BIRMINGHAM LITERATURE
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025
We are living through turbulent times and it is easier than ever to feel disconnected from each other and from the version of the world we want to live in. At Birmingham Literature Festival we are holding tighter than ever before to the things that have always connected us: books, ideas and conversations.
In the thick of planning for the festival it can be hard to articulate a theme but when we step back and look at the programme as a whole, we can see the threads running through it. And this year, that thread is connection.
With Keiran Goddard and Kasim Ali we’ll reflect on how hometowns and places can both connect and constrain us. With Corinne Fowler, Malachi McIntosh, Casey Bailey and Miranda Kaufmann we’ll think about our relationship to historic buildings and their symbolic connection to the country’s past.
With Laura Bates we’ll explore how the internet purports to bring us together but instead can isolate us in insidious ways. With Adam Ferner and Nicola Slawson we’ll discuss family structures and what it means to live single in a culture that expects everyone to be romantically connected.
With Jo Bell, Joanna Pocock and Phoebe Smith we’ll think about travel – on waterways, buses and foot – and the ways it connects us to ourselves, to the land and community. With Sadiah Qureshi we’ll explore the tangled histories of extinction and empire, enforced dislocation and disconnection. And with Julian Baggini we’ll examine the effectiveness of our increasingly globally reliant and interconnected food systems.
We’ve been considering connection on a broader scale too. This year we are collaborating with Verve Poetry Festival, Nine Arches Press, The Emma Press and the Feminist Translation Network to champion the amazing work of our fellow Midlands creatives. Further afield, we’re working with the Royal Literary Fund, Wasafiri and English PEN to support the important work they are doing in championing writers and creative freedom.
For the first time ever, in collaboration with iconic Birmingham brand Punks and Chancers, festival merchandise is available to purchase online and at festival events.
And, of course, we are thrilled that our local Digbeth-based independent bookshop, Voce Books, are supporting the festival again this year with a wonderfully curated festival bookshop.
Our most important and valued connection, as always, is with you, the readers. Each festival event offers such a valuable space to connect with writers we admire and with fellow readers to have conversations about books and ideas. We’re grateful every single year we get to continue to do this. I hope you enjoy this year’s programme – our whole team is looking forward to connecting with you in the city centre this Autumn.
Shantel Edwards
Festival Director
Jo Bell Page 27
Mike gayle Page 17
Kasim Ali & Keiran Goddard Page 8
laura bates Page 8
Jonathan coe Page 11
Sadiah Qureshi Page 17
Malcolm X: A Deeper Purpose PAGE 23
Nathalie Olah & Jess Shannon Page 30
bradley taylor Page 24
Malik Al Nasir Page 29
marcus Ryder Page 33
Shady Lewis and Tawseef Khan Page 28 kit de waal Page 21
How the World Eats
with Julian Baggini
Thursday 9th October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
Bad Romance
with Kat Dunn and Caroline Lea
Thursday 9th October, 6pm – 7pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door. Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
Gothic fiction is full of stories of women falling in love with monsters. This event brings together two feminist interpretations of seminal gothic texts – Frankenstein, and the relationship between Percy and Mary Shelley, and Carmilla, the sapphic precursor to Dracula.
Caroline Lea’s Love, Sex and Frankenstein explores female rage, creative madness and the steamy scandal that birthed the world’s most famous work of gothic fiction. Set against the violent wilderness of the Peaks and the uncontrolled appetite of the Industrial Revolution, Kat Dunn’s Hungerstone is a modern retelling of Carmilla, a captivating story of female hunger and desire.
Chaired by Anna Metcalfe.
How we live is shaped by how we eat. As a Western society, whose food is farmed or bred in vast and complex global networks, we are increasingly reliant on a precarious system for our food.
Julian Baggini’s How the World Eats argues that it is more urgent than ever that we have a better understanding of how we feed ourselves. His latest book examines cutting edge technologies – new farming methods, cultured meat, genetically modified foods – as well as the ethics and value of ultra processed foods, delving into the best and worst food practices from across the world.
Chaired by Pawas Bisht.
THURSday 9 October
The Price of Life
with Jenny Kleeman
Thursday 9th October, 8pm – 9pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
We say that life is priceless, yet the cost of saving a life, creating a life or compensating for a life taken is routinely calculated. For philanthropists, judges, criminals, healthcare providers and government ministers, it’s just part of the job.
In The Price of Life, journalist and broadcaster, Jenny Kleeman takes us on an adventure to meet some of the people who decide what our lives are worth. From hitmen to modern day slaves, through a serious of extraordinary encounters, her book asks vital questions about how much our lives are worth and who gets to make those judgments.
Chaired by Thomas Glave.
Friday 10 October
Birmingham on the Page
with Kasim Ali and Keiran Goddard
Friday 10th October, 6pm – 7pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
It is not often you open a book and find yourself in a story about Birmingham, let alone in parts of the city that aren’t typically represented in literary fiction because they are full of workingclass stories. Join Birmingham born writers Kasim Ali and Keiran Goddard as they offer us stories of Alum Rock and Shard End that think about the ways the places we are from shape us and the trajectory of our lives.
Kasim Ali’s Who Will Remain follows Amir as he enters university and meets peers whose versions of life outside of Alum Rock – money, freedom – lead him to make choices in his own life that have huge consequences.
Keiran Goddard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lighting follows five friends as they attempt to make lives for themselves on an estate in Shard End and wrestles with the question of how we adapt when our lives don’t end up as we planned.
Chaired by Shantel Edwards.
The New Age of Sexism
with Laura Bates
Friday 10th October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
In a year in which Netflix’s Adolescence has dominated the headlines, Laura Bates’s latest book, The New Age of Sexism, is a timely and necessary investigation into the ways that the internet and AI are making the real and online world unsafe for women, and boys, from an alarmingly young age.
The New Age of Sexism explores cyber brothels, sex robots, deepfake pornography and the metaverse, examining the ways that new technology is infiltrating our lives, and our schools, in deeply misogynistic ways. Laura’s book is a warning that we are in the process of coding discrimination and inequality into the future, rather than using the opportunity new technology and AI offers us to reimagine a safer, more equitable future for women and marginalised communities.
Chaired by Sue Beardsmore.
The Lost Girls of Autism
with Gina Rippon
Friday 10th October, 8pm – 9pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
It is becoming increasingly acknowledged that bias in medical science most often impacts women and girls, and neuroscience is no exception. Gina Rippon, writer and neuroscientist, explores the history of autism and the exclusion and misdiagnosis of women and girls in her latest book The Lost Girls of Autism.
Her book delves into the ways that autistic girls are often misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression or personality disorders and only discover their neurodivergence later in life, when they have missed out on decades of support and understanding. Join us for a discussion about how Gina’s research is changing the story for autistic women.
Chaired by Maya Wasowicz.
The Proof of My Innocence
with Jonathan Coe
Friday 10th October, 8.30pm – 9.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
One of Birmingham’s most beloved authors Jonathan Coe returns to the festival this year to talk to us about his latest genre defying novel, The Proof of My Innocence. The novel follows Phyl, a recent graduate settling uncomfortably into life back at her parents’ house postuniversity, who stumbles across a forty-yearold mystery involving a radical think tank at Cambridge University.
Part state of the nation novel, cosy crime caper and coming of age story, Jonathan’s novel offers a blisteringly funny and thrilling critique of Britain’s drift towards the political right.
Chaired by Yasmin Ali.
Workshop
Crime Fiction
with Natalie Marlow
Saturday 11 October, 10am – 12pm
The Exchange, Centenary Square Tickets: £30, bursaries available
Great crime stories depend on convincing characters to drive the plot forward and create intrigue and suspense. Discover how to create complex characters from scratch with acclaimed crime fiction writer Natalie Marlow.
You’ll learn about the internal and external conflicts which motivate characters; how to add subtle backstory details to ensure characters are engaging and relatable, and how to write believable relationships.
Workshop Translating South Asian Literature
A Feminist Approach
with Kavita Bhanot
Saturday 11 October, 10am – 12pm
The Exchange, Centenary Square
Tickets: £15/£7.50 (concs)
With a focus on contemporary South Asian literature, this workshop will explore intersectional feminist translation practices. Led by writer and translator Kavita Bhanot, through creative exercises, participants will consider the question of whether feminist translation is a matter of identity or practice? This workshop is open to people of all genders, with any relationship to any South Asian languages, and anyone interested in exploring translation – it does not require any previous experience. Participants are encouraged to bring a piece of text they’re working on or interested in.
This event is presented in partnership with English PEN and is subsidised as part of English PEN’s programme for International Translation Day 2025.
Saturday 11 October
Workshop Editing Your Work
with Kasim Ali
Saturday 11 October, 1pm – 3pm
The Exchange, Centenary Square
Tickets: £30, bursaries available
As an editor who moonlights as an author, Kasim Ali has both edited other people’s work and had his own work edited. In the workshop, Editing Your Work, he’ll focus on how to think about editing your own work, where to begin with it, and all the tips and tricks he’s learned over his career to wrestle your manuscript into shape. Whether it’s problems with plot, structure, beginnings or endings, bring your work along to this workshop where Kasim will walk you through the struggles that every author goes through when editing.
Workshop Short Stories: Writing the Everyday with Lisa Blower
Saturday 11 October, 1pm – 3pm
The Exchange, Centenary Square Tickets: £30, bursaries available
Short stories often begin with a snapshot, a slice of everyday life where what happens or what is thought can evolve into something bigger. This workshop will offer a range of ideas about how to turn everyday happenings into a work of fiction as a way to start writing. You will respond to a series of creative prompts and be taken through a series of narrative techniques that you can use to grow that initial instinctual response into a short story.
Book Launch:
Feminist Literary Translation
Saturday 11th October, 2pm – 3.30pm
The Exchange, Centenary Square
Tickets: Free, but booking required (includes free book).
What does feminist literary translation look like in practice?
Six literary translators were tasked with selecting a short literary text that would benefit from a feminist translation, resulting in a published collection that will be offered for free to everyone who attends. Translators Marilyn Booth, Ruth Donnelly, Seán McDonagh, Elete Nelson-Fearon, Georgia Wall and Anam Zafar will read from their translations and reflect on what makes their translations ‘feminist’.
Chaired by Rosalind Harvey. This event is a collaboration between Writing West Midlands, The Emma Press and the University of Birmingham’s Feminist Translation Network and is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). This is a hybrid event and will be live streamed.
The Emma Press Showcase
with Hannah Lutz, Mark Ward and Lewis Buxton
Saturday 11th October, 4pm – 5pm
The Exchange, Centenary Square
Tickets: Free, but booking required
Thursday 6 October
Saturday 11 October
The Emma Press is an independent press based in Birmingham, publishing poetry and short fiction and many books in translation. Hosted by the Birmingham Editorial Readers Group, this event brings together three emerging Emma Press authors and offers readers, writers and translators an opportunity to connect with Birmingham’s lively independent literary scene.
This event will delve into the remote forests of Sweden in Hannah Lutz’s award-winning novella Wild Boar, translated by Andy Turner; look beyond the brushstrokes with poems from Mark Ward’s Masters, a chapbook written in response to paintings by queer artists of the twentieth century, and explore the clumsy tenderness of male friendship with a performance of Lewis Buxton’s sonnet sequence, Mate Arias.
Saturday
Regional Writers Meet Up
with Lisa Blower
Saturday 11th October, 10.30am – 12pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: Free, but booking required
Join Writing West Midlands for a free morning of discussion and networking for emerging and established writers. This is a great opportunity for writers to meet one another, share ideas and hear from industry professionals. We will be joined by novelist and short story writer, Lisa Blower, who will share her own journey and experience as a writer within the sector.
Chaired by Jonathan Davidson.
Climate Justice
with Selina Nwulu
Saturday 11th October, 11am – 12pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
Globally, Black people are amongst the most affected by the climate crisis, despite contributing very little to it. Selina Nwulu’s debut book, Black Climates, takes a broad look at the intersections of the climate crisis – including air pollution, prison ecology, disability justice, migration, food, nature and community care – investigating the ways that it disproportionately affects Black communities and questioning the expectation that these communities should be invested in saving a world in which they are disenfranchised.
Black Climates reframes the crisis to encompass our disconnection from each other and the world around us, and provides tools to help us envision more equitable futures.
Chaired by Shantel Edwards.
Vanished with Sadiah Qureshi
Saturday 11th October, 1pm – 2pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
Over 90% of species that ever lived are now extinct and we stand at the verge of a sixth mass extinction event.
In Vanished Sadiah Qureshi examines the history of extinction as a scientific idea, a legacy of Empire and a political choice. It offers an eye-opening insight into the ways that ideas about plant and animal extinction have been too easily applied to humankind through hierarchies of value about whose lives and futures matter.
Vanished offers readers a fascinating insight into extinction, whilst empowering its readers to fight for new ways to preserve life on earth and for policies that do not perpetuate injustice.
Chaired by Thomas Glave.
Mike Gayle: A Retrospective
Saturday 11th October, 2.30pm – 3.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
One of Birmingham’s most prolific contemporary writers, Mike Gayle published his first book, My Legendary Girlfriend, in 1999. His latest book, Hope Street, marks his eighteenth book and over 25 years of being in print. Join us for a conversation with Mike about writing love stories, centring the Midlands in his novels and his latest book, Hope Street.
Hope Street follows trainee journalist Lila Metcalfe in Derby, sent to cover a story about a housing development being held up by a single resident who refuses to leave, in a story about love, connection and hope.
Chaired by Catherine O’Flynn.
Saturday 11 October
Female Pilgrimage
with Joanna Pocock and Phoebe Smith
Saturday 11th October, 3pm – 4pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door
Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
After experiencing intense life events, and feeling overwhelmed by grief, Joanna Pocock (Greyhound) and Phoebe Smith (Wayfarer) set out on journeys to reconcile their trauma and find a path to healing.
Having spent a lifetime exploring unfamiliar places, Phoebe Smith quit her dream job, ended her long-term relationship and found herself walking some of Britain’s oldest pilgrim paths. Wayfarer reveals how nature and place can heal past wounds, offering a pathway to salvation she never thought existed.
In 2006, in the wake of several miscarriages, Joanna Pocock travelled by Greyhound bus across the US from Detroit to Los Angeles. Seventeen years later, now in her 50s, she undertakes the same journey, revisiting the same cities, edgelands, highways and motels, chronicling her journey in Greyhound and reflecting on the ways in which her life, the landscape and America more broadly has changed.
Chaired by Liz Berry.
Colonial Countryside
with Corinne Fowler, Malachi McIntosh, Casey Bailey and Miranda KaufmanN
Saturday 11th October, 4.30pm – 5.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
In 2020, writer and academic Corinne Fowler co-authored a report investigating the colonial histories of National Trust properties. Colonial Countryside, co-edited by Corinne, is an anthology of creative work by ten global majority writers, accompanied by historical commentaries, exploring National Trust houses with significant colonial histories.
This event brings together Corinne Fowler, with Malachi McIntosh (writer and contributor to the
book), former Birmingham Poet Laureate Casey Bailey (whose collection and play, Please Do Not Touch, explores the legacies of colonialism through historic collections) and historian Miranda Kaufmann (a contributor to the project and author of Heiresses, following the lives of nine heiresses and the role they played in the history of enslavement, including the legacy of Aston Hall).
The Colonial Countryside project was produced with Renaissance One and Peepal Tree Press and supported through funding by Arts Council England.
Chaired by Jonathan Davidson.
What It Means to Belong
with Dalia Al-Dujaili and SJ Kim
Saturday 11th October, 5pm – 6pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door £8/£6.40 (concs)
This event brings together writers Dalia AlDujaili and SJ Kim for a conversation about what it means to belong to the land and to a nation.
Babylon, Albion traces the rich heritage of the earth beneath our feet – from oak trees to myths about dragons and unicorns – weaving together Arab and Islamic mythology with the English and Christian pastoral. A love song to both Britain and Iraq, Dalia’s book is a compelling re-imagining of what it means to be native.
Born in Korea, raised in the American South, and trying her best to survive British academia, SJ Kim probes at her experiences as a writer, scholar, and daughter to confront the silences she finds in the world in This Part is Silent. In this book, she writes letters to the institutions and British cities that simultaneously support and fail her. Her book is an intimate account of immigration and an interrogation of rising antiBlack and anti-Asian racism.
This event is presented in partnership with Wasafiri magazine and is chaired by its Editor Sana Goyal.
The Best of Everything
with Kit de Waal
Saturday 11th October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
One of the Midlands best loved novelists and champion of women and working-class writers, Kit de Waal returns to the festival this year to talk about her latest novel, The Best of Everything. The novel follows its protagonist Paulette, who has her future all mapped out until she meets Garfield, finds herself pregnant and commits to giving her son the best of everything. In the meantime, she becomes increasingly preoccupied by a motherless boy across the street in a story that examines the meaning of kindness, found family and the way love can unexpectedly alter the course of one’s life.
Join Kit for a conversation about her novel, her work as a literary activist and centring the Midlands in her stories.
Chaired by Anna Metcalfe.
Birmingham Literature Festival is ecstatic to be partnering with iconic Birmingham brand Punks and Chancers who have created our very first line of festival merch! Organic tees, tote bags and notepads are available to purchase online at punksandchancers.co.uk and at our festival events. Punks and Chancers are donating a percentage of all proceeds towards Writing West Midlands’ Writing for Everyone fund – providing free tickets to festival events and writing courses to those experiencing financial hardship.
Malcolm X: A Deeper Purpose
with Kehinde Andrews, Sue Brown, Bonnie Greer AND John Siddique
Saturday 11th October, 7pm – 8pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
To mark the centenary of Malcolm X’s birth, we are partnering with Writers Mosiac to present an event that remembers the legacy of his impact, his internationalism and his emphasis on the urgency of solidarity in a world that increasingly insists on dividing us.
The event will feature author and academic Kehinde Andrews whose latest book, Nobody Can Give You Freedom, invites the reader to re-discover Malcolm’s revolutionary philosophy outside of the myths fed to us through films and books. Kehinde will be joined by poet and facilitator Sue Brown and writer and broadcaster Bonnie Greer, who wrote about her own history with Malcolm as part of the Writers Mosiac Malcolm X quarterly special edition.
This event is chaired by John Siddique and supported by Writers Mosiac and the Royal Literary Fund.
Saturday 11 October
VOICES OF RESILIENCE
Saturday 11th October, 8pm – 9.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8
Join us for an evening of performed readings of extracts from two books reflecting on the experiences of Palestinians in Gaza. Published by Comma Press, Voices of Resistance features the diaries of four women trapped in the Gaza Strip throughout the ongoing genocide (Nahil Mohana, Sondos Sabra, Ala’a Obaid and Batool Abu Akleen). The performance will also include extracts from Don’t Look Left, the diaries of Palestinian novelist Atef Abu Saif.
Readings from the diary entries will be accompanied by traditional Arabic music performed by Ahmed Adnan and a visual score by Gazan filmmaker Hossam Abo Shamallah All proceeds from the event and book sales will go to the writers still in Gaza.
Throughout the weekend Poetry on Demand with Bradley
Taylor
Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th October, 12pm-9pm Birmingham Rep and Royal Birmingham Conservatoire Tickets: Free, no booking required
Across the festival weekend we will be joined by Birmingham’s own award-winning poet Bradley Taylor, who will be using his typewriter to perform Poetry on Demand. You can give him as much or as little information as you like on absolutely anything – and he will type you up a poem right there on the spot. Described as a ‘brand new voice and a fresh perspective on the art of poetry’ by Craig Charles, Bradley has performed Poetry on Demand at the Hay Festival, Cheltenham Literature Festival and on BBC News.
The Quiet Lives of WorkingClass Men
with Anthony Shapland and James McDermott
Sunday 12th October, 12pm – 1pm,
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club
Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
Anthony Shapland’s debut novel, A Room Above a Shop, is set in a small town in South Wales where there were very few opportunities for young men. It follows M and B as they form a connection and create a life together, in secret, in the room above the declining hardware shop M inherited. Set against the backdrop of Section 28 and the AIDS crisis, it is a beautiful story of love untold.
James McDermott lost his sixty-year-old father to COVID after three weeks in intensive care. His second collection, Father Myself, explores his complex grief following his father’s death after he refused the vaccine many times, and his relationship with his father as a queer teenager growing up in the North.
These books bring to life the quiet relationships between men and how those relationships are shaped by queerness and its social contexts.
Chaired by Ceri Morgan.
Boater with Jo Bell
Sunday 12th October, 1.30pm – 2.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Recital Hall
Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
As the city famous for having ‘more canals than Venice’, it is our pleasure to welcome former UK Canal Laureate Jo Bell to the festival. Her memoir, Boater, details the twenty years Jo has spent living on England’s waterways, offering readers a glimpse into a way of living and working that feels very different to life on land.
It follows Jo’s journey as she takes a year long odyssey towards the Bristol Channel amid a turbulent relationship, and welcomes readers onboard a remarkable journey through her past, the history of England’s canals and the extraordinary communities they support.
Chaired by Jonathan Davidson.
Sunday 12 October
Falling Through the Cracks
with Shady Lewis and Tawseef Khan
Sunday 12th October, 2pm – 3pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
Shady Lewis’s novel, On the Greenwich Line, is both a funny and scathing indictment of the experiences of migrants seeking refuge in the UK and the endless layers of bureaucracy that keeps their lives in stasis. Following the journey of a jaded London housing officer, tasked with organising the funeral of a young Syrian refugee, it traces the absurdities of racism, austerity, and bureaucracy in contemporary England.
Tawseef Khan’s Determination follows exhausted immigration solicitor, Jamila Shah, as she battles against hostile government policies in the hopes that their ‘determinations’ will keep her clients from being deported. Jamila’s law firm, Shah & Co, is a beautifully drawn reminder that there is human kindness and resistance pushing back against a broken system.
Join Shady and Tawseef as they discuss their novels and the very real challenges and injustices their books reflect.
Chaired by Kavita Bhanot.
Searching For My Slave Roots
with Malik Al Nasir
Sunday 12th October, 3.30pm – 4.30pm,
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Recital Hall
Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
Malik Al Nasir was born in Liverpool to a white mother and a Black father. Bemused by memories of racist shouts for him to ‘go back to where you came from’, he began to investigate his ancestry. Searching For My Slave Roots is set between Liverpool and Demerara, in what was British Guiana, and traces Malik’s personal story and family history alongside the historical story of sugar and the barbaric transportation and abuse of human beings. Along the way he finds himself part of a complex lineage linking slaveholdings to high sheriffs, mayors and a British prime minister.
Chaired by Kehinde Andrews.
Art Under Capitalism with
Nathalie Olah and Jess Shannon
Sunday 12th October, 4pm – 5pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
Since the economic crash of 2008, socioeconomic factors have led to the widespread and increased disenfranchisement of poorer people from the mainstream media and the creative industries. Nathalie Olah’s book, Steal as Much as You Can, investigates the generations of people from low-income backgrounds growing up in its aftermath, who are more educated than ever before and yet have fewer opportunities. Her book advocates for challenging the establishment and stealing what you can from it.
Jess Shannon’s debut novel, Cleaner, follows a young artist whose lack of job prospects in the arts industry force her to move back home with her parents. Overqualified and underemployed, she starts a job as a cleaner in an art gallery, where she meets aspiring artist Isabella and becomes entangled in a messy affair involving Isabella and her rich boyfriend Paul.
Join us for a conversation that explores what is required to make art a viable career choice under capitalism with two of Birmingham’s own writers.
Chaired by Anna Metcalfe.
Sunday 12 October
Rethinking the Nuclear Family
with Nicola Slawson and Adam Ferner
Sunday 12th October, 5.30pm – 6.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Recital Hall Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
As the research in Nicola Slawson’s book shows, around 40% of UK adults are single at any one time. And yet, as a culture, we still expect people of a certain age to settle down into a long-term, heterosexual romantic partnership and procreate. This event explores what it means to live single in this context and questions traditional family structures that are increasingly failing to meet the care needs of individuals and children alike.
Nicola Slawson’s book, Single, explores being un-partnered in a world designed for couples, and how to find joy in the life that you are already living, whether it looks like it is ‘supposed to’ or not. Adam Ferner’s book, Unhappy Families, explores the ethics of childcare in a world riven by inequality. He argues that entrenched attitudes regarding biological parenthood, and expectations of what a family looks like, need re-evaluation.
Chaired by Shantel Edwards.
Verve Open Door x BLF
Sunday 12th October, 6pm – 7.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club Tickets: Free, but booking required
For three years VERVE Poetry Festival have been holding monthly open mic nights which are free to attend and provide a platform for local poet aficionados and dabblers to perform their work or try their hand.
This year VERVE Open Door is landing at Birmingham Literature Festival. Hosted as usual by Rick Sanders, this is the chance for you to grace the festival stage with your very own poems. Or simply come and enjoy the fun!
Open Mic Slots: Sign up on the door for an open mic slot from half an hour before start time. This event is pure open mic – no headliner, no feature poet – so plenty of time for all to have a go. You get 4 mins max to share your work. 16 slots are available to sign up for on the night –should more than 16 people want to perform names will be drawn from a hat.
The Big Payback
with Marcus Ryder
Sunday 12th October, 7.30pm – 8.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Recital Hall Tickets: £10/£8 (concs)
When slavery was abolished two centuries ago the British government paid huge amounts of compensation to slave-owners; a debt British taxpayers only stopped paying off in 2015. In The Big Payback, Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder investigate what is owed to the descendants of the slave trade, who continue to be subject to inequality and racism across the world.
Their book asks questions about how and why slave traders were compensated, but the enslaved and their families were not and whether the descendants of slaveowners should continue to benefit from inherited wealth. Join us for a conversation with Marcus Ryder about how reparations could work and how we could make them happen.
A Guided Journey through The Infernal Garden
with Gregory Leadbetter
Sunday 12th October, 8pm – 9pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs)
Gregory Leadbetter’s latest poetry collection, The Infernal Garden (Nine Arches Press), offers the reader poems in which our inner and outer worlds are revealed afresh –and our planet becomes a garden haunted both by the experience of loss and the environmental crisis, and the promise of enchantment and renewal.
Join us for a one-of-a-kind journey through that garden, accompanied by an illustrated audio-visual guide to some of its curiosities, allusions, and connections – from the song of a blackbird to seventeenth-century occult arts – exploring the imagination of the poet and the world of The Infernal Garden.
Workshop Smoke and Mirrors
A Poetry Workshop with Jo Bell
Sunday 12th October, 10.30am – 12.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £30, bursaries available
Step off-script and into discovery with celebrated poet Jo Bell. In this hands-on workshop, chance becomes your collaborator. Scratch cards, mystery objects and private prompts will take you somewhere unexpected. With Jo’s trademark warmth and insight, you’ll read deeply, write boldly and uncover new material. No pressure, no predictions; just a refreshment of practice and a space to take creative risks. Known for her energy, generosity, and poetic precision, Jo brings you new reading, good conversation and writing to surprise yourself with.
Workshop Life writing:
a workshop in micromemoir with Anna Lawrence
Sunday 12th October, 10.30am – 12.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £30, bursaries available
How do we find the time, attention and energy to write about something as huge as ‘life’?
This workshop guides you through the stages of writing micro-memoir: unearthing a tiny instance from your life, then shaping and polishing it. It’s for anyone who has a story they want to tell but isn’t sure where to start. It’s also for anyone who isn’t sure what they want to say, but who’d like tools to help them explore their experiences through writing.
Workshop Writing Grief
with James McDermott
Sunday 12th October, 1.30pm – 3.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire
£30, bursaries available
This is an interactive workshop for writers of all abilities, guided by poet James McDermott whose latest collection, Father Myself, (Nine Arches Press) explores grief and growth after losing his father to COVID. Through an exploration of poems, participants will learn tools and techniques to help them write about loss and bereavement in new ways.
Workshop Creative NonFiction with Nathalie Olah
Sunday 12th October, 1.30pm – 3.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £30, bursaries available
The categories of fiction and non-fiction are not as stable as they might seem. Many publishers are interested in forms of writing that incorporate elements of both. In this workshop with author Nathalie Olah, participants will consider the practices of memoir, art writing, criticism and theory to discover possible new ways of writing in which form serves to liberate, rather than limit our potential. Sunday 12
Monday 13 October tuesday 14 October
Urban Sermon
with Bohdan Piasecki
Monday 13th October, 7pm – 8.30pm, Birmingham Cathedral
£10/£8 (concs)
The Urban Sermon invites celebrated authors with a particular connection to the city, into Birmingham Cathedral for a special, one-off event to talk about some of the pressing issues of our time. This year’s Urban Sermon will be delivered by Forward Prize-winning poet Bohdan Piasecki.
Join us for a performance of new work created especially for the Birmingham Literature Festival. In this hybrid poetry performance and talk, Bohdan will explore the interplay of personal and national histories, of responsibility and denial; an exploration of good intentions behind big ideas, of the resulting harm, and of its consequences. The sermon shifts focus from individual choice to political movements, from individual relationships to social phenomena, and directly confronts the familiar, reassuring conviction that “this could never be me.”
BOOKTOBER at The Exchange Cry when the baby cries:
an evening with Becky Barnicoat and Liz Berry
Tuesday 14 October, 6pm – 7.30pm, The Exchange, Centenary Square
Tickets: £10
Join cartoonist Becky Barnicoat and awardwinning poet Liz Berry for an unmissable, intimate evening exploring the chaos, wonder, and delirium of early parenthood.
Becky’s darkly funny and insightful graphic memoir Cry When the Baby Cries is a glorious antidote to traditional parenting books, capturing everything from hospital bags to toddler mayhem, with honesty and wit. Alongside her, Liz shares powerful, tender poems that give voice to the transformative experience of new motherhood, from its darkest hours to its brightest joys.
Together, they’ll explore how creative expression can help make sense of the wild, beautiful puzzle of parenthood.
Presented in partnership with Birmingham Literature Festival.
THURsday 16 October
STORIE:
EXPERIMENTS IN WORKING CLASS PROSE
Thursday 16 October, 7pm start, Kilder Bar Digbeth
Free entry but booking required. Please reserve a ticket on Voce Books’ Eventbrite page
Hear from a line-up of West Midlands-based writers as they step up to the mic at Digbethbased new writing night STORIE for a curated evening of EXPERIMENTS IN WORKING CLASS PROSE.
Selected from their first ever open submissions call – and in direct response to the sobering data released by the Sutton Report in 2024 that people from working class backgrounds are 4 times less likely to pursue careers in the creative industries – Birmingham writers and co-curators of STORIE Taylor Burns and Clive Judd introduce new working class writers from the region all experimenting at the boundaries of prose: expect narrative detour, formal invention, and a proper celebration of West Midlands writing all set under the arch of Digbeth’s Kilder Bar.
STORIE is a bi-monthly experimental prose night co-curated by Birmingham-based writers Taylor Burns and Clive Judd and hosted in association with Voce Books and Kilder Bar. Founded in 2023, STORIE has played host to ten events across two seasons, platforming over 40 writers from the West Midlands region & beyond.
Saturday 18 October Readers’ Day
Saturday 18th October, 10am – 3.30pm, Priory Rooms, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AF
Tickets: £35 to include tea and coffee
Join fellow readers to enjoy a mini festival in a day.
Devote a day to books as we hear from six brilliant writers in panel conversations and smaller discussion groups.
We’re delighted to welcome an exceptional line-up; Ingrid Persaud, Sean Lusk, Lottie Hazell, Natalie Marlow, Marianne Cronin and Sasha Butler bringing us a brilliant catalogue of books perfect for book club choices and as individual reads.
We’ll be hearing from these authors in conversation during two separate panel discussions; morning and afternoon. Each panel is then followed by a smaller discussion session. You’ll be asked to select your two group sessions at Registration, at the start of the Readers’ Day.
There will also be the opportunity to buy books and have them signed.
Our Readers’ Day takes place in the Lower Lobby of Priory Rooms in central Birmingham, in fully accessible rooms. Coffee and tea will be available as part of your ticket throughout the day. Lunch will not be provided, but there are plenty of options close by, or you are welcome to bring your own.
Sasha Butler is a Birmingham based writer. Her first novel, The Marriage Contract is published in early October 2025 and was shortlisted for the Cheshire Novel Prize 2022 and the Bath Novel Award 2022 under the former title, As Soft as Dreams. She also writes short stories. Her story Map of an Affair featured in Floodgate Press’ anthology, Night Time Economy. In her spare time, Sasha enjoys exploring National Trust properties and planning trips to far-flung places. She lives with her partner in a little apartment with an ever-growing collection of books and plants.
Marianne Cronin is the author of The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot, voted ‘most uplifting book of 2021’ by The Independent It won the American Library Association Alex Award, has been translated into over 25 languages and has been optioned by a Hollywood studio. Her second novel, Eddie Winston is Looking for Love, is set in Birmingham. Marianne completed her PhD in applied linguistics at the University of Birmingham before becoming a writer and now lives in the West Midlands with her family and her cat.
Lottie Hazell is a writer, contemporary literature scholar, and board game designer living in Warwickshire. She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from Loughborough University and her research considers food writing in twenty-first century fiction. Piglet is her first novel. It was a New York Times, Stylist, Good Housekeeping, Dazed and Elle ‘Best Book of 2024’.
Sean Lusk is an award-winning short story writer and novelist. He has lived in Greece, Pakistan and Egypt, working as a gardener, speechwriter and diplomatic official. He now lives in the Scottish Highlands. The Second Sight of Zachary Cloudesley, his debut novel, (Penguin, 2022) was shortlisted for the Scottish National Book Awards debut of the year and longlisted for the Walter Scott Prize for historical fiction. His latest, A Woman of Opinion, about the remarkable life of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, was published in 2024 and described by the Sunday Times as ‘witty, insightful and moving.’
Natalie Marlow is a historical crime novelist with a fascination for the people and landscapes of the Midlands. Born into a family of storytellers, she takes inspiration from the colourful stories her grandparents told. Her debut novel, Needless Alley, starring private detective William Garrett, received glowing reviews from press and readers alike, as did the second in the series, The Red Hollow. Natalie holds an MA in Creative Writing from the University of East Anglia and is currently working on the next book in the William Garrett series.
Ingrid Persaud was born in Trinidad. Her debut novel, Love After Love, won the Costa First Novel Award 2020, Author’s Club First Novel Award 2021, Indie Book Awards for Fiction 2021. She also won the BBC National Short Story Award in 2018 and the Commonwealth Short Story Prize in 2017. Her second novel, The Lost Love Songs of Boysie Singh was published by Faber in 2024 and has been shortlisted for the 2025 Encore Award.
Festival planner
THURSday 9 October
Bad Romance with Caroline Lea and Kat Dunn
Thursday 9th October, 6pm – 7pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 6
How the World Eats with Julian Baggini
Thursday 9th October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 6
The Price of Life with Jenny Kleeman
Thursday 9th October, 8pm – 9pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 7
Friday 10 October
Birmingham on the Page with Kasim Ali and Keiran Goddard
Friday 10th October, 6pm – 7pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 8
The New Age of Sexism with Laura Bates
Friday 10th October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 8
The Lost Girls of Autism with Gina Rippon Friday 10th October, 8pm – 9pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 9
The Proof of My Innocence with Jonathan Coe
Friday 10th October, 8.30pm – 9.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 11
Climate Justice with Selina Nwulu
Saturday 11th October, 11am – 12pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 16
Vanished with Sadiah Qureshi
October
Saturday 11
Workshop: Crime Fiction with Natalie Marlow Saturday 11th October, 10am – 12pm, The Exchange, Tickets: £30, bursaries available page 12
Workshop: Translating South Asian Literature: A Feminist Approach Saturday 11th October, 10am – 12pm, The Exchange, Tickets: £15/£7.50 concessions page 12
Workshop: Editing Your Work with Kasim Ali Saturday 11th October, 1pm – 3pm, The Exchange, Tickets: £30, bursaries available page 13
Workshop: Short Stories with Lisa Blower Saturday 11 October, 1pm – 3pm, The Exchange, Tickets: £30, bursaries available page 13
Book Launch: Feminist Literary Translation Saturday 11th October, 2pm – 3.30pm, The Exchange, Tickets: Free, but booking required (includes free book). page 14
The Emma Press Showcase Saturday 11th October, 4pm – 5pm, The Exchange, Tickets: Free, but booking required page 15
Regional Writers Meet
Up with Lisa Blower Saturday 11th October, 10.30am – 12pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: Free, but booking required page 16
Saturday 11th October, 1pm – 2pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 17
MIKE GAYLE: A RETROSPECTIVE
Saturday 11th October, 2.30pm – 3.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 17
Female Pilgrimage with Joanna Pocock and Phoebe Smith
Saturday 11th October, 3pm – 4pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 19
Colonial Countryside
Saturday 11th October, 4.30pm – 5.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 20
WHAT IT MEANS TO BELONG with Dalia Al-Dujaili and S J Kim
Saturday 11th October, 5pm – 6pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door £8/£6.40 (concs) page 21
The Best of Everything with Kit de Waal
Saturday 11th October, 6.30pm – 7.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 21
Malcolm X: A Deeper Purpose
Saturday 11th October, 7pm – 8pm, Birmingham Rep: The Door Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 23
Voices of Resilience
Saturday 11th October, 8pm – 9.30pm, Birmingham Rep: The Studio Tickets: £10/£8 page 24
Poetry on Demand with Bradley Taylor
Birmingham Rep, 12pm – 9pm Tickets: Free, no booking required page 24
Sunday 12 october
Workshop: Poetry with Jo Bell
Sunday 12th October, 10.30am
– 12.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, £30, bursaries available page 34
Workshop: Memoir with Anna Lawrence
Sunday 12th October, 10,30am – 12.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, £30, bursaries available page 34
Workshop: Writing Grief with James McDermott
Sunday 12th October, 1.30pm – 3.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £30, bursaries available page 35
Workshop: Creative Non-Fiction with Nathalie Olah
Sunday 12th October, 1.30pm – 3.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire £30, bursaries available page 35
The Quiet Lives of Working-Class Men with Anthony Shapland and James McDermott
Sunday 12th October, 12pm – 1pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club, Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 25
Boater with Jo Bell
Sunday 12th October, 1.30pm – 2.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Recital Hall, Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 27
FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS
with Shady Lewis and Tawseef Khan
Sunday 12th October, 2pm – 3pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club, Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 28
Searching For My Slave Roots with Malik Al Nasir
Sunday 12th October, 3.30pm – 4.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Recital Hall, Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 29
Art Under Capitalism with Nathalie Olah and Jess Shannon
Sunday 12th October, 4pm – 5pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 30
Rethinking the Nuclear Family with Nicola Slawson and Adam Ferner
Sunday 12th October, 5.30pm – 6.30pm, The The Recital Hall: Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 31
Verve Open Door x BLF
Sunday 12th October, 6pm – 7.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club, Tickets: Free, but booking required page 31
The Big Payback with Marcus Ryder
Sunday 12th October, 7.30pm – 8.30pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The The Recital Hall, Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 33
Poetry on Demand with Bradley Taylor
Royal Birmingham Conservatoire, 12pm –9pm Tickets: Free, no booking required page 24
A Guided Journey through The Infernal Garden with Gregory Leadbetter
Sunday 12th October, 8pm – 9pm, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire: The Jazz Club Tickets: £8/£6.40 (concs) page 33
monday 13 october
Urban Sermon with Bohdan Piasecki
Monday 13th October, 7pm – 8.30pm, Birmingham Cathedral Tickets: £10/£8 (concs) page 36
tuesday 14 october
BOOKTOBER at The Exchange
Tuesday 14 October, 6pm – 7.30pm, The Exchange, Tickets: £10 page 36
thursday 16 october
STORIE: EXPERIMENTS IN WORKING CLASS PROSE Thursday 16 October, 7pm start, Kilder Bar Digbeth, Free entry but booking required. page 37
Saturday 18 October
Readers’ Day with Ingrid Persaud, Sean Lusk, Lottie Hazell, Natalie Marlow, Marianne Cronin and Sasha Butler 10am – 3.30pm, Priory Rooms, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AF Tickets: £35 to include tea and coffee page 38
Booking
By phone: 0333 666 3366
Online: birminghamliteraturefestival.org
In person: tickets available on the door UP TO 1 HOUR before the event time.
1 Birmingham Rep 6 Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 2EP
2 The Exchange 3 Centenary Square, Birmingham, B1 2DR
3 Birmingham Cathedral Colmore Row, Birmingham, B3 2QB
4 Priory Rooms 40 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AF
5 Royal Birmingham Conservatoire 200 Jennens Road, Birmingham, B4 7XR
6 Kilder
5 Shaws Passage, Digbeth, Birmingham, B5 5JG
Booking information
Booking is via TicketSource, available on our website.
By phone: 0333 666 3366
Online: birminghamliteraturefestival.org
In person: tickets available on the door up to 1 hour before the event time.
Accessibility
We want to make sure the festival is as accessible as possible – all of our events will be hosted in accessible spaces.
We do not want cost to be a barrier so we have deliberately kept prices low and the same as last year. We have bursaries available for events and workshops. Contact info@writingwestmidlands.org if you would like to request a bursary ticket.
We are partnering with Transport for West Midlands to offer all festival attendees the opportunity for free bus travel to festival events.
Follow us & join the conversation online at: /BhamLitFest
Thank you to our funders, partners, colleagues, supporters, Board of Trustees, and our wonderful team of volunteers for making this festival possible.
Photos: Bob McDevitt, Irina Zoteeva, Ione Saizar, Phoebe Smith, Rama Lee, Simon Weller, Gary Calton, Myah Jeffers, Rosie Collins, Stephen Burke, Rosi A Mills-Smith, Ross Waldron, Michal Iwanowski, Mark Hannant, Lee Allen, Zak Grant, Beth Gilbert, Rachel Slawson, Hayley Benoit
Birmingham Literature Festival is a project of Writing West Midlands.
Writing West Midlands is the literature development agency for the region. Charity no. 1147710. Supported by Arts Council England. www.writingwestmidlands.org.
Events are suitable for adults and children 16+ unless otherwise stated.