• Manchester Literature Festival presents Simon Armitage: Gilgamesh

    Performance Space

    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 […]

  • Manchester Literature Festival presents Willy Vlautin

    Performance Space

    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 […]

  • Manchester Literature Festival presents M. John Harrison

    Performance Space

    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 […]

  • Manchester Literature Festival presents Lady Hale & Lara Feigel

    Performance Space

    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 […]

  • Manchester Literature Festival presents Hernan Diaz

    Performance Space

    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 […]

  • Manchester Literature Festival presents Writing Creative Non-Fiction with Dave Haslam

    Performance Space

    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 […]

  • Manchester Literature Festival presents Little Reads Family Day

    Performance Space

    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 […]