Events

Join Manchester Histories and Queer Up North for a panel discussion exploring what today’s queer cultural spaces can learn from Queer Up North, cultural activism and the radical past. Looking back at the festival in the context of the AIDS crisis, Section 28 and wider movements for LGBTQ+ rights, the conversation asks what should be […]

Beloved poet, broadcaster and performer Ian McMillan launches his moving and inventive new collection Red River Valley. Drawing on family life, everyday absurdities and the impact of austerity on the South Yorkshire village where he has lived all his life, Ian creates poems that are funny, poignant and full of humanity.   Renowned for his warmth, wit and extraordinary live readings, he brings language vividly to life […]

Beloved poet, broadcaster and performer Ian McMillan launches his moving and inventive new collection Red River Valley. Drawing on family life, everyday absurdities and the impact of austerity on the South Yorkshire village where he has lived all his life, Ian creates poems that are funny, poignant and full of humanity.   Renowned for his warmth, wit and extraordinary live readings, he brings language vividly to life […]

Beloved author, screenwriter and Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce brings his trademark wit and warmth to a moving conversation about books, imagination and the stories that shape our lives.   Inspired by his new non-fiction book, A British Childhood, as well as many of his own favourite reads, Frank reflects on what it means to grow up in Britain today, […]

Beloved author, screenwriter and Waterstones Children's Laureate Frank Cottrell-Boyce brings his trademark wit and warmth to a moving conversation about books, imagination and the stories that shape our lives.   Inspired by his new non-fiction book, A British Childhood, as well as many of his own favourite reads, Frank reflects on what it means to grow up in Britain today, […]

Two of Northern Ireland’s most acclaimed, contemporary authors, Louise Kennedy and Wendy Erskine, join BBC 6 Music broadcaster Deb Grant for an unmissable conversation about storytelling and identity.   Louise Kennedy (Trespasses) introduces Stations, one of the most anticipated novels of 2026, a moving and immersive story of first love, friendship, freedom and reinvention that spans decades and explores the choices that echo throughout our […]

Two of Northern Ireland’s most acclaimed, contemporary authors, Louise Kennedy and Wendy Erskine, join BBC 6 Music broadcaster Deb Grant for an unmissable conversation about storytelling and identity.   Louise Kennedy (Trespasses) introduces Stations, one of the most anticipated novels of 2026, a moving and immersive story of first love, friendship, freedom and reinvention that spans decades and explores the choices that echo throughout our […]

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear two of the world’s most visionary poets read and discuss their sublime poetry, exploring political engagement and the interplay between survival and testimony.  Over five decades, American poet Carolyn Forché has established herself as both ‘a poet of witness’ and an indefatigable human rights activist. Beautifully crafted, her poems are testimonies, enquiries and wonderments. Her anthology, Against Forgetting, […]

Don’t miss this opportunity to hear two of the world’s most visionary poets read and discuss their sublime poetry, exploring political engagement and the interplay between survival and testimony.  Over five decades, American poet Carolyn Forché has established herself as both ‘a poet of witness’ and an indefatigable human rights activist. Beautifully crafted, her poems are testimonies, enquiries and wonderments. Her anthology, Against Forgetting, […]

An afternoon exploring the supernatural with writers Jenn Ashworth, David Gaffney, Beth Barker and Nicholas Royle – four contributors to Brutalist Ghost Stories, a haunting new anthology inspired by Britain’s post-war architecture.   Blending literary fiction with the uncanny, these original stories reimagine Brutalist buildings as places where history, memory and the supernatural collide. From Preston Bus Station and the Barbican to Forton Service […]

An afternoon exploring the supernatural with writers Jenn Ashworth, David Gaffney, Beth Barker and Nicholas Royle – four contributors to Brutalist Ghost Stories, a haunting new anthology inspired by Britain’s post-war architecture.   Blending literary fiction with the uncanny, these original stories reimagine Brutalist buildings as places where history, memory and the supernatural collide. From Preston Bus Station and the Barbican to Forton Service […]

An inspiring conversation with acclaimed author and campaigner Natasha Walter about building a more connected and hopeful future.   Drawing 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 […]

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. Originating 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 […]

An inspiring conversation with acclaimed author and campaigner Natasha Walter about building a more connected and hopeful future.   Drawing 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 […]

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. Originating 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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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.   Set 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 […]

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.   Set 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 […]

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.   Drawing on real cases and lived testimony, Lady Hale opens up the […]

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.   Drawing on real cases and lived testimony, Lady Hale opens up the […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]