfgang Tillmans.
Presented in partnership with Library Live, the Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester.

Dominic Berry: How Can I Be Now?
2024-12-12 18:00 - 19:30
Flapjack Press presents How Can I Be Now?, Selected Poems by Dominic Berry.
“Maybe I’m strange, but I want to ask whether I’m the only one who wishes more people cried together?”
Queer, vegan poet Dominic Berry presents his favourite poems for performance from his collections Tomorrow, I Will Go Dancing, Wizard, No Tigers and Yes Life, along with new poetry designed to engage and inspire.
An extraordinary and enthralling collection exploring life, personal development and wellbeing by the Glastonbury Festival poet in residence and two-times Saboteur Award-winning Best Spoken Word Performer.
LGBTQIA+ and includes adult themes and language.
“Dominic’s poetry leaves your soul grateful for its medicinal remedies.” Griot Gabriel
“Words that penetrate your soul like surround sound.” Jenny Berry
“Amazing. Heart-centred.” Ellerose the Unicorn
“Dynamic, tender and thought-provoking.” Jackie Juno
Dominic Berry is a Manchester-based performance poet renowned for his eloquent yet uncompromising stage shows and a desire to confront inequality. His work has taken him across the continents of Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australasia. He has been Glastonbury Festival’s poet in residence, and has won Manchester Literature Festival’s Superheroes of Slam and New York’s famous Nuyorican Poets’ Café Slam. He has also twice been publicly voted Sabotage Review’s Best UK Spoken Word Performer.

How Can I Be Now? is published in paperback by Flapjack Press.
Flapjack Press: exploring the synergy between performance and the page.
Shortlisted Most Innovative Publisher, Saboteur Awards.
Shortlisted Best Northern Publisher, Northern Soul Awards.
“Publishes the most cutting-edge poetic performers.” Writing Manchester
“Among the region’s most innovative and forward-thinking publishing houses.” Manchester’s Finest

An Evening with V. E. Schwab
2025-06-28 19:00 - 20:30
We are hugely excited to welcome bestselling author V.E. Schwab to Manchester Central Library as we celebrate the publication of her new genre-defying, unforgettable novel Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil.
From the author of the incredible standalone novel The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue comes a spellbinding queer love story following the desires and dreams of a trio of enigmatic young women. Don’t miss the chance to hear from V.E. Schwab about this much-anticipated release, before an extended audience Q&A.
V.E. Schwab is the mega-selling author of over twenty books, including the acclaimed Shades of Magic universe, the Villains series, the City of Ghosts trilogy, Gallant, The Fragile Threads of Power and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.
The Ticket, Signed Book & Tote Bag bundle includes a pre-signed copy of Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil and a tote bag for collection on the evening.
Please note that this event will not include a live book signing.

If you have any questions about this event or if you have access requests, please do let us know how we can support your visit by emailing events@waterstones.com.
Photo of V.E Schwab by Jenna Maurice.
Tickets – ‘Book Now’ below or book here

Jo Hamilton: The Post Office Scandal
2025-07-01 19:00 - 20:00
Blink Publishing and Manchester Libraries present an evening with Jo Hamilton at Central Library.
‘My first big discrepancy came in the shape of a £2,000 shortfall that just made no sense at all. Of all the things that kept me awake once in the thick of the nightmare that unfolded, it was being stuck in that truly incomprehensible moment where the mere touch of a button suddenly turned £2,000 into £4,000 within three minutes on that cold December night in 2003.’
Jo Hamilton was one of more than 700 sub-postmasters prosecuted between 2000 and 2014 based on information from the Post Office’s faulty Horizon accounting system. She was told to put right a wrong she hadn’t committed and pushed to the very brink of her existence – remortgaging her house, borrowing from anyone she could in order to repay money that she hadn’t taken, and questioning her own sanity.
Immortalised in ITV smash hit drama, Mr Bates v The Post Office, this is Jo Hamilton’s extraordinary first-hand account of how she built a Post Office that was at the very heart of her community and lost it all through no fault of her own. For the first time, beyond the headlines and the corridors of the High Court and the UK’s political institutions, we will finally hear Jo’s full story and the human side of this scandal as well as the untold struggle she faced during the biggest miscarriages of justice in modern history. Ultimately, this is a story of hope and the strength of community and the ability of a few to fight back against the odds.
Tickets for this event are on a pay what you can basis. All tickets have the same access, the pricing is to make the event more accessible to people on all incomes.
Book tickets here or click the ‘Book Now’ button below

PRIVATE RITES: Julia Armfield in conversation with Jess White
2025-07-03 18:30 - 20:00
We’re are thrilled to welcome Julia Armfield back to Manchester for the paperback publication of Private Rites, an uneasy, water-logged tale of family, queer love and faith at the end of the world. Julia will be in conversation with Jess White.
Tickets are £4. Admission is free when purchasing a copy the book.
About the book:
It’s been raining for a long time now, for so long that the lands have reshaped themselves. Old places have been lost. Arcane rituals and religions have crept back into practice.
Sisters Isla, Irene and Agnes have not spoken in some time when their estranged father dies. A famous architect revered for making the new world navigable, he had long cut himself off from public life. They find themselves uncertain of how to grieve his passing when everything around them seems to be ending anyway.
As the sisters come together to clear the grand glass house that is the pinnacle of his legacy, they begin to sense that the magnetic influence of their father lives on through it. Something sinister seems to be unfolding, something related to their mother’s long-ago disappearance and the strangers who have always been unusually interested in their lives. Soon, it becomes clear that the sisters have been chosen for a very particular purpose, one with shattering implications for their family and their imperilled world.
About the author:
Julia Armfield is a fiction writer, living in London with her wife and cat.
Her work has been published in Granta, The White Review and Best British Short Stories 2019 and 2021. In 2019, she was shortlisted for the Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year award. She was longlisted for the Deborah Rogers Award 2018, and won the White Review Short Story Prize 2018 and a Pushcart Prize in 2020. She is the author of salt slow, a collection of short stories, which was longlisted for the Polari Prize 2020 and the Edge Hill Prize 2020.
Her debut novel, Our Wives Under The Sea, was shortlisted for the Foyles Fiction Book of the Year Award 2022 and won the Polari Prize 2023. Her second novel, Private Rites, was longlisted for the inaugural Climate Fiction Prize in 2024.
Ticket sales will end on Thursday 3rd July at 5pm. If you cannot make the event but would like a dedicated copy of a book, please email events.manchester@blackwell.co.uk or call us on 0161 274 3331.
Our event format is usually a 45 minute discussion between the author and interviewer, followed by a chance for audience members to ask questions. There will be the opportunity to get your book signed/dedicated after the event. Events are a brilliant opportunity to discover new books, meet authors and likeminded readers and learn something new.
Support your local bookshop and help us keep the Manchester literary scene vibrant and exciting. You can follow Blackwells on Eventbrite and social media (@BlackwellsMCR) to keep up to date on upcoming events.

An Evening with A.F. Steadman
2025-08-26 18:00 - 19:00
Join us for what promises to be a brilliant Q&A event with internationally bestselling author A.F. Steadman to celebrate the release of Skandar and the Spirit War, the fifth and final book in the blockbuster Skandar series! Join us to hear all about the Skandar series and there will also be a Q&A so you can put your burning questions to the author herself!
The blockbuster hit series about bloodthirsty unicorns, epic sky battles and elemental magic was crowned Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year in 2022. The series has been translated into 47+ languages and a film produced by Sony Pictures is in the works.
Come and celebrate the publication of Skandar and the Spirit War, the highly anticipated fifth and final book in the Skandar series at this exclusive and unforgettable family event.
A.F. Steadman will be signing and dedicating copies of the Skandar series after the event, but due to time limitations A.F. Steadman will sign and dedicate one copy of Skandar and the Spirit War plus one other book per child. The book and ticket option includes a pre-signed copy of the hardback exclusive edition of Skandar and the Spirit War (RRP. £14.99) which will be available for collection at the event.
Please note that ticket holders 16 years of age and under must be accompanied by an adult (who must also purchase a ticket) in order to gain entry to the venue and to remain in the venue for the duration of the performance. The venue reserves the right to refuse entry to unaccompanied ticket holders who are 16 years of age and under.
The event may be filmed and photographed, as an attendee you consent to footage of you being used for promotional purposes.

An Evening with Kathy Reichs
2025-09-12 19:00 - 20:00
​Join #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathy Reichs for a rare visit to the UK to celebrate over 25 years of her bestselling series.
​Best known as the inspiration behind Fox Television’s longest-running scripted drama, Bones, Kathy will be in Manchester for a one-night-only. She’ll be discussing her career as an author and forensic anthropologist, how she crafts her smash-hit stories and what it takes to plot and pen a murder.
​Hosted by Sunday Times Best Seller, Clare Mackintosh, join us for an evening of stories.
​Every book + ticket comes with a copy of Fire & Bones, which Kathy will sign and dedicate on the day.
​
About the book: Fire & Bones

​It’s never easy working fire scenes.
Called to Washington, DC to analyse the victims of a mysterious arson attack, Tempe quickly finds her misgivings justified. The fire site is in Foggy Bottom, a neighbourhood with a colourful history, and as the pieces start falling into place, the property’s ownership becomes more and more suspicious.
Sensing a good story, Tempe teams up with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Delving into the past, the duo learns that back in the Thirties and Forties, the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant – until the son of one of the gang members is shot dead at his farm in Virginia.
When another Foggy Bottom Gang-linked property burns to the ground, claiming one more victim, what might have been a coincidence starts to look more like targeted attacks. As she and Ivy dig deeper, Tempe’s instincts point towards the obvious: somehow, her every move since coming to Washington has been anticipated in advance. And every path forward brings with it a lethal threat.
​About Kathy Reichs

​Kathy Reichs’s first novel, Déjà Dead, published in 1997, won the Ellis Award for Best First Novel and was an international bestseller.
​To date, she has written twenty-four novels featuring forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan. Kathy was also a producer of Fox Television’s longest-running scripted drama, Bones, which was based on her work and her novels. One of the very few forensic anthropologists certified by the American Board of Forensic Anthropology, Kathy lives in Charlotte.

An evening with Katherine Rundell
2025-09-15 18:00 - 19:00
We are delighted to welcome bestselling author Katherine Rundell to Manchester to celebrate the release of The Poisoned King!
The mesmerising follow-up to Rundell’s Waterstones Book of the Year 2023-winning Impossible Creatures finds Christopher embroiled in an elaborate rescue mission as he returns to the magical world of the Archipelago.
Katherine joins us at Manchester Central Library for a talk, audience Q&A and signing. Please note that Katherine will sign all books bought from Waterstones on the day of the event, but due to time restraints and to make sure that all readers have a chance to get their book signed, Katherine will only be able to sign one book brought from home
About The Poisoned King
The dragons call out, and the ratatoskas tell of murder.
Come with us now. There is justice to be done.

Return to the Archipelago – the secret place in our world where all the creatures of myth still live and thrive, for a rescue mission like no other. The Poisoned King is the second book in the epic Impossible Creatures fantasy series from bestselling author Katherine Rundell.
When Christopher Forrester is unexpectedly woken by a miniature dragon chewing on his face, his heart leaps for joy. For months he’s dreamed of returning to the Archipelago. But he did not know it would involve a rescue mission on the back of a sphinx, or a plan to enter a dragon’s lair. Nor did he imagine it would involve a girl with a flock of birds at her side, a new-hatched chick in her pocket and a ravenous hunger for justice…
About the author
KATHERINE RUNDELL is a multi-million-bestselling author whose novels for children have won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the Blue Peter Book Award and the Costa Children’s Book Award, among many others. Impossible Creatures was Waterstones Book of the Year 2023, and in 2024 Katherine was named the British Book Awards Author of the Year and Impossible Creatures won the Children’s Fiction Book of the Year. She is a Quondam Fellow of All Souls College and a Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Oxford, where she works on Renaissance literature. Her books for adults include Super-Infinite, winner of the Baillie Gifford Prize. Very occasionally she goes climbing across the rooftops of Oxford, late at night.

Book Launch: Spit & Sawdust by Kieren King
2025-12-04 18:00 - 19:30
Join Great Northern Poetry Slam Champion Kieren King for the launch of his new collection. Including an author performance, interview, Q&A, and book signing.
Pull up a stool, mind your pint, and drink in perfectly pitched poetry from the Great Northern Slam champion and four-time UK National Slam finalist.
With poems of pubs, politics, love, and life in Salford, Kieren King’s first solo collection is funny, fearless, and unapologetically Northern – poetry that belongs as much in the bar as on the bookshelf.
FREE EVENT, EVERYONE WELCOME.
“Stunning.” Adam Farrer
“Wonderful.” Mike Garry
“Beautiful.” Oliver James Lomax
“Alive with craft, wit, and spirit.” Reece Williams
“The best of working-class poetry.” Louise Fazackerley
Flapjack Press: flapjackpress.co.uk

Book Launch: Forbidden Waters by Rob Parker
2026-01-15 18:00 - 19:30
Join us to celebrate publication of the second in Rob Parker’s Cam Killick series: Forbidden Waters!

We are thrilled to celebrate the launch of Rob Parker’s Forbidden Waters on the 15th of January at Manchester Central Library! Rob will be in conversation with Luca Veste, author of The Bone Keeper.
Doors: 5.30pm, starts: 6pm.
Tickets are £4. Admission is free when purchasing a copy of the book in advance.
About Forbidden Waters:
It starts with the knife. Found at the bottom of a hidden lake in the Norfolk Broads, covered in blood and heart tissue so fresh the water hasn’t yet washed it all away. What salvage diver Cam Killick has found is a murder weapon from a very recent crime – but how do you solve a murder without a body?
The remoteness of the setting is itself a clue. Only a handful of people know the location of the lake, let alone how to access it. But no sooner have Cam and DS Claire Rogers started working through this ready-made suspect pool than one of them disappears.
The ripples from Cam’s discovery have disturbed a dangerous predator, one who knows the water even better than Cam himself. The question now is what they want – and how many more people will die before Cam can stop them?
About the author:
Rob Parker is the author of Far From The Tree, the No. 1 bestselling thriller for Audible Original and the first instalment in the Thirty Miles trilogy, as well as eight novels for independent publishers. He is the host of both Crime Central Manchester, a monthly showcase of emerging crime writing talent and blockbuster bestsellers, and the Blood Brothers podcast. Rob lives in Warrington with his wife, three children and their dogs, and was inspired to write The Troubled Deep by years of holidays in the Norfolk Broads – during which he has never, he is pleased to say, found a dead body. Forbidden Waters is the second in the Cam Killick series.
If you cannot make the event but would like a dedicated copy of the book, please email events.manchester@blackwell.co.uk or call 0161 274 3331.

Nothing remained unchanged but the clouds: Artist talk and UK book launch
2026-02-05 18:00 - 20:00
Nothing remained unchanged but the clouds by Alan J. Ward is an artist book in the fullest sense: a work conceived, shaped, and authored through artistic practice. Developed through sustained collaboration with the community of Grandpré in the French Ardennes, the book traces stories held within German WWI postcards and transforms them into a living archive of memory, material culture, and shared authorship.
The launch will take the form of an illustrated conversation moderated by an arts commissioner familiar with Ward’s practice. Ward will be joined by a small panel of academic, artist, and language collaborators, alongside voices from Grandpré. Together, the discussion will weave local histories with contemporary perspectives, while reanimating the enduring connection between Manchester and Charleville-Mézières, the departmental capital.
With the support of Alliance Française, a special display of selected artefacts from Archives+ and the North West Film Archive has been assembled specifically for the evening. These materials document the shared histories between Manchester and the Ardennes, and sit alongside the themes explored in the book.
The evening will conclude with a question-and-answer session, offering the audience an opportunity to engage directly with the panel, followed by the chance to purchase signed, discounted copies of the artist book.
Free – reserve a seat via eventbrite here

Attila the Stockbroker: Fiery Words for Hellish Times
2026-04-30 18:00 - 19:30
Punk poet, latterly dub poet, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Attila the Stockbroker exploded into public consciousness in 1982-3 via two John Peel sessions and a Melody Maker front cover, and is now celebrating 45 years earning a living doing what he loves.
Fiery Words for Hellish Times is his most topical and incendiary publication yet. As the news goes from awful to worse, these are poems to make you laugh, cry, get angry, and above all, think!
Presented by Flapjack Press and Manchester Libraries.
https://flapjackpress.co.uk

Robin Ince: Let the Quiet Ones Rise Book Launch
2026-06-29 18:00 - 19:30
Monday 29th June, 6.00pm – 7.15pm. Doors open 5.40pm and free entry.
“It takes insight and empathy to have unpatronising sympathy.”
Let the Quiet Ones Rise: Poems About Standing Up and Standing Out is a collection of instinctual poetry from the deepest part of a neurodivergent heart, and considers the sadness of being alone, but also the happiness of finding people who empower you.
“Profundity, fecundity, brevity and levity, it’s all here.” Shaun Keaveny
“Words of empathy and compassion.” Tanita Tikaram
Robin Ince is a flibbertigibbet. His working life began in stand-up comedy, but he is excited by too many things to take a single path. He was co-creator and, for 16 years, co-host of the multi-award-winning international success The Infinite Monkey Cage. He has written books on the universe (and all the stuff that is in it), the neurodivergent mind, giant killer crab novels, and his deep love of bookshops and libraries. In 2024 he started writing poetry obsessively and he loves the freedom that comes with it.
Robin is two-time Bookseller’s Association Author of the Year winner, a winner of Celebrity Mastermind, Richard Osman’s House of Games and Pointless Celebrities (twice), and his best pointless answers were ‘Alderney’ and ‘Eve Ferret’.

LOVE STORIES etc FESTIVAL
2026-07-17 10:00 - 2026-07-18 20:00
#LoveStoriesEtc romance festival is returning for a third year to Manchester Central Library on 17th and 18th July 2026 for two packed days of exciting author panels, industry expert led workshops, and creative sessions!

LAST FEW TICKETS HERE.

The schedule for Friday 17th July includes…
‘How to Boss Booktok’ with Ash Jayy from The Picture of Romance
‘What Can an Editor do for You?’ with freelance editor Caroline Hogg
A writer’s advice session hosted by the Romantic Novelists’ Association
‘How to look Professional Online on a Budget’ with Branding Expert and Photographer, Claire Gardner from The Authors Lounge
A Book Bedazzling Party
Kindly sponsored by Vinci Books. Escape to the sun with a Sublime Retreats romance by Joy Skye!
A Booklovers tour of Manchester
A Silent Reading Social Event
Why Romance Readers Should Rule The World with Bella North
On Saturday 18th, we’re spoiling you with a bumper Author Day including –
Rosie Walsh, Lizzie Damilola Blackburn, Kate Lord Brown,
Cal Speet, Rachel Hore, Jessica George,
Cressida McLaughlin, Kiley Dunbar, Rufaro Faith Mazarura,
Liz Fenwick, Holly Hepburn, Chloe Seager,
Bella Osborne, Jill Mansell, Kirstie Pelling,
Rachel Wood, Libby Page, Beth Moran, Megan Clawson
Bianca Gillam, Matt Cain MBE, Ellis Hunter
Jack Strange, Tessa Bickers,
Catrin Cadogan, Roxy Dunn, Annie Lord
Rosie Storey and Georgia Stone!!
