Photos are posted here from the Birmingham Flickr community. Click on the image for more details.

My deepest apologies for this tedious infringement on your liberty. Comment away!

(I suspect this was part of an upgrade. If you notice anything else odd do let me know.)

The event will feature author Mick Scully reading from Little Moscow and discussing his fiction with Nicola Monaghan, creative writing fellow at Birmingham’s National Academy of Writing, based at UCE and author of The Killing Jar. There will also be drinks.

The Little Moscow, a shady basement bar at the side of the Grand Union canal in Birmingham, stamping ground for thieves, gangsters and conmen – plus some of the city’s more glamorous creatures. Blue-skinned Nathan, a hardknock tattooist, refuses to pay Crawford’s protection racket. Nearby, a refugee from Middle Eastern wars finds a body hanging from a lamppost and becomes entangled with a goodtime girl called Veronica and an apartment decorated with abstract art. Roles get reversed, debts get claimed and colours collide – while two would-be Andy Warhols make away with incriminating evidence.

These stories revolve around the Little Moscow bar in subtle, surprising ways to form a powerfully impressionistic whole. Scully brings a literary virtuosity to the landscapes of urban realism, fueling a noir mythology with dreams of power, riches and sex. This auspicious collection draws darkly criminal tales from a modern city’s mix of cultures.

If you can’t find it in our local book emporiums Amazon have it at 20% off.

Hat tip to the permalink-free Birmingham Words.

Fifteen artists are featured so far and you can track new additions to the site with this RSS feed. Here’s a piece by Amera Mussa, a Finnish illustrator based currently in Birmingham.