Birmingham Literature Festival brochure 2015

Day dateHighlights Festival October Rita Dove P. 10

Allan Ahlberg P. 41

Baltic Breakfast P. 13

Mark Billingham P. 42

Meera Syal & Tanika Gupta P. 17

Tracey Thorn & Ben Watt P. 46

Ode Trip P. 20

The Revd Richard Coles P. 50

The Writing of Protest P. 26

Stuart Maconie P. 52

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Welcome Image © Melissa Beck

Writers respond to the complexities of our times with imagination, insight and verve.

This year’s Birmingham Literature Festival is testimony to the richness of those responses.

As a programmer, the myriad ways a writer interprets a situation or an artistic prompt is endlessly fascinating. We wanted to give writers of all stripes a chance to do so.

I’m particularly looking forward to hearing more about the relationship between music and the written word – you’ll see we have several events this year which involve both art forms, whether it be folk, classical or pop music.

Literature in all its forms inspires performance – something we’re exploring more this year with events looking at dance, theatre and films all based on novels or poems in the first instance.

Finally, we’ve teamed up with Café Opus at Ikon to offer two events involving food – because in order to really get under the skin of a writer, you need to know about the food of their heritage, and how it influences them.

As always, there are also plenty of writing workshops, discussion events, pop-up reading groups and free events you can get involved in.

See you in October.

Jonathan Davidson Chief Executive, Writing West Midlands

The Birmingham Literature Festival is a project of Writing West Midlands

www.writingwestmidlands.org www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org

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BIRMINGHAM LITERATURE FESTIVAL PASS Too many great events to choose from?

festiv al p

ass

£6*5

Buy a BLF Pass and you can come to as many events during the Birmingham Literature Festival as you like for FREE! You also get a special discount for writing workshops and one-off quirky literary experiences.

For just £65, the BLF Pass gets you into all the Birmingham Literature Festival events.

During the festival, BLF Pass holders also get: • • • • • • •

Use of the Festival Green Room, including free tea/coffee* 20% discount on books sold at Birmingham Literature Festival 10% discount at the Library of Birmingham Café 10% off total bill at Marmalade, the Rep’s bistro and bar 10% off total bill at Café Opus at Ikon Invitations to special events not available to the public Discounted Friends membership *subject to availability

Book via The Box 0121 245 4455 Festival pass price: £65 / WWM Friends price: £58 A portion of the price of the BLF Pass will also go towards programming great events for next year’s festival, helping to secure its future.

Before the Festival All Night at The Coffin Works

Saturday 3 October, 11pm - 6am, The Coffin Works £45 / £35 (WWM Friends: £40.50 / £31.50), BLF Pass: £25 Twenty brave souls will have the chance to join writers Tiffany Murray and Rachel New for a night of writing in the creepy and fascinating surrounds of the Newman Brothers’ Coffin Works building.

Our craziest ever writing experience has risen from the dead for this year’s festival.

Kept awake all night, confined to a location you wouldn’t normally go to after dark, and in the company of two writers whose work often takes a dark turn, this is not for the faint-hearted.

The shelves and workbenches at Newman Brothers are full of original stock and tools of the coffin trade and with the original machinery working again, you can truly experience how this firm once operated, producing some of the world’s finest coffin furniture, including the fittings for the funerals of Joseph Chamberlain, Winston Churchill and the Queen Mother.

Tiffany Murray is a novelist (Diamond Star Halo, Happy Accidents), and her most

© Jane Baker

recent work, Sugar Hall, is a chilling ghost story based on the numerous hauntings associated with Littledean Hall. Tiffany will be supported by fiction writer and Short and Sweet presenter Rachel New, whose writing often takes in the frankness of life and death. Coffee, snacks and encouragement are provided.

Supported by The Coffin Works. www.coffinworks.org

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Day date October Thursday 8 October The 2015 Man Booker Prize Shortlist Event 7 - 8.30pm, The Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £10 / £8 (WWM Friends: £9 / £7.20), BLF Pass: Free The announcement of the Man Booker Prize for Fiction is one of the most eagerly anticipated of the writing calendar. Join us for a unique event featuring this year’s shortlisted authors giving readings and discussing their books, just five days before the final announcement.

This is the third year running that the Birmingham Literature Festival has hosted an event to celebrate this prize, and we have been proud to feature writers in the past including Richard Flanagan (2014 winner), Eleanor Catton (2013 winner), Neil Mukherjee (2014 shortlistee) and Jim Crace (2013 shortlistee).

In addition to awarding the prize, the Booker Prize Foundation works with libraries to acknowledge the vital work they do to support fiction.

Booker Prize, who died this year. Ion chaired the judging panel in 1974, and became a member of the Booker (now Man Booker) Prize Advisory Committee in 1989. He succeeded the late Martyn Goff as Administrator of the Booker Prize Foundation in 2006. This role became the Literary Director of the Booker Prize Foundation, a role he held until his death in April 2015.

The shortlist will be announced on Tuesday 15 September, so do check our website for details of authors confirmed to participate in this event.

Sponsored by The Institute of Creative and Critical Writing at Birmingham City University. www.themanbookerprize.com

This event is dedicated to the memory of Ion Trewin, Literary Director of the Man

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MA in Writing Why choose us?

•distinguished The opportunity to learn from practitioners, with tuition from Ian Marchant, Gregory Leadbetter, Anthony Mellors, Andy Conway, and the Fellows of the Institute of Creative MA in Writing and Critical Writing, including Helen Cross, Caroline Jester, Sally Read, David Patrick Morley.McGuinness and •your Work in a range of genres of choice, including Fiction, Screenplay, Creative Non-fiction, Scripting and Staging, and Poetry.

•Non-fiction, Fiction, Screenplay, Creative Scripting and Staging Looking to take your writing to a new level?

Our course will help you develop creatively and prepare for your future.

• Work in a range of genres of your choice, including Fiction, Screenplay, Creative Non-fiction, Scripting and Staging, and Poetry.

• Benefit from detailed critique in our author-led masterclasses.

• Enjoy invaluable contact with an exciting range of guest authors, literary agents, publishers, editors and development agencies, through the Institute of Creative and Critical Writing.

Admission to the course is based on talent, commitment and potential.

The MA in Writing allows you to study full- or part-time.

Apply at www.bcu.ac.uk/mawriting Course Director: Dr Gregory Leadbetter (gregory.leadbetter@bcu.ac.uk) Admissions queries: english.admissions@bcu.ac.uk

Day date October Thursday 8 October

Thursday 8 October The Hundred Years’ War: the Somme to Afghanistan 7.30 - 9pm, The Door, Birmingham REP £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free

Presenting thirty-five extraordinary war poems from around the world written between 1914 and 2013, this brand new production fuses poetry and theatre to create a distinctive and deeply moving portrayal of life under fire. The poems have all been drawn from the bestselling anthology The Hundred Years’ War – Modern War Poems published by Bloodaxe Books.

The Hundred Years’ War offers stories of war from across the world, from the trenches of the Somme to the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust, and in the Middle East, Vietnam, Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Amongst the poems chosen are French and German views of trench warfare in World War One and visions of life on the home front in the Second World War. There are searing personal accounts of loss and violence in Bosnia; and the words of a Vietnamese fighter who shot a friend

from childhood, the old ties having been severed by war.

Amid the seemingly unending violence of war, there are glimmers of hope and a wish for peace.

“Understated, but perfectly judged – The Hundred Years’ War is one of the finest examples of poetry in performance I have ever encountered.” Audience member There will be an interval of 20 minutes.

Presented by Midland Creative Projects in association with The Belgrade Theatre Coventry and Bloodaxe Books. www.livepoetry.org

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Friday 9 October Workshop: Rough Diamonds

2 - 4pm, Bookbox, Library of Birmingham £25 / £20, (WWM Friends: £22.50 / £18) BLF Pass: £15

Short and Sweet: Short Fiction Salon

6 - 7.15pm, The Door, Birmingham REP Free

Personal stories are wonderful when told well. If you would love to tell a winning story at a family gathering, a business presentation or a spoken word event, this workshop will show you how to shape and polish a rough idea into a sparkling gem. We will also look at how to connect most effectively with your listeners.

Please bring a story idea you would like to work with.

Cat Weatherill is an internationally renowned storyteller and children’s writer.

She has performed at festivals and events all over the world, and on television and radio, including on Radio 4’s flagship arts programme Front Row and Radio 3’s The Verb. www.catweatherill.co.uk

Cat Weatherill will also be performing in The Road to Varanasi (p9)

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As well as giving writers a chance to test out and develop new writing, this event is a sweet treat for listeners, too. Hosted by fiction writer and Heart Breakfast presenter Rachel New, Short and Sweet allows you to dip your toe into the water of live literature, and enjoy the five readings we select for you – including a story from Rachel herself, written especially for this event.

Short and Sweet celebrates the very short story: open mic slots are just seven minutes long. Four guest slots will be made available in September on the BLF website.

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Day Friday date9 October The Road to Varanasi

8 - 9pm, Edwardian Tea Rooms, BMAG £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free A one-woman storytelling experience from internationally renowned performer Cat Weatherill.

In The Road to Varanasi, Cat conjures the places and the faces, the emotion and the magic of an extraordinary land.

Dawn mist and monkeys at the Taj Mahal. A sublime sunset and astonishing kindness at the Golden Temple in Amritsar. Romance in Goa and the healing ocean. Life and death in one final embrace on the banks of the Ganges at Varanasi…

Cat shares her journey through India: an emotional, physical and spiritual odyssey that left her blessed, refreshed and overwhelmed by the love of strangers.

Indian-themed cocktails and teas will be available.

‘One of our great storytellers’ Michael Morpurgo Supported by Birmingham Museums.

‘A magical performer’ The Times

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Friday 9 October

Photo Š Fred Viebahn

Friday 9 October Rita Dove and Guests

7.30 - 9pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free We are delighted to welcome Rita Dove, the former U.S. Poet Laureate and a Pulitzer Prize winner, to give a rare poetry reading in the UK. A mesmerising performer, Rita Dove’s work covers a range of subjects, each of them addressed with wit and verve.

Her most recent poetry collections are Sonata Mulattica and American Smooth.

She is editor of the Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry and is Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia. Among her honours are the 1996 National Humanities Medal from President Bill Clinton and the 2011 National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama, making her the only poet to ever receive both medals.

Serena Arthur

Jo Bell

Oliver Sullivan

Laureate 2014-15 Serena Arthur, and by Oliver Sullivan, a young performer from the region who was runner-up in this year’s Poetry by Heart Competition.

Sponsored by the University of Birmingham.

In association with The Poetry Society.

As a prelude to Rita Dove’s reading, we present three short poetry performances.

Jo Bell, Canal Laureate, will be reading from her new collection, Kith. She will be joined by Birmingham Young Poet

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Saturday 10 October Baltic Breakfast

9.30 - 11am, Café Opus at Ikon £12 / £10 inc breakfast (WWM Friends: £10.80, £9) BLF Pass: Free Baltic nations Latvia and Lithuania have very distinct literary traditions, informed by their complicated contemporary histories. We welcome novelist Pauls Bankovskis from Latvia, and poets Indrė Valantinaitė and Laurynaus Katkus from Lithuania to share a selection of their work in English translation.

There will be short readings in all three languages, and to give an extra flavour of their respective cultures, a light breakfast featuring dishes popular in the Baltic. This will be a unique introduction to these fascinating countries and their literature.

In association with Latvian Literature Centre, Lithuanian Culture Institute and Nine Arches Press. www.opusrestaurant.co.uk

The Making of BBC Radio 4’s Home Front

11.30am - 1pm & 2 - 3.30pm, BBC Mailbox, Free but booking required

Home Front is BBC Radio 4’s daily drama serial tracking the fortunes of a group of characters on the home front trying to maintain normality while Britain is dedicating its resources to the First World War. Each episode is broadcast exactly one hundred years after the day it covers, providing an alternative history of the Great War. Join editor Jessica Dromgoole, producer Allegra McIlroy, studio manager Martha Littlehailes and writer Claudine Toutoungi for a tour of the Home Front studios, a chance to hear about the writing and recording of this extraordinary drama, and an opportunity to put your questions to the team.

In association with BBC Radio 4.

Presented in association with the Get Creative Family Arts Festival.

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Saturday 10 October Moving Images: Poetry Film Day Wholly Communion © BFI

11.15am - 4pm, The Door, Birmingham REP Free, no need to book Join us for a variety of screenings with animation, discussion, documentaries, archive footage, and previews of new poetry film.

11:15 - 11:35 John Clare Film: an Artist-Poet Collaboration

John Clare wrote some of the most wellloved and enduring poetry while leading a troubled domestic life battling mental illness. In this event, poet Elizabeth-Jane Burnett will talk about the process of working with artist Brian Shields to turn this idea into film, and will show clips.

11.50 – 12.20 Poetry Nibbles

Come along with your own packed lunch for a programme of poetry and film collaborations including Linda Hughes’ film of Marian Allan’s The Wind On The Downs.

12.30- 13.20 Wholly Communion

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Allen Ginsberg was the poet behind The International Poetry Incarnation, a landmark poetry event at the Royal Albert

Hall in London on 11 June 1965. 2015 is the 50th anniversary of this auspicious occasion and Peter Whitehead’s Wholly Communion documents this large scale meeting of the world’s best Beat poets. You can also watch Lemn Sissay and Patience Agbabi give powerful performances at their Wordsmiths & Co events from 2014.

13.35 - 14.10 Trains of Thought

In John Betjeman Goes By Train (1962), Betjeman discusses the special pleasures of a trip along a small branch line, cherishing Edwardian arches and deriding concrete lamp standards.

14.20 - 14.30 Hugh MacDiarmid –

No need to book, you can drop in to as many screenings as you like

Saturday 10 October A Portrait.

Margaret Tait’s 1964 documentary is a unique homage to one of Scotland’s greatest poets. In addition to speaking his own poems, MacDiarmid gracefully enacts the filmmaker’s interpretation of them.

14.45 - 15.10 Lady Lazarus

Sandra Lahire’s Lady Lazarus (1991) explores a cinematic alphabet for Sylvia Plath’s readings of her own poetry. In this film Lady Lazarus is a woman irresistibly drawn towards Plath’s voice. The film provides an anchor for her macabre humour and an atmosphere of constant metamorphosis.

15.30 - 16.00 Making Eden Reborn

Eden Reborn is an anti-racist, eco-feminist re-telling of the Garden of Eden story in response to Ted Hughes’ Theology, by poet Elisabeth Charis. Elisabeth has worked with editor Inua Ellams and animator Emma Reading to bring Eden to life. They will discuss the making of the film, with clips shown.

Come With Me... Poetry on Loan

5 - 6.15pm, The Door, Birmingham REP £5 / £4 (WWM Friends: £4.50 / £3.60), BLF Pass: Free

Come with Me…: a plethora of poets to celebrate the launch of Poetry on Loan’s new set of poetry postcards. Every two years, Poetry on Loan commissions up to thirty poets to write poems on a given theme; this year the theme is Come with Me… Seven poems have been chosen to be used for specially designed postcards, distributed throughout the West Midlands.

Tonight, all of the chosen postcard poems will be performed, alongside the winner of the Poetry on Loan annual West Midlands Poetry Competition.

Come with us for a wonderful evening of poetry and surprises.

In association with Poetry on Loan www.poetryonloan.org.uk

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Day date October Saturday 10 October Even the Ghost is Lying

20-minute performances, throughout the afternoon, meet in Library Foyer. £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free Little Earthquake presents Even The Ghost Is Lying, after the short story In A Grove

by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and the film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa.

Deep in the woods, a man lies dead. But no one can agree on how he met his death. Not even the dead man himself.

As those involved retrace their steps through the whispering forest, they share their version of events. But the more we hear about what has happened, the less we know for certain. As everyone’s story steadily contradicts the others — when the simplest details do not match up — and when even the ghost may be lying — how are we to get to the bottom of the mystery?

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This gently immersive promenade performance blends discreetly into the human traffic of the Library during the day and animates the silent spaces of the building after dark.

Photo © andreiuc88 Please note: audience members are required to navigate staircases, walkways and travelators on foot. If you have access requirements, please contact the Festival for guidance before booking.

Perfomances will take place between 3pm and 9.20pm at intervals. See the website for more details.

There will be a second performance of Even the Ghost is Lying on Tuesday 13 October, see page 30 for more information. A screening of Rashomon takes place on Wednesday 14 October, see page 35 for details. Please bring along your Even the Ghost is Lying ticket for free entry.

www.little-earthquake.com

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Saturday Day date 10 October Meera Syal & Tanika Gupta: In Conversation 4.30 - 5.30pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £5 / £4 (WWM Friends: £4.50 / £3.60), BLF Pass: Free

Meera Syal and Tanika Gupta discuss the process of bringing Anita and Me to the stage of Birmingham Repertory Theatre (9th to 24th October) and their remarkable careers.

Meera Syal CBE is the writer of the criticallyacclaimed best-selling novel, Anita and Me. Other writing credits include Life Isn’t All Ha Ha Hee Hee, Bhaji On The Beach, and Bombay Dreams (Olivier Nomination for Best Musical). Her film and television credits include Goodness Gracious Me, The Kumars At Number 42, Broadchurch, and Doctor Who. Theatre credits include Behind The Beautiful Forevers (National Theatre), Serious Money (Royal Court Theatre, West End and Broadway) and Much Ado About Nothing (RSC, West End).

Tanika Gupta MBE has adapted Anita and Me for the stage. She has worked extensively in theatre, writing Love N Stuff (Theatre Royal Stratford East), The Empress (Royal Shakespeare

Company), Great Expectations (Watford Palace Theatre & English Touring Theatre), among others. Tanika’s screen credits include London Bridge, EastEnders and The Bill.

This event will be recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3’s Arts and Ideas programme Free Thinking.

www.birmingham-rep.co.uk

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Saturday 10 October Martin Rowson: 35,000 Years of Visual Satire 7 - 8.30pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £10 / £8 (WWM Friends: £9 / £7.20), BLF Pass: Free There is enormous power in satire. Words and images have an important role to play in reflecting modern life. Martin Rowson is one of our best known satirists and has work published in almost every national daily newspaper, including a regular cartoon in The Guardian. In this illustrated talk, Martin talks us through 35,000 years of visual satire, touching on the life and works of William Hogarth, right up to the present day.

Martin will illustrate his talk with images from the Stone Age through the 18th Century and on to today. He will also reflect on the recent impact of satire and cartoons. This event will contain very strong language and shocking images; please be prepared to be enlightened and lightly traumatised - which is all part of the fun.

Martin Rowson © Emyr Young

Sponsored by Café Opus at Ikon

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© Martin Rowson

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Sunday 11 October

Sunday 11 October Ode Trip: Black Country Bus Tour

12 - 4pm, starting and ending at Library of Birmingham £25 / £20 (WWM Friends: £22.50 / £18), BLF Pass: £15 Jump aboard our Black Country bus tour for an afternoon out. Aboard a 37 seater 1953 Leyland Royal Tiger, a sweet little vintage bus from Boultons of Shropshire, we’re taking you on a regional tour to remember. Reminiscent of the day trips of your childhood and school days, this event will make you yearn for chips, clipboards and plastic anoraks.

As we wind our way around the disputed borders of the Black Country, expect a friendly take-over by excellent poets and poems from Nine Arches Press. From poets at bus stops, live performances on board and audio tracks to add a glorious soundtrack to your journey, this poetic intervention will distract even the most bored traveller from misbehaving on the back seat.

You will disembark all aglow from the experience – even if the weather is terrible!

Nine Arches Press are an independent and award-winning publisher of contemporary poetry based in the West Midlands. They publish collections, pamphlets, e-books and the magazine, Under The Radar. They regularly run events and workshops, and in 2015 were the first ever Publisher In Residence at the Wenlock Poetry Festival.

The bus route will allow for you to purchase food and drink, and for scheduled comfort breaks. The Leyland Tiger joined the Boultons fleet in 1987 after being rescued for preservation in the late 1970s. Replete with gorgeous brown interior and Burlingham Seagull bodywork, the bus is a beautiful example of regional transport history.

In association with Nine Arches Press. www.ninearchespress.com www.boultonsofs hropshire.com

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Sunday 11 October Sathnam Sanghera: Writing Begets Writing 1.30 - 3pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free Sathnam Sanghera will talk about how his book Marriage Material was itself inspired by the novel The Old Wives’ Tale by Arnold Bennett. This event looks at the process of one piece of writing inspiring another.

The Hearth Centre’s most recent project, Writing Begets Writing used local writers who led fiction writing masterclasses in psychiatric hospitals and community mental health groups.

Drawing inspiration from Sathnam Sanghera, and the processes he uses, the writers inspired new voices with startling and memorable stories to tell, generating a buzz of excitement around the Writing Begets Writing competition. The best writing produced will feature in a new anthology alongside extracts of the work that inspired them, to be published by Nine Arches Press.

© John Angerson

competition winners, and we’ll hear some of the winning entries.

In association with The Hearth Centre. www.thehearthcentre.org.uk Supported by Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust.

Sathnam will present prizes to our

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Sunday 11 October Salley Vickers In Conversation: Life/Stories

3.30 - 5pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free

Salley Vickers, author of the word of mouth best-seller Miss Garnet’s Angel as well as many other novels and short stories, worked for a number of years as a psychoanalyst. Psychological themes are explicit in several of her novels, including The Other Side of You, an account of an all-night therapy session that transforms both patient and analyst. What do fiction and psychoanalysis, as two ways of thinking about people and making stories, have to say to each other? How does one inform the other?

Salley Vickers will be in conversation with Myra Connell and Rachel Dunkley Jones, of the West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapists. Alongside her work in private practice, Myra has published short stories and her debut poetry collection is released this year from Nine Arches Press. Rachel’s background is in literature and social sciences. In the course of her own Jungian analysis, she gained insight from fictional accounts of psychoanalysis,

including Salley’s novel The Other Side of You. Rachel is in private practice in Kings Heath.

‘Vickers writes elegantly but romantically about the process of analysis.’ – The Sunday Times on The Other Side of You Presented in association with West Midlands Institute of Psychotherapists. www.wmip.org

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Day date12October Monday October Workshop: Still Life of Vanitas

1.30 - 4.30pm, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, £25 / £20 (WWM Friends: £22.50 / £18), BLF Pass: £15

Join us for this writing workshop as we delve into the world of vanitas, a trend seen predominantly in 16th and 17th century Dutch art. Led by poet, writer and visual artist Jacqui Rowe, participants will be immersed in a still life room to explore elements of vanitas found in The Barber Institute of Fine Arts’ collections.

Vanitas, which comes from the Latin word meaning ‘vanity’, draws on ideas from the Old Testament that all human action is transient in contrast to the everlasting nature of faith. With the notion of everything returning to dust, objects are used in vanitas paintings to symbolise the theme.

As you wander around the room, look out for the subtle changes which will bring our still life set-up to life.

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In partnership with The Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

Inspired by Gandhi: Pop-Up Readings Between 5 - 7pm, Meet in Library Foyer Free

Gandhi is a towering figure in history, whose philosophy of nonviolence, passion for equality and socio-political intelligence continues to be an inspiration for many people. experience Come and readings, in various Library locations, of some of the winning entries from Sampad’s Inspired by Gandhi international writing competition, which invited writers aged 8 and upwards to respond to and reflect on Mahatma Gandhi’s life, philosophy and vision.

Sampad is a dynamic development agency for South Asian arts based in Birmingham. www.sampad.org.uk

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Monday Day date 12 October Brecht & Steffin: Love in a Time of Exile and War 6 - 7.15pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free

Fleeing from Hitler, Margarete Steffin, Brecht’s lover, collaborator and close comrade, was in exile with Brecht and his family in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and the Soviet Union. Too ill to continue with them to safety in the USA, Steffin died of tuberculosis in a Moscow clinic on 4 June 1941, aged only thirty-three.

This event features the love poems of Bertolt Brecht and Margarete Steffin in new translations by the poet and translator David Constantine. The poems, together with readings of diaries, letters and prose, will be performed by actors Anna Procter and Mathew Wernham and accompanied by live music written and performed by Dominic Muldowney.

Translation and writing brecht.

Supported by writing brecht. www.brecht.mml.ox.ac.uk

Alongside these performances, David Constantine and translator and editor Tom Kuhn will discuss the relationship between the two writers in love, in exile and in parting.

In association with Modern Poetry in

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Monday 12 October

School of Humanities The School of Humanities at the University of Wolverhampton offers a broad range of challenging undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in a range of disciplines.

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The literature and dialect of the Black Country is studied in English, Creative and Professional Writing and English Language and Linguistics.

Our Religious Studies and Philosophy teams, together with our new BA (Hons) in Cultural Heritage offer students the opportunity of developing a strategic understanding of the role the Arts and Humanities play in creating our world.

Apply at: wlv.ac.uk/humanities Queries: arts@wlv.ac.uk

Janet Suzman Š Clare Park

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Monday 12 October The Writing of Protest

8 - 9.30pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free This event is a unique opportunity to hear how two very successful current campaigns – Everyday Sexism and 38degrees – have used individual stories to shape compelling national narratives.

Also taking part is Professor Mary Evans from the London School of Economics, who is researching how the stories we tell construct our social identities.

LSE. She was a founding editor of the European Journal of Women’s Studies and is presently working on a study of narratives of class and gender.

Join in what will be a lively debate about the role language and story plays in effecting social and political change, chaired by playwright David Edgar.

David Edgar is Patron of Writing West Midlands and President of the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain.

Taking part:

38degrees is an independent not-forprofit political activism organisation that campaigns on a wide range of issues, from tax-dodging to saving forests.

A Guardian Live event, sponsored by Wolverhampton University.

Laura Bates is a British feminist writer. She founded the Everyday Sexism Project in 2012; her first book Everyday Sexism was published by Simon & Schuster last year.

She writes frequently for The Guardian.

Mary Evans is Centennial Professor at the

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Festival Diary Thursday 8 Oct

7 - 8.30pm Man Booker Shortlist Studio Theatre £10 / £8 P.4

Friday 9 Oct 2 - 4pm Workshop: Rough Diamonds Bookbox £25 / £20 P.8

Saturday 10 Oct 9.30am - 11am Baltic Breakfast Café Opus £12 / £10 P.13

Sunday 11 Oct

Monday 12 Oct 28

6 - 7.15pm Short and Sweet The Door Free P.8

11.15am - 4pm Poetry Film Day The Door Free

P.14

11.30am - 1pm & 2 - 3.30pm Making of Home Front BBC Mailbox Free P.13

7.30 - 9pm Rita Dove & Guests Studio Theatre £12 / £10 P.10

Throughout the afternoon Even the Ghost is Lying Library Foyer £8 / £6 P.16 4.30 - 5.30pm Meera Syal & Tanika Gupta Studio Theatre £5 / £4

12 - 4pm Ode Trip Meet at Library of Birmingham £25 / £20 P.20

1.30- 4.30pm Workshop: Still Life of Vanitas The Barber Institute £25 / £20 P.24

7.30 - 9pm The Hundred Years’ War The Door £12 / £10 P.6

P.17

8 - 9pm The Road to Varanasi Edwardian Tea Rooms £8 / £6 P.9

5 - 6.15pm Poetry on Loan The Door £5 / £4 P.15

1.30 - 3pm Sathnam Sanghera Studio Theatre £8 / £6 P.22

Between 5pm - 7pm Inspired by Gandhi Library Foyer Free P.24

6 - 7.15pm Brecht & Steffin, Studio Theatre £8 / £6 P.25

7 - 8.30pm Martin Rowson Studio Theatre £10 / £8 P.18

3.30 - 5pm Salley Vickers Studio Theatre £8 / £6 P.23

8 - 9.30pm The Writing of Protest Studio Theatre £12 / £10 P.26

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Festival Diary Tuesday 13 Oct 10.30 - 12.30pm Workshop: Writing for Television Library of Birmingham £25 / £20 P.30

Wednesday 14 Oct

Throughout the afternoon, Even the Ghost is Lying Library Foyer £8 / £6 P.30

10.30am - 12.30pm Workshop: Technology for Writers Library of Birmingham £25 / £20 P.34

5.30 - 7pm Festival Book Group Café Mezz Free P.34

6 - 7.15pm Romany Song & Story Studio Theatre £8 / £6 P.31

6 - 7.30pm Rashomon Film Screening Studio Theatre £5 / £4 P.35

8 - 10pm Somewhere in Between Studio Theatre £12 / £10 P.33

7 - 8pm Cooked Up Ikon Gallery £8 / £6 P.32

7.30 - 8.30pm RLF Lecture: Stella Duffy The Door £8 / £6 P.36

8 - 9.45pm The Forbidden Door Studio Theatre £10 / £8 P.37

7 - 8.15pm Writing Home Ikon Gallery £8 / £6 P.39

8 - 10pm The Other Half Studio Theatre £10 / £8 P.42

Thursday 15 Oct 5.30 - 7pm Festival Book Group Café Mezz Free P.38

Friday 16 Oct

2 - 4pm Workshop: Adapting Text for Performance Bookbox £25 / £20 P.44

Saturday 17 Oct

10.30am - 12.30pm Writer Networking Morning Bookbox Free P.48

6 - 7.15pm Allan Ahlberg Studio Theatre £12 / £10 P.41

6 - 7.15pm Tracey Thorn & Ben Watt Studio Theatre £12 / £10 P.47

10.30am, 12pm & 1.30pm expanding Studio Theatre £8 / £6 P.49

6.30 - 9pm Ikon Open Social Ikon Gallery Free P.44

5 - 6.15pm Richard Coles Studio Theatre £12 / £10 P.50

9.30 - 10pm DanceXchange After-show Talk DanceXchange £12/£8 P.45

5.30 - 7pm Festival Book Group Café Mezz Free P.48

8 - 9.30pm Stuart Maconie Studio Theatre £12 / £10 P.52

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Tuesday 13 October Workshop: Writing for Television

20-minute performances, throughout the afternoon, meet in Library Foyer, £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free

From page to screen: Liz John takes you through every step in the production of one of her Doctors episodes. It’s television in practice and television drama for real from a core Doctors writer who is also an award-winning film scriptwriter.

Join us for the second performance of Little Earthquake’s Even The Ghost Is Lying, after the short story In A Grove

by Ryunosuke Akutagawa and the film Rashomon by Akira Kurosawa.

You’ll learn how to pitch ideas, flesh out stories, and bring your own characters to life while keeping the show’s existing regulars happy.

You’ll see how the script progresses through each draft and get advice from Liz on what does and doesn’t make good television drama.

In association with The Writers’ Guild.

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Even the Ghost is Lying

10.30am - 12.30pm, Library of Birmingham, £25 / £20 (WWM Friends: £22.50 / £18), BLF Pass: £15

This gently immersive promenade performance blends discreetly into the human traffic of the Library during the day and animates the silent spaces of the building after dark.

See page 16 for more information about this event.

There will be a screening of Rashomon (see page 35) on Wednesday 14 October, 6pm in the Studio Theatre. Please bring along your Even the Ghost is Lying ticket for free entry.

www.little-earthquake.com

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Tuesday Day date 13 October Sam Lee and Richard O’Neill: Romany Song and Story 6 - 7.15pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free

Like a modern day Cecil Sharp, Mercury Prize-nominated Sam Lee has travelled widely to gather ancient songs and narratives, particularly from Gypsy, Roma, Irish and Scottish Traveller communities.

His acclaimed new album, Fade in Time, is a distinctive and radical reinterpretation of the folk tradition. At its heart are the songs of the great Scottish singer and storyteller, Stanley Robertson.

Richard O’Neill was born and brought up in a large, traditional Romany family in the North of England. He is an award-winning, sixth generation storyteller and successful writer and dramatist. He also worked with Stanley Robertson.

Sam Lee © Frederick Aranda

This unique event will feature a story

by Richard and a song or two by Sam. In between, we promise an enthralling conversation about collecting and celebrating folk stories and songs.

Richard O’Neill

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Day date13October Tuesday October Cooked Up

7 – 8pm, Ikon Gallery (Supper at 8.30pm: £10 supplement) £8 / £6 (WWM Friends £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free Food is our common ground, bringing together families, communities and cultures.

Cooked Up is a new short story collection that draws together authors from all over the world, each bringing to the table a unique literary response to food.

A young man attempts to avoid military service by over-eating; students at a cookery school war over woks; a food bank visitor gets more than she bargained for. The book covers meals that are prepared and shared from Cambodia to an Indian kitchen in the US, from Russia to war-torn Croatia.

stories is available after the readings at 8.30pm. This must be booked.

There is a £10 supplement for supper, including for BLF Pass holders.

In association with Ikon and Café Opus at Ikon. www.cookedupfiction.org

Four of the contributors - Susannah Rickards, Pippa Goldschmidt, Nikesh Shukla and Elaine Chiew - will share their stories with us and discuss why food is such a rich creative inspiration.

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A two-course supper inspired by the

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Tuesday Day date 13 October Title Somewhere in Between: Lauren Kinsella

8 - 10pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham Time and price £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free Room, Library of Birmingham

Award-winning singer and composer Lauren Kinsella presents Somewhere in Between, a multi-disciplinary performance of two contrasting sets encompassing the worlds of music, poetry and theatre.

Kinsella is joined by world class improvisers Mark Sanders (drums) and Hannah Marshall (cello). Together this trio and an actor will explore the poetry of Simon Armitage, Maura Dooley and Micheal O’Siadhail.

This new work has been created through

Town Hall & Symphony Hall’s Jazzlines Fellowships Programme 2014/15, supported by Jerwood Charitable Foundation.

There will be an interval of 20 minutes.

In association with Jazzlines.

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Wednesday 14 October Workshop: Technology for Writers 10.30am - 12.30pm, Library of Birmingham £25 / £20 (WWM Friends: £22.50 / £18) BLF Pass: £15

William Gallagher © Lee Allen

You spent all that money on your computer and you’re not getting enough out of it. Join writer and technologist William Gallagher for the ten things you can do right now that will change how you use your PC, Mac or tablet.

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Make email less of a chore, fix Word’s oddities – and learn the online services that are useful instead of distracting. If you spend more time having to fiddle with your computer than you do writing, this is for you. If your computer runs slowly or you’ve ever lost any work or you’ve heard there is writing software out there but you don’t know what, then this is for you.

Festival Book Group 5.30 - 7pm, Café Mezz, Library of Birmingham Free

If you love reading and enjoy talking about books, you’ll love our new Festival Book Group meetings. Timed to be a literary aperitif, you can come along to one of our informal gatherings before enjoying one of the main events later in the evening. We’ve chosen three iconic novels with a strong connection to Birmingham or the wider Midlands to discuss.

At this first event we’ll be discussing Catherine O’Flynn’s What Was Lost. A haunting story told in time-shifts, this was Catherine’s debut novel and tells the story of 10-year-old Kate Meaney who goes missing in a shopping centre in 1984. Beautifully and tenderly written, with O’Flynn’s trademark humour, What Was Lost won the Costa First Novel Award in 2007.

In partnership with the West Midlands Readers’ Network.

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Wednesday Day date 14 October Rashomon Film Screening

6 - 7.30pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £5 / £4 (WWM Friends: £4.50 / £3.60), BLF Pass: Free “Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves.” Akira Kurosawa Ryunosuke Akutagawa’s short story In a Grove provided the inspiration for Even the Ghost is Lying, Little Earthquake’s promenade piece which we commissioned for this year’s festival.In 1950, acclaimed Japanese director Akira Kurosawa adapted the same story to make Rashomon, a period tale of conflicting accounts of a samurai’s murder, starring long-time collaborator Toshiro Mifune.

Winning the Golden Lion at the 1951 Venice Film Festival, Rashomon launched Kurosawa and Japanese cinema onto the world stage, and the film is still regarded as one of the greatest of all time.

This screening will feature an introduction to the text by Philip Holyman from Little

Earthquake.

Present your ticket to Even the Ghost is Lying for free entry to the screening. www.little-earthquake.com

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Wednesday 14 October The RLF lecture: Stella Duffy on the non-writing writing sabbatical 7.30 – 8.30pm, The Door, Birmingham REP £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free (Or why it’s not a great idea to use your long-awaited sabbatical to write your novel.)

Novelist and campaigner Stella Duffy will speak on her work as the Co-Director of Fun Palaces, the national organisation that campaigns for and supports grassroots engagement with all culture, her work in

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outreach for the newly-founded Women’s Equality Party and how all of this notwriting work feeds her work as a novelist, short story writer and playwright.

The Royal Literary Fund was established in 1790 and helps writers at all stages of their careers.

Wednesday 14 October The Forbidden Door

8 - 9.45pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £10 / £8 (WWM Friends: £9 / £7.20), BLF Pass: Free Don’t open that door!

As soon as the rule is laid down we know it will be broken. Once the door is opened, then what? – Adventures! Expect love, loss, drama, danger, horror, humour, twists and trials. How far is too far?

The Devil’s Violin has been breathing new life into the ancient art of storytelling since 2006. Acclaimed storyteller Daniel Morden, joined by virtuoso musicians Sarah Moody, Dylan Fowler and Oliver Wilson-Dickson will transport you into the world of the imagination.

Sponsored by Write the Talk.

‘A scintillating combination of music, sound and story’ The Times Welcome to a cinema of the mind: with their visceral combination of live music and dynamic storytelling, The Devil’s Violin weave an enchantment of melody and mystery.

There will be an interval of 20 minutes.

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Day date October Thursday 15 October Festival Book Group

Shirin Ramzanali Fazel

5.30 - 7pm, Café Mezz, Library of Birmingham Free

The second in our friendly, informal book group meetings, which are new to the festival this year. Timed to be a literary aperitif, you can come along to one of the group meetings before enjoying one of the main events later in the evening.

We’ve chosen three iconic novels with a strong connection to Birmingham or the wider Midlands to discuss.

This time, we’ll be discussing David Lodge’s Nice Work, published in 1988. It won the Sunday Express Book of the Year award and was shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The last of the campus trilogy, Nice Work is a dazzling and visionary tour-de-force which dissects changes in both the academic world and wider British society.

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Thursday Day date 15 October Title Writing Home

7 - 8.15pm,Time Ikonand Gallery price £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free Room, Library of Birmingham Picked up any Polish poetry recently?

The West Midlands is the second most ethnically diverse region in the UK. But what do you know about the literature of the immigrant nations which shape our local communities?

Only around 4% of the total number of books published in this country are translated from another language, and only from a very limited number of countries. So, opportunities to read literature from other cultures, or hear from immigrant writers, are few.

In this event, we meet Bangladeshi writer Shahaduz Zaman; writer and translator Rohini Chowdhury, who works in both Hindi and English; Polish literary translator Barbara Bogoczek and Shirin Ramzanali Fazel, an Italian writer of Somali and Pakistani origins.

Shahaduz Zaman

Rohini Chowdhury

They will each read from their work and debate how, as a region, we can better share the literature of other cultures.

Chaired by Dr Chantal Wright, University of Warwick.

This event is a partnership project with The University of Warwick.

In association with Ikon

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

English at Newman • The courses are varied and cover a range of disciplines including creative writing, literature, language and film • There are regular guest lectures from published authors • Writing retreats enable you to have a period of uninterrupted creativity

To find out more about English degrees at Newman visit www.newman.ac.uk/english

Our Young Writers' Groups are generously supported by these local businesses and partners:

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Arts Council England The Belgrade Theatre, Coventry Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery Emma Bridgewater Grant Thornton UK LLP The Grimmitt Trust Herefordshire Libraries The Hive

Ikon Irwin Mitchell Jenrick Engineering Ltd The New Art Gallery, Walsall Newman University Oakengates Theatre Polesworth Abbey Church Royal Shakespeare Company

Stoke on Trent Libraries Teleford & Wrekin Council Warwickshire Libraries University of Birmingham Wolverhampton Art Gallery Worcestershire Libraries Wragge, Lawrence, Graham & Co Wychavon District Council

Thursday Day date 15 October Peepo! An Audience with Allan Ahlberg 6 - 7.15pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free

Allan Ahlberg is one of the best-loved children’s writers in the world. His books are contemporary classics, his words household mantras.

Born in Croydon in 1938, Ahlberg was adopted as a baby into a poor Black Country family and raised in Oldbury.

He worked as a gravedigger, postman and teacher before becoming a writer. Over half the books he has written are set in Oldbury: “the only patch of ground in the world that has an emotional pull for me”.

In a writing life spanning over 40 years he’s published more than 140 titles, many of them with his late wife, Janet, including Cops and Robbers, Peepo! and Please, Mrs Butler! In 2013 he published The Bucket, an enthralling memoir of his childhood in Oldbury.

us a peek into the life that has shaped his books – and reflect on the lure of the Black Country.

Sponsored by Newman University.

In this very special event Allan will give

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Thursday 15 October

Thursday 15 October The Other Half: Featuring Mark Billingham 8 - 10pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £10 / £8 (WWM Friends: £9 / £7.20), BLF Pass: Free

An award-winning crime writer and a leading country music duo come together to present a dark and glorious mix of song and story.

Pain, loss, violence: the lifeblood of crime fiction, but also the dark seam that runs through the very best country music.

These are moving tales of grief and heartbreak, lust, murder and domestic horror. Serving beer and burgers as these very different stories unfold, Marcia reflects on her single doomed shot at happiness. Then one day she receives a phone call that changes everything…

The Other Half is a unique collaboration between the leading lights of mystery fiction and country music. An original story by bestselling crime writer Mark Billingham, soundtracked by the powerful and poignant songs of internationally acclaimed Americana duo My Darling Clementine.

“Although the songs and the stories deal with marital discord and life’s little ups and downs, the end result, like all good country music, raises the spirits and is, ultimately, life affirming.”

Lonesome Highway

With her best years seemingly behind her, a former Las Vegas showgirl works double shifts in a rundown Memphis bar.

Alone and estranged from her daughter, Marcia lives life vicariously through her customers and the everyday tragedies of people falling in and out of love.

www.theotherhalfshow.com

There will be an interval of 20 minutes.

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Friday 16 October Workshop: Adapting Text for Performance

2 - 4pm, Bookbox, Library of Birmingham £25 / £20 (WWM Friends: £22.50 / £18) BLF Pass: £15

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Ikon Youth Programme Open Social – Young Writers’ Foundation Group 6.30 - 9pm, Ikon Gallery Free, but booking is required

To coincide with the BLF-commissioned production Even The Ghost Is Lying, writer Philip Holyman will lead a practical workshop on adapting existing works for new theatrical performances. Participants are encouraged to come along with a story, novel, play or film in mind which they would like to adapt — and during the workshop, they will carry out some simple writing tasks to kick-start the adaptation process.

Experimental performances produced by young writers and visual artists from the West Midlands.

Philip is the co-Director of Little Earthquake, and his previous adaptations for the company include Poe’s The Tell-Tale Heart as a sonic thriller with live Foley sound; Chekhov’s Three Sisters with puppets; Wilde’s Salome as a play for voices staged in complete darkness; and most recently, Kafka’s Metamorphosis as a family show created with 100 primary school pupils taking on the role of Young Producers.

Expect live screen printing, music, performance art and readings with the gallery as our stage and experience literature by emerging young creatives whilst enjoying the exhibition.

Writing West Midlands’ Young Writers’ Foundation Group collaborate with the Ikon’s Youth Programme to create a promenade of performances in response to Ikon’s exhibition with British artist Fiona Banner, SCROLL DOWN AND KEEP SCROLLING.

In association with Ikon. www.ikon-gallery.org/iyp www.writingwestmidlands.org

www.little-earthquake.com

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Friday 16 October Without Stars / There We Have Been After-show talk 8pm show, 9.30pm talk, DanceXchange £12 / £8, BLF Pass £6

Taking inspiration from Norwegian Wood, Haruki Murakami’s best-selling novel, this critically acclaimed contemporary dance double bill performed by James Cousins Company portrays two sides to a beautifully tender story of love, loss and loyalty.

Join us for a post-show talk about dance drawing inspiration from literature and the influence of Haruki Murakami, with poet and novelist Anna Lawrence and choreographer James Cousins, chaired by DanceXchange’s Artistic Director, David Massingham.

In association with DanceXchange. www.dancexchange.org.uk

Fiona Banner with NAM stack (1997), c-type print, aluminium

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Day date Friday 16 October

Ben Watt Š Ed Bishop

Accountancy & Business Services Business Recovery & Insolvency Audit Corporate Finance

15 Colmore Row Birmingham B3 2BH t:

0800 298 3899

e: enquiries@dains.com

www.dains.com

Taxation Forensic Accounting

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Friday Day date 16 October Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt: In Conversation 6 - 7.15pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free

The two stars of chart-topping band Everything But The Girl chat about their careers, and the influence of their families on their lives.

In her bestselling autobiography Bedsit Disco Queen, Tracey Thorn recalled the highs and lows of a thirty-year career in pop music. But with the touring, recording and extraordinary anecdotes, there wasn’t time for an in-depth look at what she actually did for all those years: sing.

She sang with warmth and emotional honesty, sometimes while battling acute stage-fright. Part memoir, part wideranging exploration of the art, mechanics and spellbinding power of singing, Naked at the Albert Hall offers a unique, witty and sharply observed insider’s perspective on the exhilarating joy and occasional heartache of singing.

Ben Watt’s father, Tommy, was a workingclass Glaswegian jazz musician, a

politicised left-wing bandleader and a composer. His heyday in the late 1950s took him into the glittering heart of London’s West End, where he broadcast live with his own orchestra from the Paris Theatre. Ben’s mother, Romany, the daughter of a Methodist parson and schooled at Cheltenham Ladies’ College, was a RADA-trained Shakespearian actress, who had triplets in her first marriage before becoming a leading showbiz columnist in the 1960s and 1970s. They were both divorcés from very different backgrounds who came together like colliding trains in 1957.

Both a personal journey and a portrait of his parents, Romany and Tom is a vivid story of the post-war years, ambition and stardom, family roots and secrets, life in clubs and in care homes.

Sponsored by Dains Accountants.

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Saturday 17 October Writer Networking Morning 10.30am - 12.30pm, Bookbox, Library of Birmingham Free

Join Writing West Midlands staff and professional writers for a special Festival edition of our popular writer networking event. A chance to drink tea with likeminded people, and find out more about publishing, working with schools, creating writing projects, getting funded and being part of a writing community.

Hear from those who are already working professionally in the industry as writers, and ask all your most pressing questions.

Writing West Midlands is the literature development agency for the region, and works with writers of all ages to create opportunities and advise on career development. Birmingham Literature Festival is a project of Writing West Midlands.

You can find more information at www.writingwestmidlands.org.

Festival Book Group 5.30 - 7pm, Café Mezz, Library of Birmingham Free

The third in our new Festival Book Group meetings. Timed to be a literary aperitif, you can come along to one of our friendly, informal gatherings before enjoying one of the main events later in the evening.

We’ve chosen three iconic novels with a strong connection to Birmingham or the wider Midlands to discuss.

Today we’ll be discussing Jonathan Coe’s The Rotters’ Club, a comingof-age novel set in 1970s Birmingham. It was celebrated in a three-part drama for the BBC and will resonate with anyone who can remember the intensity and exquisite suffering of being a teenager.

In partnership with the West Midlands Readers’ Network.

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Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Saturday 17 October e-x-p-a-n-d-i-n-g: The History of the Universe in 45 minutes 10.30am, 12pm & 1.30pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £8 / £6 (WWM Friends: £7.20 / £5.40), BLF Pass: Free

“A gloriously immersive multi-sensory experience exploring time and space poetically and intellectually, with stunning visuals and a soundscape truly made from the music of the spheres. A delightful fusion of the arts and cosmology. I came out mind-expanded by our e-x-p-a-n-d-in-g universe..” Kaite O’Reilly (playwright & 2010 Ted Hughes Award winner) Join astrophysicist Professor Trevor Ponman, musician Giancarlo Facchinetti, and poets Nadia Kingsley and Emma Purshouse, in their mobile planetarium dome, with 360 degree visuals.

You will be fully immersed in the sounds sampled from the Universe, images taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, a combination of both serious and comic poetry, and ‘lectures’. Prepare to feel both insignificant and unique, relaxed and stimulated.

you’d prefer. Latecomers cannot be admitted.

Performances last 45 minutes.

Please note: You will be lying on the floor wearing headphones. Please ask for a chair if

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Saturday 17 October

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Revd Richard Coles Š Corbis

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

Saturday 17 October The Revd Richard Coles: Fathomless Riches

5 - 6.15pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free

The Reverend Richard Coles is a parish priest in Northamptonshire and a regular host of BBC Radio 4’s Saturday Live. He is also the only vicar in Britain to have had a number 1 hit single: The Communards’ Don’t Leave Me This Way topped the charts for four weeks in 1986 and was the biggest-selling single of the year.

Fathomless Riches is the remarkable memoir in which he divulges with searing honesty and intimacy his pilgrimage from a rock-and-roll life of sex and drugs to a life devoted to God and Christianity.

Music is where it began. Richard Coles was head chorister at school, and later discovered a love of saxophone together with the magic of Jimmy Somerville’s voice. Against a backdrop of intense sexual and political awakening, The Communards were formed, and Richard Coles’ life as a rock star began.

of St Paul and his followers - is a deeply personal and illuminating account of a transformation from hedonistic selfabandonment to ‘the moment that changed everything’.

Funny, warm, witty and wise, it is a memoir which has the power to shock as well as to console. It will be hailed as one of the most unusual and readable life stories of recent times.

Introduced by The Very Reverend Catherine Ogle, Dean of Birmingham Cathedral.

Fathomless Riches - a phrase characteristic

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Saturday 17 October

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Saturday 17 October Stuart Maconie: The Pie at Night

8 - 9.30pm, Studio Theatre, Library of Birmingham £12 / £10 (WWM Friends: £10.80 / £9), BLF Pass: Free In his new book, The Pie at Night, Stuart Maconie takes a look at what happens when darkness descends and folk go off to have a good time.

Focusing on the North (for which we can forgive him, he does come from Wigan after all) and following tip offs and rumour, Stuart takes trips to forgotten corners and locals’ haunts. From the tapas bars to caravan parks and from bowling greens to curry houses, via dog tracks and art galleries, dance floors and high fells, Stuart compares his native land, new and old, with some surprising results.

Stuart Maconie is a writer, broadcaster and journalist familiar to millions from his work in print, on radio and on TV. His previous bestsellers have included Cider with Roadies, Pies and Prejudice and Adventures on the High Teas, and he currently hosts the afternoon show on BBC 6music with Mark Radcliffe as well as weekly show The Freak Zone.

Based in the cities of Birmingham and Manchester, he can also often be spotted on top of a mountain in the Lake District with a Thermos flask and individual pork pie.

Stuart Maconie is a Patron of Writing West Midlands and the Birmingham Literature Festival.

Supported by Walter Smith, the Birmingham-based butchers. Pork pies will be available on the night.

Book: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org / 0121 245 4455

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Throughout the Festival Tannoy Poetry

Daily, Library of Birmingham Free

From a menu of classic verse, we bring you the voices of your library – the real people who make the building run (and not just those who shelve the books) and who, despite being surrounded by literature all day long, might not always have time to enjoy it!

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Listen out for our daily poetry announcements over the building’s tannoy system – poems to wake, welcome

and inspire you as you visit the city’s landmark library.

More information about the Tannoy Poetry readers can be found at www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org.

Venue and Booking Information How to book Booking for our events is via The Box unless otherwise stated > By phone: 0121 245 4455 > Online: www.birminghamliteraturefestival.org > In Person: The Box, Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2EP

Venue addresses > BBC, The Mailbox, Birmingham, B1 1AY > Birmingham Repertory Theatre, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2EP > CafĂŠ Opus at Ikon, Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HS > DanceXchange, Patrick Centre, Birmingham Hippodrome, Hurst Street, Birmingham, B5 4TB > Edwardian Tea Rooms, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery, Chamberlain Square, B3 3DH > Ikon Gallery, 1 Oozells Square, Brindleyplace, Birmingham, B1 2HS > Library of Birmingham, Centenary Square, Broad Street, Birmingham, B1 2ND > The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham, Edbgaston, B15 2TS > The Coffin Works, 13 - 15 Fleet Street, Jewellery Quarter, Birmingham, B3 1JP Events are suitable for adults and children 14+ unless otherwise stated.

The advertised programme is subject to change without notice where unavoidable.

Tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable.

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Join Us Support creative writing and writerS in the weSt midlandS Join us by becoming a Friend and help us develop writers of all ages across the region. You will also get special discounts at our events and workshops, including a discount on the BLF Pass and for our annual Writers’ Toolkit.

For as little as £3 a month (or a yearly one-off payment of £30), you can make a real contribution to creative writing and literature activities in the West Midlands. Join online www.writingwestmidlands.org or via The Box. The benefits of becoming a Friend include: 10% off tickets for events, including at the Birmingham Literature Festival Special Friends price for the BLF Pass (see page

2 for details)

Special prices for workshops and Toolkit Use of the Festival Green Room, including free tea/coffee* 20% off books at our events Exclusive quarterly newsletter

10% off total bill at Marmalade at The Rep 10% discount off total bill at Café Opus at Ikon 10% off at Library of Birmingham Café 25% off a la carte menu at Loch Fyne (selected

branches only)

25% off Nine Arches Press books 2 for 1 offer on tickets to the RSC viewing tower

*subject to availability

Donate to help fund our Young Writers’ Groups! We work all over the region fostering the creative writing talents of young people.

Text WWMS15 £5 to 70070, visit www.writingwestmidlands.org/donate to give by PayPal or donate in cash or by card at the Bookcart during the Festival. Thank you! frends Ad-MT.indd 1

03/07/2015 16:01

Partners, Funders and Supporters With thanks to our funders and partners

Festival Sponsors

Festival Friends, Supporters & Benefactors Yasmin Ali Gaynor Arnold Lindsey Bailey Keith Baty Sue Beardsmore Antonia Beck Deborah Boekestein Sarah Bookey Deepa Bose Lorraine Boyce Jane Commane Carolyn Cook Nicky Coupe Helen Cousins

Melanie Crooks Lindsay Davis Kalbinder Dayal Kit De Waal John Dolan Andrew Donaldson Edward Dunphy Jenny Durston Danielle Fuller William Gallagher Anna Ganley Rob Ganley Kathy Gee Peter Handley

Peter Hayden Susan Hayden Denise Hayes Liz Hyder Rob Jefferson-Brown Lisa Jordan Rickie Josen Fiona Joseph Sheila Keenan Nadia Kingsley Gregory Leadbetter Bernadette Lynch Paul McDonald Philip Monks

Alyson Morris Marjorie Neilson Catherine O’Flynn Jeff Phelps Karen Pincher Verity Relves Jacqui Rowe Jennifer Stephens Sallie Tams Christopher Vaughan Peter Wakefield Lorna Wild

Thanks to all those who make the Festival possible including our funders, partners, sponsors, Friends, Supporters, Benefactors, staff and volunteers.

Birmingham Literature Festival is a project of Writing West Midlands.

Writing West Midlands is the literature development agency for the region. Registered Charity Number: 1147710. Supported by Arts Council England. www.writingwestmidlands. org.

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