Now in its 14th edition, Birmingham Book Festival will be kicking off this year with a bevy of shindigs, including  all night writing sessions, pop-up book shops and workshops; spanning everything from blogging in Libya to a session on finding your own Narrative voice by local print house Tindal Street Press.

The main festival gets things rolling on the 29th September, with a Launch Party on the 4th October, that has associated and Fringe events taking place all the way up to the 13th October.  There is so much happening, that you really are best to check out the programme or their Twitter feed.

…but in my opinion, the unparalleled option to keep abreast of the fest, is to download their app! iPhone and iPad only at present, the app will give you maps, listings and news to your device. Pretty nifty.

Speakers include Sarah Ballard, literary agent whose clients include Julian Barnes and Blake Morrison, Catheryn Kilgarriff of independent publishers Marion Boyars, and Luke Brown of Birmingham based Tindal St Press. Performers include poets from Nine Arches, Dan Holloway of Year Zero Writers, and stand-up philosopher Matthew Hammond.

Tickets here and more info here.

It’s difficult to say. Especially given the research I’ve done for this piece. One thing’s certain though: that’s the introduction out of the way. So. Maybe now we can get to the point. And a giddy, feel-good, non-critical point it is too…

There’s a real slobbery bounce about the Birmingham literary scene at the mo, but a balance of vitamins and minerals as well. This spring we have news of everything from the latest release of an internationally renowned Brummie author to the ongoing investment in our creative future.

I’ll start with the former and a writer who – as a nominally ‘genre’ novelist – you may not have encountered. Roger Ellory lives in Yardley and when he was a teenager he was sent to jail for poaching. He wrote twenty-three novels before he sold his first; now he can’t stop bagging French crime-writing awards. His new book is due soon in paperback.

If you prefer murder to homicide – and a considerably more sober author biog to boot – the ever-dependable independent player Tindal Street Press present the first in a new series from former ‘young adult’ author David Belbin. You can read an extract here: http://www.tindalstreet.co.uk/news/sneak-peak-of-crime-novel-bone-and-cane

‘Fiction reveals truths that reality obscures’ said Jessamyn West, Quaker author and cousin of Richard Nixon. And if you think that’s bobbins, then you may be interested in what Candi Miller has to say on the matter. The author of ‘Salt and Honey’ opens Birmingham Book Festival’s Spring Thing on 9th April with a workshop that looks at ‘Truth, Lies and life Writing’. The Festival’s ongoing work includes the Write On! initiative, taking place in schools across the region; among the writers involved is adopted Brummie Helen Cross, who wrote ‘My Summer of Love’ and ‘Spilt Milk, Black Coffee’ and claims to find her inspiration on West Midlands Travel buses.

A bit prosaic? Then I’ll finish with Kings-Heath based author Andrew Killeen. His novels revisit and reinterpret Persian myths. His second is due out in August and I defy you to read its opening and not start counting the days:

I have a story to tell you. It is a tale of adventure, of love, and deception, of destiny and death. It is a tale of kings, and emperors, and of beautiful princesses; but also of poets, pirates, and priests. It is a story to entertain and instruct, to stir the blood, to inflame the senses, to dizzy the mind and rouse the soul…

—————

By Charlie Hill

Charlie Hill lives and works in Kings Heath. His first novel – The Space Between Things – is set in Moseley. www.charliehill.org.uk

Pete took a break from the CiB Shop to give an update 2 weeks in, The Photography Collective formed and held their first meeting and We Are Eastside launched linking up Eastside’s creative organisations. Project Brutal was announced too.

The Bulls Head shared a few mixes from some of their guests and residents, Tindal Street released Alan Apperley’s Indeterminate Creatures, we had a look at As One’s work (as it seemed to be springing up all over the place) and Juice Aleem asked us to rock his hologram, with the video being filmed at Boxxed.

They’ve just had a couple of books nominated for The People’s Book Prize too:

• Among Thieves by Mez Packer
• Box of Tricks by Jeff Phelps

You can vote for them if you want or, perhaps even better, buy copies of either book – it’s not long til Christmas, after all…

This sort of thing’s getting to be old hat for Tindal Street Press, who had Catherine O’Flynn’s ‘What Was Lost’ longlisted last year.  Gaynor Arnold, on the other hand, has spent the past 40 years or so working as a social worker in Birmingham and took five years to write the novel.

Of course you may already be aware of all this – the Birmingham Post picked up on it first and the Custard Factory blog and BiNS both mentioned it.  Also, The Times have a short interview with Gaynor and the Guardian have also run a rather flattering piece entitled ‘Why Birmingham rules the literary roost‘.