The Birmingham Book Festival starts 1 October with a programme of events that will cover fiction, non-fiction and poetry, as well as a series of workshops and seminars. The festival ends on 24 October.
There’s a few big names listed in the festival diary – the ones that stand out for me are Mark Thomas, Will Self and Kate Adie.
For local interest, there’s the first public performance by Birmingham’s 13th Poet Laureate and 4th Young Poet Laureate and a talk from Catherine O’Flynn. There’s quite possibly a lot more local involvement but, semi-literate philistine that I am, I’m not sure who to give a shout to.
Something I like very much about the festival’s website is the way they’ve split up the listings in the left-hand sidebar into different categories, throwing in a wild-card ‘Something Different‘ category too – that’s useful for someone like myself who might want to try something out but might not know what to go for.
Speaking of bookishness, the Lichfield Literature Weekend, a spin-off from the Lichfield Festival, will be held mainly at The George Hotel, Lichfield starting with a literary dinner on 26 September with two guest authors – Gaynor Arnold (whose ‘Girl in a Bue Dress’ from Tindal Street Press is Booker Prize longlisted) and Stephen Robinson.
I know next to nothing of the Birmingham literary scene but I’d imagine that David Edgar in conversation with Michael Frayn would appeal locally.
Ah yes, David Edgar’s a Brummie isn’t he.
And I didn’t see Michael Frayn in there. I’m reading Spies at the moment (and have been for months – must get back to it).
There’s a lot to appeal, both for local and international authors…former poet laureate Roz Goddard explores the poetic process on the 8th October, Harriet Lamb (Director of Fairtrade) talks global Fairtrade on the 9th, Mark Thomas takes on Coca Cola (and wins?) on the 14th, Bronwen Maddox (Chief Foreign Commentator for The Times) responds with a Defense of America (intriguing!) on the 15th, the fantastic Annamation http://www.annamation.co.uk explore the power of words through physical comedy and poetic storytelling on the 15th, Kenan Malik argues why both sides are wrong in the race debate on the 16th whilst Will Self explores the crepescular world of decadence and denial and for people who like to show off there’s The Write Offs! on the 16th a Never Mind the Baudelaires-style gameshow quiz…
Anf if you really like thinking about the universe theres the philospher Ray Tallis talking about metaphysics The Kingdom of Infinite Space on the 22nd and the renowned philosopher AC Grayling talking about the meaning of reading in a subversive, specially commisioned lecture on the 23rd..
Oh and for those who like Louis de Bernieres (Of Captain Corelli fame..) he’s doing a very different literary event on the 22nd which explores the relationship between music and writing. With some lovely live music to accompany..
And thats just a few..
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