BIRMINGHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL Writers Books Ideas
6 – 9 October 2022 Africa Writes Saturday 19 November 2022 Readers’ Day Saturday 26 November 2022 birminghamliteraturefestival.org
FESTIVAL HIGHLIGHTS
Monica Ali Page 22
Julia Armfield & Paul Mendez Page 21
Michael Rosen Page 11
Courttia Newland Page 32 2
@bhamlitfest
RuTH JONES Page 31
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adrian chiles Page 15
Sukh Ojla Page 12
Kate Mosse Page 24
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Welcome to THE 2022 Festival Antonia Beck
The Birmingham Literature Festival is back and we are so delighted to be here. Packed into four days is an extraordinary range of writers who offer us the world in its many variations. Also look out for event with Africa Writes and our Readers’ Day, both in November 2022. Join us to experience great writing and to be part of the fascinating discussion.
Our thanks to the writers and performers, and to our Guest Curators, and to the many other organisations and individuals who have helped us make possible this edition of the Birmingham Literature Festival. And thank you to you, our audiences, for being part of this celebration of the power of writing. Jonathan Davidson, Chief Executive, Writing West Midlands
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Guest Curator:
Casey Bailey I have had the privilege of being involved in some amazing projects in my career, but this one feels particularly special. I am a Brummie, I wear it with pride and it is something that often colours my writing. The Birmingham Literature Festival is a cornerstone of the region’s literature scene, and it has been a pleasure to to attend and participate – so to be in the position to curate some of that experience for others is just awesome. As the Birmingham Poet Laureate, the festival will mark the end of my tenure, but what a way to end it! If I’m honest I really wanted to pull together events that feature writers that I respect and enjoy, in a not (purely) selfish manner, sharing their magic in different settings with audiences that I am sure will love to hear from them, too. When I took the role of Poet Laureate of the city, I said I wanted to bring poetry to Birmingham and bring Birmingham to poetry. The writers I have asked to join us on the Birmingham Literature Festival stages are reflective of this ambition, with some amazing local talent and some outstanding writers from outside the city combining for a great series of events.
National Poetry Day Thursday 6 October, 8 – 9.30pm, CBSO Centre Page 10
I am a firm believer that we get so lost in a discussion about ‘stage or page’ poetry that we lose sight of the poets who write amazing work AND bring it to the stage with stunning skill. I have asked some of my favourite examples of this to share the stage and demonstrate this for you.
Liz Berry & Caleb Femi Saturday 8 October, 8.30 – 9.30pm, Birmingham REP: Studio Page 26
For this event I will be sitting down with two Forward Prize winning poets who have the awesome ability to capture the environment that they inhabit in verse. We will be talking about writing about place and all of their other wondrous exploits.
Courttia Newland Sunday 9 October, 8 – 9pm, Birmingham REP: Door Page 32
Courttia Newland has been breaking new ground and setting new standards for decades. In this conversation we will talk about the road he has walked and the path he has carved out for others along the way.
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Guest Curator:
Paul McVeigh
Julia Armfield & Paul Mendez Saturday 8 October, 2 – 3pm, Birmingham REP: Door Page 21
I’m delighted that Julia Armfield and Paul Mendez will be joining us: two writers whose novels featuring LGBTQ+ characters have really impressed me these last few years.
Focus on: Northern Ireland Saturday 8 October, 8 – 9pm, Birmingham REP: Door Page 25
I’m honoured to be one of the three authors guest curating this year’s festival. As a short story writer, I’m delighted we can offer a workshop on this form – one which writers often start with and which allows them to find their voice at the start of their career. I want to shine a light on LGBTQ+ voices and some wonderful authors from Northern Ireland. I also wanted to have a chance to interview two people I admire greatly: Kit de Waal, who I am honoured to call a friend as well as a writer I admire; and Osman Yousefzada, a designer and artist whose work has inspired many. I’m really looking forward to speaking to all of these fantastic writers at Birmingham Literature Festival in October.
From Northern Ireland, Darran Anderson and Wendy Erskine are some of the most exciting new literary voices coming out of the nation, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. They’ll be great advocates for Northern Irish writing as a whole.
Birmingham, the City That Raised Me Friday 7 October, 6.30 – 7.30pm, Birmingham REP: Studio Page 13
Kit de Waal and Osman Yousefzada – fascinating people in themselves, but with their connection to the same area of south Birmingham, and the brilliance of their recent memoirs, it was too good an opportunity to pass up to bring them together.
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Guest Curator
Otegha Uwagba It occasionally occurs to me that hosting a literature festival is a rather quaint exercise in our modern age, where information and ideas are so readily accessible at the touch of a button. That one should make a pilgrimage across town, or perhaps even to another city, for the sole purpose of exchanging ideas, is ultimately unnecessary in an era where you can do so with greater ease simply by logging onto Twitter. And yet the immediacy of digital communication is precisely why I think literature festivals still matter – why they matter now more than ever. Rather than the frenetic pace of online forums, we can offer a painstakingly put together programme of ideas and people that has been discussed and finessed over many months – leading to conversations that I hope will endure long after the final chair has been cleared away. The events I’ve curated this year speak to issues and themes I’ve always found deeply fascinating, and at times confronting. I hope you’ll enjoy these events as much as I’ve enjoyed curating them – do let me know your thoughts.
Monica Ali: Love Marriage Saturday 8 October, 2.30 – 3.30pm, Birmingham REP Page 22
Monica Ali, one of my literary heroes, and a master storyteller who any aspiring writer would be wise to make time for. I’m delighted she said yes to this interview and can’t wait to meet her.
It’s All About Class: Sam FrIEdman & Natalie Olah Saturday 8 October, 4 – 5pm, Birmingham REP Page 23
Class: the national obsession that dare not speak its name, but which pervades and influences every aspect of our lives.
The Housing Crisis: Hashi Mohammed & Vicky Spratt Saturday 8 October, 6 – 7pm, Birmingham REP Page 24
We’ll be discussing housing, both in the political sense – that is, the growing disaster that is the UK housing crisis – and in more emotional terms. What does it mean to have a home? How does insecure housing affect a person?
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NATIONAL POETRY DAY
Thursday 6 October
Introducing Naush Sabah Birmingham Literature Festival’s first Poet in Residence All events on National Poetry Day – Thursday 6 October – are supported by sponsorship from Birmingham City University.
Editor and founder of the ground-breaking poetry magazine, Poetry Birmingham Literary Journal, Naush Sabah is herself a fine and bold poet. Naush will be attending events across the Birmingham Literature Festival, listening to the writing from the stage, but also absorbing the buzz of a festival that is all about sharing ideas. As an overture to a number of events on our final day – Sunday 9th October 2022 – she’ll be sharing drafts of a series of short poems written in response to the festival’s many voices.
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Thursday 6 October
Poetry Walk devised by Rosie Miles In memory of David Hart 2 – 4pm Start: Selly Oak Station (where there is also parking). End: All Saints’ Road, King’s Heath Total walk: 2 miles (with an additional 2 miles if returning to the walk’s starting point) Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) David Hart (1940-2022) was one of Birmingham’s most distinctive and original poets. He responded to the city and its people in myriad ways, from residencies in hospitals to his memorialisation of the Knife and Fork ‘Titanic’ Café on the Bristol Road in Selly Oak. This walking workshop will pay tribute to David Hart’s poetry through our reading, writing and walking. We will visit sites in South Birmingham that influenced David’s own poems, starting in Selly Oak and ending in King’s Heath. We will offer our own poetic interventions along the route we walk, and leave some poetry gifts and signs of our presence and David’s significance. Whether you have read David Hart’s work previously or want to discover and get to know it more, this workshop will offer surprise, community, celebration and thought-provoking prompts for your own writing. At the end there’ll be a cup of tea. This is an outdoor walking tour and will take place in all weather. Please wear shoes and clothes suitable for moderate walking distance and weather conditions.
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Poetry meets prose: Zaffar Kunial in conversation with Jim Crace
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Thursday 6 October
Announcement of the new Birmingham Poet Laureate and Young Poet Laureate 7.30 – 8pm CBSO Centre Free, no booking required National Poetry Day marks the end of our search for two new Birmingham Poets Laureate. Appointed for two years, from October 2022 to September 2024, our Birmingham Poet Laureate and Birmingham Young Poet Laureate have been selected as part of a city-wide application process. Their names will be announced tonight. We also say thank you to Casey Bailey, the outgoing Birmingham Poet Laureate, and Fatma Mohiuddin, the outgoing Birmingham Young Poet Laureate. To mark their hand over, Casey and Fatma will both perform a poem and we will hear a poem from each of our new Birmingham Poets Laureate. As a novelist Jim Crace has created many worlds. Although they typically remain unspecific, his many years in the Midlands and in particular Birmingham have provided a curious inspiration. Poet Zaffar Kunial grew up in Birmingham and has drawn his own inspiration from the city. In this unique event, two extraordinary writers share their writing worlds. Chaired by Gregory Leadbetter
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Thursday 6 October
Birmingham Poetry All Stars: Casey Bailey, Jasmine Gardosi, Safiya Kinshasa & Roy McFarlane 8 – 9.30pm CBSO Centre Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs) On National Poetry Day, an evening of poets who write amazing work and bring it to the stage with stunning skill. Jasmine Gardosi is one of the stand out poetry performers in the country, who constantly pushes the boundaries of what we can do in both the writing and performance of poetry.
Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa is a British born Barbadian raised poet, dancer, choreographer and researcher whose exhilarating style of poetics is a force to be reckoned with. Her interdisciplinary art braids dance and poetry on the page and stage. Roy McFarlane is the Canal Laureate and former Birmingham Poet Laureate, and one of the poets who really broke ground for the formation of the thriving poetry scene that we see in the West Midlands, today. Come and see these awesome poets, in one space, and you will leave inspired.
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Friday 7 October
Michael Rosen: Many Different Kinds of Love 5 – 6pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 A special event in partnership with Bournville Hub CIO, home to The Bookshop on the Green. Hear from one of the English language’s most treasured contemporary writers, whose story of the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the nation. In March 2020, Michael Rosen became unwell. Soon he was struggling to breathe, and he was admitted to hospital with coronavirus. What followed was months on the wards: a month in an induced coma, and weeks of rehab and recovery as the NHS saved his life, and then got him back on his feet. Throughout it all, a diary was kept at the end of Michael’s bed, where his nurses wrote him letters of hope and support. And as soon as he was awake, he was ready to start writing his own story.
Combining stunning new prose poems by one of Britain’s best loved poets and the moving coronavirus diaries of his nurses, and featuring original illustrations by Chris Riddell, this event celebrates a beautiful book about love, life and the NHS that honours the power of community and the indomitable spirits of the people who keep us well. Followed by a booksigning. Chaired by Abigail Campbell. Michael Rosen has inspired hundreds of West Midlands schoolchildren with the power of poetry through his work with Bournville BookFest, run by the same team who now run Bournville Hub CIO and The Bookshop on the Green.
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Friday 7 October
Sukh Ojla: Sunny 6 – 7pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 Comedian, actor and writer Sukh Ojla brings her unique, Birmingham-bred wry humour to fiction with her first novel, Sunny. Sunny is the queen of living a double life. To her friends, she’s the entertaining, eternally upbeat, single one, always on hand to share hilarious and horrifying date stories. But while they’re all settling down with long-term partners and mortgages, Sunny is back in her childhood
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bedroom at thirty, playing the role of the perfect daughter. Leading a double life – and keeping so much from her family – is starting to take its toll and Sunny can’t keep up the pretence for much longer. Funny and moving in turn, Sunny is a beautiful look at how we all manage the expectations of our parents versus the reality of what life throws at you in your 20s as you move through friendships, relationships and new jobs. Chaired by Selina Brown
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Friday 7 October
Birmingham, the city that raised me: Kit de Waal & Osman Yousefzada 6.30 – 7.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Two memoirs set in the same part of Birmingham: geographically, very close – but culturally, miles apart. Kit de Waal grew up to a white Irish mother and Black Caribbean father in 1960s Springfield, South Birmingham, with 4 siblings, not enough food and huge expectations imposed by her Jehovah’s Witness mother. Not 3 miles away, 15 years later, Osman Yousefzada grew up in a closed-off Pakistani immigrant community where everyone knew his and his family’s
business and he and his siblings – especially his sisters – were under permanent scrutiny. Kit and Osman join us at Birmingham Literature Festival in the year both their memoirs have been published to talk about their childhoods in the city, their families, and how that set them on the track to stride out and break with expectations to forge their own careers and lives. Chaired by Paul McVeigh Sponsored by Newman University.
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B I R M I N G H A M
SCHOOL OF ENGLISH
If you’re ambitious, creative and looking to join a vibrant community of learners, then choose to study with us. Our courses include: • BA (Hons) English • BA (Hons) English Literature • BA (Hons) English and Creative Writing • BA (Hons) English and Journalism • BA (Hons) English Language and Literature • BA (Hons) English and Drama • MA Creative Writing
OPEN DAYS
OCT
OCT
NOV
1
22
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Visit www.bcu.ac.uk/english to find out how you can join us
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Friday 7 October
Adrian Chiles: The Good Drinker 8.30 – 9.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs)
Thursday 6 October
The recommended alcohol limit for men is 14 units a week. Adrian Chiles used to put away almost 100. Ever since he was a teenager, drinking was his idea of a good time – and not just his, but seemingly the whole nation’s. Still, it wasn’t very good for him: the doctor made that clear. There’s an awful lot of advice out there on how to quit completely. Adrian Chiles didn’t want to stop altogether – he wanted to learn to drink alcohol to enjoy it. The majority of drinkers really do enjoy in moderation. What’s their secret? And what does it say about the British that the pervading culture is to drink to excess? Chaired by Sue Beardsmore
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SATURday 8 October
Writing Workshops The Exchange, University of Birmingham Broad Street / Centenary Square
10am – 12 Noon
Workshop 1: Starting Fiction – with Helen Cross Tickets: £30 – bursaries available Do you like reading fiction? Would you like to begin writing your own stories, scripts or novels? If so, this fun workshop will help you find and craft meaningful and engaging stories. Through a series of writing exercises you will explore how to create characters, write dialogue and shape an effective story structure. No previous experience of writing fiction is necessary.
The Exchange, University of Birmingham
1pm – 3pm
Workshop 4: Saturday 8 October, 1pm – 3pm
Women’s Prize Discoveries mistressclass: Where to Begin Tickets: £30 – bursaries available Led by Irenosen Okojie
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Join this writing mistressclass led by prizewinning author and Discoveries judge Irenosen Okojie as she leads an exploration of the best opening lines and the voices behind them, into practical exercises and interactive feedback. Whether you are putting pen to paper for the first time, starting a new project or polishing up an entry for Discoveries 2023, there is something for everyone in this supportive and informative workshop.
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SATURday 8 October
Workshop 2: New Poets: poetry for beginners – with Casey Bailey Tickets: £30 – bursaries available Reading or performing your poetry is becoming a much larger part of the life of a poet, but how prepared are we for this? As we transition back into the world of live poetry readings, this workshop will give you some things to consider as you look at how you want your work to present on the stage. Bring a poem that you want to work on, and let’s play with tempo, volume, emotion and intonation.
Workshop 3: That Killer First Page – with Paul McVeigh Tickets: £30 – bursaries available Short stories are where a lot of writers start, and short story competitions are enormously valuable to an emerging writer. You’ll find out what competition judges and journal editors look for in a short story and how to avoid the rejection pile. In a form where every word counts, get tips on staying focused on your story and where to start the action. You’ll also look at submission opportunities; how to find them and where you should be sending your stories.
For poets of all levels of experience, including beginners.
1.30pm – 3.30pm
Workshop 5: Editing Your Work – with Kasim Ali 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 your plot, your structure, your beginnings or endings, this workshop will walk you through the struggles that every author goes through.
(Teens) £10 taster session / £9 a month subscription Join our monthly Spark Young Writers – for writers aged aged 12-18 – as they create their own writing based on prompts and exercises from our professional writers. Find out more at www.sparkwriters.org.
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SATURday 8 October
Women’s Prize Trust Discoveries 10.30am – 11.30am Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £5 to include refreshments Writing West Midlands – which runs Birmingham Literature Festival – is proud to partner with the Women’s Prize Discoveries programme for 2023. Discoveries invites unpublished women writers from the UK or Ireland to submit the opening of a novel in English, of up to 10,000 words. Unlike most initiatives of this kind, writers are not required to have finished their novel, and Discoveries is completely free to enter. At this friendly, informal information session, hear from Women’s Prize founder Kate Mosse, writers Anita Sethi and Irenosen Okojie, and Curtis Brown literary agent Jess Molloy as they share their insight and experience from the world of publishing, and explain how you, too, could make your voice heard and be part of the Discoveries programme. Tickets include refreshments of tea, coffee or juice on arrival.
My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: Stories from Afghan Women 12noon – 1pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) My Pen Is the Wing of a Bird is a landmark collection: the first anthology of short fiction by Afghan women. Eighteen writers tell stories that are both unique and universal – stories of family, work, childhood, friendship, war, gender identity and cultural traditions. This collection introduces extraordinary voices from the country’s two main linguistic groups (Pashto and Dari) with original, vital and unexpected stories to tell, developed over two years through UNTOLD’s Write Afghanistan project. Editor of the collection and UNTOLD’s Write Afghanistan Project Director, Lucy Hannah, will be on stage with Afghan poet Parwana Fayyaz to talk about the collection of stories and the women who wrote them, with video contributions from the women themselves, some of whom are still in Afghanistan.
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SATURday 8 October
Is This Enough? Harriet Johnson & Mary Ann Sieghart 12.30 – 1.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Women are equal to men. Right? In the home, in the workplace, in the courts of law. Right? Wrong. Two women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales alone. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, instances of domestic abuse increased by 33%. Every year, 1.6 million women are victims of domestic violence. The conviction rates are pitifully low, as they are for rape and sexual assault.
In the workplace, there are still only six female CEOs of Britain’s hundred biggest listed companies. Women are much more likely to have their expertise challenged, to be interrupted or talked over and to have other people take credit for their ideas. Women also, still, couch their comments and hesitate to intervene in meetings. Is this equality?! When will this change? How? Join our panel of inspiring, campaigning women who want to help other women be heard: Harriet Johnson is one of the UK’s most respected barristers, and an advocate for women who work in the UK legal system and go through the courts. Mary Ann Sieghart is a journalist and former Assistant Editor at the Times, and was the 2022 Chair of the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Chaired by Emma Boniwell
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STUDY TODAY, CHANGE TOMORROW. Discover your future with Aston University’s English programmes NEW for 2023: MA English
available to study on-campus or via distance learning
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SATURday 8 October
Julia Armfield & Paul Mendez 2 – 3pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs)
Two of the UK’s most exciting voices in queer writing, Julia Armfield (Our Wives Under the Sea) and Paul Mendez (Rainbow Milk) talk to our Guest Curator Paul McVeigh about their novels, their writing and the LGBTQ+ writing scene, which is finally seeing the celebration it deserves. Chaired by Paul McVeigh
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SATURday 8 October
Monica Ali: Love Marriage 2.30pm – 3.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) After a 10-year gap, Monica Ali (Brick Lane, Alentejo Blue) is back with her new novel Love Marriage. Guest Curator Otegha Uwagba loved the book so much, Monica was one of the first writers she wanted to invite to Birmingham Literature Festival.
Yasmin Ghorami, a 26-year-old trainee doctor whose parents are originally from Kolkata, is due to marry medic Joe Sangster, the upper middle-class son of an outspoken feminist author – and their families could not be more different from one another. With Yasmin and Joe desperate to make it work, how will bringing their families together impact them – and will their marriage plans endure? A beautiful work of fiction exploring clashes in upbringing, wealth, heritage and culture, Love Marriage has had praise from critics and readers alike since its publication in March 2022. Chaired by Otegha Uwagba Sponsored by the University of Birmingham
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SATURday 8 October
The book group favourites: Kasim Ali & Sarah Winman
It’s all about Class: Sam Friedman & Natalie Olah 4 – 5pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Is class the last taboo subject in the UK? Two writers who’ve made a career breaking that taboo join Guest Curator Otegha Uwagba for a frank discussion about what’s holding us all back. Sam Friedman is Professor in Sociology, London School of Economics and a Commissioner at the Social Mobility Commission. He has published widely on social class, social mobility and elites. Nathalie Olah was born in Birmingham. After periods of time living in Germany and the Netherlands, she has been based as a freelance journalist and editor in London since 2015. Her writing focuses on the intersection between politics and contemporary culture, with an emphasis on the marginalised. Chaired by Otegha Uwagba
4.30pm – 5.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Every so often, books get published which take on a life of their own. Sarah Winman’s fourth novel, Still Life, was just such a book – since publication in June 2021 it has been on the Sunday Times bestseller lists consistently for both hardback and paperback, chosen for several major book clubs including the BBC Radio 2 book club, and adored by reading groups across the UK. When Kasim Ali’s debut, Good Intentions, was published in March 2022, his story of an interracial relationship between Nur, a Pakistani British boy from Birmingham, and Yasmina, a Somali British girl from Manchester, could not have been more timely. With discussions about racism, sexuality, family expectations and mental health, Good Intentions has set readers talking and thinking about issues like very few other books. Chaired by Angela Hicken of the West Midlands Readers’ Network
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Thursday 86 October SATURday October
The Housing Crisis: Hashi Mohammed & Vicky Spratt 6 – 7pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Two of the UK’s most outspoken writers on housing come to Birmingham for a special event curated by Otegha Uwagba. We’ll be discussing housing in both the political sense – that is, the growing disaster that is the UK housing crisis – and also in more emotional terms. What does it mean to have a home? How does the peripatetic nature of our current system affect one’s personhood? Chaired by Otegha Uwagba
Kate Mosse: Women in History 6.30pm – 7.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs) In January 2021, in the midst of the Delta variant wave of Covid-19 and on the verge of the second full national lockdown, novelist and Women’s Prize Founder Kate Mosse decided to do something radical: she put a call out on social media asking for people – anyone – around the world to nominate extraordinary women whose stories needed to be told. The idea for the #WomanInHistory campaign was born.
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Thursday SATURday 6 8 October
Focus on: Northern Ireland – Darran Anderson & Wendy Erskine 8 – 9pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Northern Ireland – often overlooked, or dismissed as “troublesome” – has generated some of the best contemporary writing in the English language. Invited by Guest Curator Paul McVeigh, Darran Anderson and Wendy Erskine are some of the most exciting new literary voices coming out of the nation, and they’re just the tip of the iceberg. Come and find out what wonderful fiction you’ve been missing out on, and who you should be looking out for next. Within days she had received thousands of nominations. The campaign snowballed and soon she was inundated. Some names were familiar, but many more were women she had never heard of. Nominations came from all over the world: Iran, Syria, Algeria, Brazil, Russia….
Chaired by Paul McVeigh
Warrior Queens & Quiet Revolutionaries: How Women (Also) Built the World is published just after Kate appears at Birmingham Literature Festival – early copies will be available from our bookshop on the day of the event. Through these stories, you’ll meet nearly 1,000 women whose names deserve to be better known. Chaired by Fiona Joseph
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Thursday 86 October SATURday October
Poetry from this place:
8.30pm – 9.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs)
Liz Berry & Caleb Femi
Guest Curator – and outgoing Birmingham Poet Laureate – Casey Bailey will be sitting down with two Forward Prize winning poets. Liz Berry and Caleb Femi have the awesome ability to capture the environment that they inhabit in verse, and have fans across the globe. Expect a poetry reading, a discussion about writing about place and all their other wondrous exploits. Chaired by Casey Bailey
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Thursday SUNDAY 9 6 October
The UK Justice System: Wendy Joseph QC and Dr Shahed Yousaf
Live Podcast recording:
Elif Shafak on The Shift with Sam Baker 12.30pm – 1.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs)
12noon – 1pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) How a society delivers justice is a reflection of how the country is run, and what values we hold dear. Are we getting it right? Wendy Joseph QC has just stepped down as one of only a handful of judges qualified to preside over murder trials at the Old Bailey. And one of the few female ones at that. For the first time, she can talk about what it’s really like presiding over and ruling on life-changing cases. Through six extraordinary stories, she explores why we kill, what happens in court and what this teaches us about the society we live in.
Elif Shafak – whose most recent novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was shortlisted for the 2022 Women’s Prize for Fiction – joins writer and journalist Sam Baker for a live recording of her podcast The Shift. Expect a discussion about Elif’s impressive list of bestselling novels, as well as politics and societal issues from one of Turkey’s most vocal writers. This event will be a live recording of The Shift podcast, to be released later in 2022. Audience questions will be welcome. Any questions may later be broadcast on The Shift podcast feed.
Dr Shahed Yousaf is a prison doctor. Dedicated to caring for people on the margins of society, he tells us honestly and compassionately what it’s like to be their doctor in a system that’s chronically overcrowded, drastically underresourced and all too easy to ignore. But while the system is failing, he and his colleagues are doing their very best to prop it up. Chaired by Olwen Brown
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SUNDAY 9 October
Writing from a Warzone:
The Words We Cannot Say:
Bosnia, Afghanistan and Ukraine Priscilla Morris, Parwana Fayyaz and Lybko Deresh
How to Mourn and How to Listen Kathryn Mannix and Christina Patterson 2.30 – 3.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs)
2pm – 3pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, British audiences were able to see the daily experiences of war unfolding in real time, thanks to social media and broadcast journalism. We saw the shelling, the race to the bunkers, the destruction, and the despair. Three writers join us to share their writing from war, and displacement. Priscilla Morris’ Black Butterflies is based on her grandparents’ experience of being in Sarajevo during the 1992/93 siege. Parwana Fayyaz writes poetry inspired by her Afghan heritage and her family’s displacement to Pakistan then the US and finally the UK. Lybko Deresh is a Ukrainian writer based in Kyiv, and will be joining us via video.
When a friend or relative shares something shocking – a bereavement, a diagnosis, a loss – it can be hard to know what to say. Kathryn Mannix, whose entire career has been spent talking to people about difficult subjects, encourages us to listen and have better, more real conversations. Christina Patterson has had more than her fair share of difficult conversations, having been diagnosed with cancer twice. She is also the only remaining member of her family after both her parents and both her siblings died in turn, leaving her alone to carry the family stories and memories.
Chaired by Amanda Beattie from the Centre for Migration and Forced Displacement at Aston University.
Kathryn and Christina write beautifully about topics and conversations most of us shy away from – and through their writing, allow us all to feel more able and willing to talk about the difficult realities of life.
This is event is supported by Aston University.
Chaired by Sam Baker
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SUNDAY 9 October
New Room 204 Bonnie Garmus fiction for 2022: & Jo Browning Ania Bas, Liz Hyder, Wroe Elizabeth Lee and Susan StokesChapman
4.30 – 5.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs)
4 – 5pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 concs
Two stand-out debut novels of 2022 – whose authors were both published for the first time in their 50s. Bonnie Garmus’ Lessons in Chemistry features the 1950s feminist scientist icon we never knew we needed – Elizabeth Zott is the smart, independent, articulate woman we all wish we had around us, fighting our corner. Jo Browning Wroe’s A Terrible Kindness shows us strong compassion and an urge to help can be. When newly-qualified undertaker William hears of the unfolding disaster in Aberfan in October 1966, he heads straight there from his graduation meal in London – he can do nothing else but reach the village, and help in any way he can. The impact of the disaster will shape the rest of his life. Chaired by Olivia Chapman Sponsored by Aston University.
Long-form fiction is rightly considered one of the most demanding of literary forms. Faced with the challenge of creating a world that is both convincing and engaging, novelists devote thousands of hours in the pursuit of completion. Four novelists who are part of Writing West Midlands’ prestigious Room 204 Writer Development Programme discuss the challenges they faced and overcame in completing their novels. Chaired by Jonathan Davidson
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SUNDAY 9 October
Who Are We Now? A talk by Jason Cowley, Editor of the New Statesman 6 – 7pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Based on his book of the same name, Jason Cowley, editor-in-chief of the New Statesman, examines contemporary England through a handful of the key news stories from recent times to reveal what they tell us about the state of the nation and to answer the question: Who Are We Now? From the election of Tony Blair’s New Labour government to the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, the book investigates how England has changed and how those changes have affected us.
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Cowley weaves together the seemingly disparate stories of the Chinese cockle-pickers who drowned in Morecambe Bay, the Lancashire woman who took on Gordon Brown, the pensioner who campaigned against the closure of her GP’s surgery and Gareth Southgate’s transformation of English football culture. And in doing so, Cowley shows the common threads that unite them, whether it is attitudes to class, nation, identity, belonging, immigration, or religion. Through these vivid and often moving stories, Cowley offers a clear and compassionate analysis of how and why England became so divided and the United Kingdom so fragmented, and how we got to this cultural and political crossroads. Most importantly, he also shows us the many ways in which there is genuine hope for the future. Introduced by Rob Elkington
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Thursday SUNDAY 9 6 October
Live Podcast recording:
Ruth Jones on The Shift with Sam Baker 6.30 – 7.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Ruth Jones is a writer and actor whose work spans TV, film, radio and novels. Her creations for TV have been some of the most-watched and adored in British history – including Gavin & Stacey, Fat Friends and Stella. Her debut novel Never Greener has now sold over a quarter of a million copies. It was chosen as WHSmith Fiction Book of the Year 2018, was a Zoe Ball Book Club pick, and was
a Sunday Times bestseller for fifteen weeks, three weeks at number one. Ruth’s second novel, Us Three, was an instant Sunday Times bestseller in hardback and paperback. Her third novel, Love Untold, will be published in September 2022. Ruth will be interviewed by Sam Baker for The Shift podcast, and will be talking about her life and work as a writer, actor and comedian. This event will be a live recording of The Shift podcast, to be released later in 2022. Audience questions will be welcome. Any questions may later be broadcast on The Shift podcast feed.
Book online birminghamliteraturefestival.org
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SUNDAY 9 October
Courttia Newland: A River Called Time 8 – 9pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs)
Markriss Denny is one of the select few granted entry. He carries with him a closely guarded secret: the ability of his spirit to leave his body and transcend the known world.
Courttia Newland – one of the UK’s most celebrated writers – speaks to Guest Curator Casey Bailey about his new novel, A River Called Time: a monumental speculative fiction story of love, loyalty, politics and conscience set in parallel Londons. The Ark was built to save the lives of the many, but rapidly became a refuge for the elite, the entrance closed without warning. Years later,
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But once in, he learns of another who carries the same power, and their existence could spell catastrophe for humanity. Denny is forced into a desperate race to understand his abilities, and in doing so uncovers the truth about the Ark, himself and the people he thought he once knew. Chaired by Casey Bailey
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Poetry Playwriting Fiction Wordplay
Join our fun, inspiring sessions for young people who love writing. All sessions are run by professional writers.
The Exchange, Centenary Square, Birmingham Burton-on-Trent Library KidderminsterLibrary Nuneaton Library Redditch Library Central Library, Stoke-on-Trent Wolverhampton Art Gallery
Online and in-person Saturdays Monthly from September 2022 – July 2023, Across the West Midlands £9 per session
Also for younger writers… Library of Birmingham The Core, Solihull New Art Gallery, Walsall for students who receive Shrewsbury Art Gallery Free School Meals and Museum or Pupil Premium. Belgrade Theatre, Coventry Hereford Library The Worcester BookHive, online birminghamliteraturefestival.org
Free places available
Booking is essential
sparkwriters.org
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Festival planner
Sukh Ojla: Sunny Friday 7 October, 6 – 7pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40
Is This Enough? Harriet Johnson & Mary Ann Sieghart 12.30 – 1.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs)
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Poetry Walk In memory of David Hart Thursday 6 October, 2 – 4pm Start: Selly Oak Station
Birmingham, the city that raised me: Kit de Waal & Osman Yousefzada Friday 7 October, 6.30 – 7.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs)
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Poetry meets prose: Zaffar Kunial in conversation with Jim Crace Thursday 6 October, 6 – 7pm CBSO Centre Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs)
Adrian Chiles: The Good Drinker Friday 7 October, 8.30 – 9.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs)
Monica Ali: Love Marriage 2.30 – 3.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs)
Thursday 6 October
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Saturday 8 October
Announcement of the new Birmingham Poet Laureate and Young Poet Laureate Thursday 6 October, 7.30 – 8pm CBSO Centre Free, no booking required
Writing Workshops The Exchange, University of Birmingham Broad Street / Centenary Square Saturday 8 October, 10am – 12 Noon Saturday 8 October, 1 – 3pm
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Birmingham Poetry All Stars: Casey Bailey, Jasmine Gardosi, Safiya Kinshasa & Roy McFarlane Thursday 6 October, 8 – 9.30pm CBSO Centre Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs) page 10
Friday 7 October Michael Rosen: Many Different Kinds of Love Friday 7 October, 5 – 6pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 page 11
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Spark Young Writers Workshop Saturday 8 October, 1.30 – 3.30pm page 17
Women’s Prize Trust Discoveries Saturday 8 October, 10.30am – 11.30am Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £5 to include refreshments page 18
My Pen is the Wing of a Bird: Stories from Afghan Women Saturday 8 October, 12noon -1pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs)
Julia Armfield & Paul Mendez 2 – 3pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Page 21
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It’s all about Class: Sam Friedman & Natalie Olah 4 – 5pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Page 23
The book group favourites: Kasim Ali & Sarah Winman 4.30 – 5.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Page 23
The Housing Crisis: Hashi Mohammed & Vicky Spratt 6 – 7pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Page 24
Kate Mosse: Women in History 6.30 – 7.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs) Page 24
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Book by phone 0333 666 3366
Focus on: Northern Ireland – Darran Anderson & Wendy Erskine 8 – 9pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Page 25
New Room 204 fiction for 2022: Ania Bas, Liz Hyder, Elizabeth Lee and Susan StokesChapman 4 – 5pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40
Poetry from this place: Liz Berry & Caleb Femi 8.30 – 9.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £12 / £10 (concs)
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Sunday 9 October The UK Justice System: Wendy Joseph QC and Dr Shahed Yousaf 12noon – 1pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Page 27
Live Podcast recording: Elif Shafak on The Shift with Sam Baker 12.30 – 1.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Page 27
Writing from a Warzone: Bosnia, Afghanistan and Ukraine – Priscilla Morris, Parwana Fayyaz and Lybko Deresh 2 – 3pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Page 28
The Words We Cannot Say: How to Mourn and How to Listen – Kathryn Mannix and Christina Patterson 2.30 – 3.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Page 28
Bonnie Garmus & Jo Browning Wroe 4.30 – 5.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs)
Sunday 16 October
Ikon Small Press Fair 11am – 4pm Ikon Gallery, Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2HS Free. No booking required.
Who Are We Now? A talk by Jason Cowley, Editor of the New Statesman 6 – 7pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs)
Africa Writes Day 1 – 8pm Legacy Centre, 144 Potters Lane, Birmingham, B6 4UU
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Live Podcast recording: Ruth Jones on The Shift with Sam Baker 6.30 – 7.30pm Birmingham REP: Studio Tickets: £10 / £8 (concs) Page 31
Courttia Newland: A River Called Time 8 – 9pm Birmingham REP: Door Tickets: £8 / £6.40 (concs) Page 32
Saturday 19 November
Saturday 26 November Readers’ Day 10am – 3.30pm Priory Rooms, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AF Tickets: £25 for the full day Page 37
Booking By phone: 0333 666 3366
Online: birmingham literature festival.org
In person: tickets available on the door at events 1 hour before the event time.
Book online birminghamliteraturefestival.org
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Saturday 19 November Saturday 19 November Africa Writes Day Legacy Centre, 144 Potters Lane, Birmingham, B6 4UU Join Birmingham Literature Festival as we partner up with Africa Writes for a day celebrating Black writers at the Legacy Centre in Birmingham.
1 – 2pm: Regional Writer Meet Up Free, no booking required A free session of discussion and networking for emerging and established writers. This is a great opportunity for writers to meet one another, share ideas and enthusiasms, and hear from industry professionals.
5 – 6pm: Home Is Not A Place: Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts Tickets: £5 / £4 (concs) Acclaimed poet Roger Robinson and awardwinning author and photographer Johny Pitts have joined forces to explore this issue in their stunning new book, Home Is Not A Place. Featuring photographs, poetry and essays, it is a visual poem reflecting on the complexity, strength and resilience of Black Britain. In their journey around the UK’s coast, the writers uncover hidden stories of black people living in the unlikeliest of places, from rundown seaside resorts to rural beach locations. Come and hear these tales, which echo across centuries of the black experience, transforming and illuminating the history of Britain. Co-produced by Speaking Volumes, Sprung Sultan and Coastal Carolina University
2.30 – 4.30pm: Writing Workshop: Performing Your Poetry Tickets: £10 (bursaries available) Join the outgoing Birmingham Poet Laureate, Casey Bailey, to learn how to approach reading and performing your poetry to an audience. Bring a poem that you want to work on, and let’s play with tempo, volume, emotion and intonation. For poets of all levels of experience, including beginners.
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7 – 8pm: Yomi Sode: Manorism Talk
With Casey Bailey and John Bernard
Tickets: £5 / £4 (concs) Yomi ode’s debut collection Manorism explores family, survival, generational trauma and the complexities of belonging. The awardwinning Nigerian British writer skilfully charts the vulnerabilities and rich nuances of Black masculinity in Britain. ode will join Casey Bailey and John Bernard in conversation, unpicking their personal experiences, sharing common ground and highlighting the nuance that lives in each individual story.
Book by phone 0333 666 3366
Saturday 26 November Readers’ Day
Presented by the West Midlands Readers’ Network, in partnership with Birmingham Literature Festival
10am – 3.30pm Priory Rooms, 40 Bull Street, Birmingham, B4 6AF Tickets: £25 for the full day 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 lineup: Jill Dawson, Claire Fuller, Erin Kelly, Mike Gayle, Amanda Smyth and Lisa Blower with a brilliant catalogue of books perfect both for book club choices or 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 on the lower floor of Priory Rooms in central Birmingham, accessible by stairs or lift. 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.
Book online birminghamliteraturefestival.org
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Translators at Work – While You Wait
During the festival:
Sunday 9 October, 1pm – 3pm The Foyer, Birmingham Rep
In collaboration with Zimbabwe-based digital creative company Kay Media, Writing West Midlands is commissioning a UK-based creative writer and a digital artist from Zimbabwe to produce a 24-page comic book exploring the impact of climate change and the global cultural response to some of its most pressing challenges. Look out for the video animation being shown before events.
In partnership with Aston University and the established translators Roz Schwartz and Daniel Hahn, Writing West Midlands has appointed Sarah Letza as Translator in Residence 2022/23. Sarah will be working with a small team of translators from Aston University’s Translation Studies MA to offer ‘while you wait’ translations of short pieces of poetry or fiction into a range of languages.
Winds of Change launch
Script by West Midlands-based scriptwriter Annabel Brightling and illustrations by the conservation biologist Tafadzwa Shumba.
This is a drop-in activity and Festival visitors are welcome to come along with some of their own creative writing for our translators to work on. They will share the process they go through when translating and will be talking informally about their passion for translation of all forms. Come along to see new writing finding new readerships.
Celebrating the Commonwealth Games Writing West Midlands worked with poet and rapper Kurly McGeachie and filmmaker Paul Stringer to help 25 young Brummies make a poetry film. Funded by Birmingham City Council, the films were made with a Creative City Grant as part of the Birmingham 2022 Festival. Catch them as you take your seats at events across Birmingham Literature Festival.
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Book by phone 0333 666 3366
Venues The full addresses of our event locations are: 1
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Follow us and join the conversation online at: /BhamLitFest @BhamLitFest @BhamLitFest birminghamliteraturefestival.org
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 at events 1 hour before the event time.
Thank you to our funders, partners, colleagues, supporters, Board of Trustees, and our wonderful team of volunteers for making this festival possible.
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 14+ unless otherwise stated.