On 5 March it’s World Book Night, and as the nation prepare to give away 1 million books, Birmingham Central Library and The Birmingham Poetry Ultras are holding a couple of celebratory events, with a line up of writers, storytellers and poets.

Birmingham Central Library

From 6.30pm – 8.45pm, at Birmingham Library Theatre, three of the city’s best-selling writers RJ Ellory, Mike Gayle and Catherine O’Flynn will be joining readers and book givers to celebrate books, libraries and reading.

Free tickets for this are available from the Box Office on (0121) 303 2323 or from Central Library reception.

Saturday Night Reader then takes outside Central Library place from 9 – 10pm, as literary fans are invited to join Birmingham Poet Laureate, Roy McFarlane, former Young Poet Laureate Matt Windle, storyteller Katrice Horsley, and local writer Paul McDonald for an hour of rambunctious storytelling, poetry, laughs and free books.

Birmingham Poetry Ultras

Hosting an evening of poetry appreciation and discussion, Birmingham Poetry Ultras will be in The Old Moseley Arms, Balsall Heath, from 8pm.

They’ll also be giving out free copies of their selected book, Seamus Heaney’s “New Selected Poems 1966-1987”, on a first come first served basis.

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.

Coinciding with the late openings is a series of talks called ‘These are a few of my favourite things’ which will be

loosely based on Desert Island Discs where speakers will present their eight most memorable artistic experiences illustrated by a slide show

The schedule for those is:

• 4 June – David Bintley, Director of Birmingham Royal Ballet
• 18 June – Sadie Plant, writer
• 25 June – Ian Francis, 7 Inch Cinema
• 9 July – Catherine O’Flynn, author

The talks start at 6.30pm and places are free, although they need to be booked in advance on 0121 248 0708.

• 28 May – Martin Bell will speak about his new book ‘The Truth That Sticks’
• 12 June – Prof Robert Knecht, esteemed historian, will introduce his book ‘The French Renaissance Court’
• 2 July – Catherine O’Flynn award-winning local author of ‘What Was Lost’ (due to be turned into a film, reports The Stirrer) will read from the book and sign copies.

They’ve got a reading group too, and the staff in there have always been lovely and helpful. I can’t help thinking that a little blog to promote and record these events, recommend new books and generally help tie themselves into their community might be a good idea.

If you know of any independent book shops doing interesting events (preferably with some sort of interweb link) then give them a mention in the comments.