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DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261018T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261018T170000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T105849Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T105849Z
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SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents Natasha Walter - Feminism for A World on Fire
DESCRIPTION:An inspiring conversation with acclaimed author and campaigner Natasha Walter about building a more connected and hopeful future.   \nDrawing on her powerful and urgent new book Feminism for a World on Fire\, Natasha explores how the challenges facing women today – from inequality and online misogyny to climate change – are deeply interconnected and why our responses can be too. She offers a vision of feminism rooted in solidarity\, community and care for both people and the planet\, imagining how women’s liberation can sit alongside movements for equality\, justice and environmental protection.   \n‘Natasha Walters is a unique voice and a big picture thinker. She’s right: this is a world on fire. This book will help you understand exactly how’ Carole Cadwalladr   \n‘At the heart of Natasha Walter’s book is a proposition that actually filled me with hope’ Mary Portas  \nJoin us for a thought-provoking and inclusive event full of hope\, as Natasha explores feminism\, social change and the power of collective action.  \nA Manchester Literature Festival event supported by Library Live.  \nNatasha Walter is an award-winning author\, journalist and campaigner. Her books include The New Feminism\, Living Dolls and Before the Light Fades. She is the founder of Women for Refugee Women and her work in her academic roles\, at the University of Cambridge and Queen Mary University of London\, focuses on women’s rights\, climate justice and equality.  \nBook tickets here or click ‘Book Now’ below
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-natasha-walter-feminism-for-a-world-on-fire/
CATEGORIES:Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Natasha-Walter-PHOTO-scaled.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261018T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261018T170000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T110312Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T110312Z
UID:14421-1792310400-1792342800@librarylive.co.uk
SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents Simon Armitage: Gilgamesh
DESCRIPTION:The Poet Laureate Simon Armitage returns to present his exhilarating new verse translation of Gilgamesh\, one of the world’s oldest and most compelling\, surviving works of literature. \nOriginating in ancient Mesopotamia nearly 4\,000 years ago\, this epic tale follows King Gilgamesh through adventures\, battles and profound personal loss. The poem explores themes that remain strikingly relevant today: power\, friendship\, love\, loss and what it means to be human. \nA Festival favourite and outstanding live performer\, Simon brings fresh energy and momentum to this ancient story\, capturing its emotional depth and relevance. See him live in what promises to be\, an uplifting journey into the very origins of storytelling. \nA Manchester Literature Festival event supported by Library Live. \nSimon Armitage was born in West Yorkshire and is Professor of Poetry at the University of Leeds. An award-winning poet\, translator\, broadcaster and musician\, he has published over twenty poetry collections and is the author of acclaimed translations including Sir Gawain and the Green Knight\, Pearl and The Owl and the Nightingale. He is the current Poet Laureate (2019-2029). \nBook tickets here or click ‘Book Now’ below
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-simon-armitage-gilgamesh/
LOCATION:Performance Space
CATEGORIES:Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Armitage-Simon_credit-Paul-Stuart-Photography-Ltd-2.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261019T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261019T170000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T111053Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T111358Z
UID:14426-1792396800-1792429200@librarylive.co.uk
SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents Willy Vlautin
DESCRIPTION:Join acclaimed musician\, songwriter and novelist Willy Vlautin for a special evening celebrating his powerful new novel\, The Left and the Lucky. Set in Portland\, Oregon\, the novel tells the story of Eddie\, a solitary house painter\, and Russell\, the vulnerable small neighbour who slowly changes his life. Heart wrenching yet uplifting\, The Left and the Lucky is a testament to kindness\, survival and human connection.   \nOne of America’s most distinctive chroniclers of working-class life\, Willy started writing stories and songs at the age of eleven after receiving his first guitar. He joins us to discuss unlikely friendships\, human connection and his commitment to telling working class stories through his work. Don’t miss an evening with one of contemporary fiction’s most charismatic and humane voices.   \n“One of America’s great writers” Roddy Doyle   \n“Willy Vlautin is one of the bravest novelists writing. Murderers\, cheats\, sadists\, showy examples of the banality of evil\, are easy\, but it takes real courage to write a novel about ordinary good people.” Ursula K. Le Guin  \nA Manchester Literature Festival event supported by Library Live.  \nWilly Vlautin is the acclaimed author of seven novels\, including The Horse\, winner of the 2025 Joyce Carol Oates Award. His novels The Motel Life and Lean on Pete became acclaimed films\, while The Night Always Comes was adapted by Netflix in 2025. Born in Reno\, Nevada\, he lives near Portland\, Oregon and teaches at Pacific University’s MFA in Writing programme. He is the founder of the bands Richmond Fontaine and The Delines.  \nBook tickets here or click ‘Book Now’ below
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-willy-vlautin/
LOCATION:Performance Space
CATEGORIES:Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Willy-Vlautin-photo-credit-Bobby-Abrahamson.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261020T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261020T170000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T112004Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T112004Z
UID:14431-1792483200-1792515600@librarylive.co.uk
SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents M. John Harrison
DESCRIPTION:Spend an evening with one of Britain’s greatest contemporary writers as M. John Harrison discusses his remarkable new novel\, The End of Everything\, with acclaimed writer Helen Mort.   \nSet in a fractured near-future where Europe has been mislaid\, governments barely function and mysterious new life forms emerge from the sea\, this unsettling and darkly funny novel follows a scavenger and his aunt – each drawn into separate journeys that challenges everything they think they know.   \nExpect a provocative and wide-ranging discussion about imagination\, literature and how we navigate a world where crisis has become the backdrop to everyday life.   \n‘M John Harrison is the closest thing we have to a present-day Wyndham or Ballard.’ New Statesman   \n‘The End of Everything is at once surreal\, seductive\, shrewdly funny and wholly terrifying.‘ Julia Armfield  \nA Manchester Literature Festival event supported by Library Live.  \nJohn Harrisonis the author of more than twenty books\, including the celebratedViriconium sequence\, Light\, The Centauri Device and The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again. Regarded as one of Britain’s most influential contemporary writers\, he has received numerous awards and written science fiction\, fantasy and speculative fiction.  His anti-memoir\, Wish I Was Here\, was described as a masterpiece and ‘a deep dive into the mind of a genius’ by Monique Roffey.   \nHelen Mort is a Sheffield based poet\, novelist\, non-fiction writer and creative writing lecturer.   \nBook tickets here or click ‘Book Now’ below
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-m-john-harrison/
LOCATION:Performance Space
CATEGORIES:Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/M-John-Harrison-credit-Hugo-Glendinning-1-scaled.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261021T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261021T170000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T123941Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T124027Z
UID:14439-1792569600-1792602000@librarylive.co.uk
SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents Lady Hale & Lara Feigel
DESCRIPTION:Lady Hale\, the first female President of the UK Supreme Court and author of the Women’s Prize longlisted With the Law on Our Side\, joins acclaimed writer Lara Feigel\, author of Custody: The Secret History of Mothers\, for a compelling conversation on law\, family and power.   \nDrawing on real cases and lived testimony\, Lady Hale opens up the legal system with clarity and humanity\, revealing how people experience the law and question where justice lies.   \nLara Feigel explores child custody through the lives of real women who challenged convention and fought for greater freedom and justice\, revealing how motherhood\, power and the law have shaped both family life and feminist progress.  \nTogether they will have a lively conversation about how justice is experienced by children\, mothers and families across history and today.  \nA Manchester Literature Festival event co-presented with the Centre for New Writing and Creative Manchester. Sponsored by Weightmans. Supported by Library Live.  \nLady Hale was the first woman to serve on the UK Supreme Court and its first female President. A pioneering legal figure\, she championed landmark reforms in family and disability law.  \nLara Feigel is the author of four highly acclaimed works of cultural history and a novel. She reviews regularly for the Guardian and contributes to a range of BBC radio programmes.  \nBook tickets here or click ‘Book Now’ below
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-lady-hale-lara-feigel/
LOCATION:Performance Space
CATEGORIES:Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Lara-Feigel-PHOTO-credit-Johnny-Ring-scaled.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261022T080000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261022T170000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T124500Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T124527Z
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SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents Hernan Diaz
DESCRIPTION:See Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hernan Diaz (Trust) discuss his brilliant new novel Ply. Set centuries from now\, Ply follows an orphan in a city on the brink of profound change\, drawn into an underground world of art\, music and risk – and a discovery that could reshape reality. A novel of ideas built from a story of people\, it blends Dickensian odyssey\, family drama and scientific thriller to explore selfhood\, connection and the distance between us and those we love.  \nRecently featured on Dua Lipa’s Service95 Book Club\, Hernan Diaz’s work continues to inspire readers worldwide. Don’t miss this unforgettable conversation with one of contemporary fiction’s most visionary voices.  \nA Manchester Literature Festival event supported by Library Live.  \nHernan Diaz was born in Argentina\, grew up in Sweden and now lives in New York. His acclaimed novels include Trust and In the Distance. Trust is currently being developed as a limited series for HBO\, and it has been named one of the New York Times’s Best 100 Books of the 21st Century. His work has been translated into thirty-seven languages.    \nBook tickets here or click ‘Book Now’ below
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-hernan-diaz/
LOCATION:Performance Space
CATEGORIES:Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/HERNAN-DIAZ-photo-copyright-Pascal-Perich-scaled.jpg
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BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261023T130000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261023T150000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T124950Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T124950Z
UID:14453-1792760400-1792767600@librarylive.co.uk
SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents Writing Creative Non-Fiction with Dave Haslam
DESCRIPTION:Dave Haslam\, author of the memoir Sonic Youth Slept on My Floor and books including My Second Home: Sylvia Plath in Paris\, 1956\, leads us through strategies to express a true story or life events in a way that incorporates imagination\, subjectivity\, novelistic elements\, and unconventional structures. The workshop is aimed at aspiring and early career writers and will include a study of works by the likes of Tom Wolfe and Deborah Levy.   \nA Manchester Literature Festival event supported by Library Live.  \nDave is an author\, broadcaster and DJ based in Manchester. His books include Manchester England\, Life After Dark and the forthcoming Creative Journeys\, drawing on four decades of conversations with some of the most compelling voices in music\, literature\, film and art.  His Art Decades series includes A Life in Thirty-Five Boxes: How I Survived Selling My Record Collection; We the Youth: Keith Haring’s New York Nightlife and Strawberry and the Big Apple: Grace Jones in Stockport\, 1980.    \nBook tickets here or click ‘Book Now’ below
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-writing-creative-non-fiction-with-dave-haslam/
LOCATION:Performance Space
CATEGORIES:Talks
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/4793-Writing-Creative-Non-Fiction-with-Dave-Haslam-Landscape.jpg
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=UTC:20261024T103000
DTEND;TZID=UTC:20261024T150000
DTSTAMP:20260824T095922
CREATED:20260820T125915Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20260820T125915Z
UID:14456-1792837800-1792854000@librarylive.co.uk
SUMMARY:Manchester Literature Festival presents Little Reads Family Day
DESCRIPTION:Take part in a joyful day of stories\, theatre\, music\, dancing\, crafts and family fun. Help create some magical shoes with The Elves and the Shoemaker in an interactive show from Peoplescape Theatre\, packed with music\, puppetry\, clowning and storytelling. Strut your stuff with author and West End musical theatre star Robert Tregoning in a confidence-boosting event inspired by his latest picture book Dylan\, Daisy and the Disco Ball. Explore storytelling through movement with dancer Magdalen Bartlett. Book tickets for the individual events and drop in for some free crafts. Suitable for ages 3+. \nA Manchester Literature Festival event supported by Library Live.  \nBooking links:   \nThe Elves and the Shoemaker\, 10.30am – 11.15am | £6 – Book tickets here \nDance with Magdalen Bartlett\, 12 – 12.40pm | Free but booking recommended – Book tickets here \nRobert Tregoning – Dylan\, Daisy and the Disco Ball\, 1.30pm – 2.15pm | £6 – Book tickets here
URL:https://librarylive.co.uk/event/manchester-literature-festival-presents-little-reads-family-day/
LOCATION:Performance Space
CATEGORIES:Family
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://librarylive.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/4793-Little-Reads-Family-Days-Landscape.jpg
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