Extra! Extra! Nottingham Festival of Literature news

Extra! Extra! Read all about the Nottingham Festival of Literature!

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Spectacular literature in the Nottingham spotlight this November!

Hot on the heels of Bonfire Night, Nottingham Festival of Literature will light up the literary skies and fire our imaginations with a programme of inspiring book readings, launches, writing workshops, talks and events from the 8th to the 13th November.

Formerly the Festival of Words, Nottingham Festival of Literature in the UNESCO City of Literature promises to become a key event in the UK's literary calendar with poets, writers, publishers, bloggers and critics coming from across the globe to be a part of its programme.

Writing East Midlands is delighted and proud to continue to be a key partner in the festival's development, and this newsletter is dedicated to helping spread the word about what's on offer.

With a focus on international writing and inspired by both the values set out by the UNESCO City of Literature and by concerns relevant to a modern, diverse city, the Festival will stage conversations that explore inclusivity, displacement, alienation and ‘otherness’. Highlights include Amit Chaudauri, Katherine Quarmby, Michael Symmons Roberts & Alison Moore, Jack Munroe, Gillian Slovo and many more. Scroll down for information on a selection of events and activities OR click on the button to download a PDF of the full programme.

Download a PDF programme

Special Offer for Writing East Midland's Newsletter Subscribers

The lovely people at Nottingham Festival of Literature have very kindly offered our newsletter subscribers a 'buy one, get one half price' ticket offer on An Evening with Amit Chaudhuri and John Agard's Roll Over Atlantic.

It's a mix and match offer, so you can buy one ticket for Amit Chaudhuri and get John 's half price (or vice versa) OR you can buy a ticket to either event for yourself and treat a friend to a half price ticket (tell them to get the drinks in!). To take advantage of the offer, just buy your first ticket then enter the code WEM_Discount at the checkout. This should then allow you to buy your second ticket at half price! Visit the Festival's website to buy your tickets today nottsfol.co.uk. (If you have any problems, please do get in touch directly with the Festival on nottsfol.co.uk/contact.)

An Evening With Amit Chaudhuri

12th Nov 7:30 - 9:30 pm
St Mary’s Church,
High Pavement,
Lace Market, NG1 1HN
£8.95 - £10.95

Amit Chaudhuri is one of India’s most highly regarded literary fiction writers. He is the author of six novels, the latest of which is Odysseus Abroad. He is also a critic, musician and composer. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Awards for his fiction include the Commonwealth Writers Prize, the Betty Trask Prize, the Encore Prize, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Fiction, and the Sahitya Akademi Award. In 2013, he was awarded the first Infosys Prize in the Humanities for outstanding contribution to literary studies. He is Professor of Contemporary Literature at the University of East Anglia.

BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE (and take advantage of our subscriber Special Offer).

John Agard's one-man show Roll Over Atlantic

Wednesday, 9th Nov @ 8:00 pm - 9:30 pm at Nottingham Arts Theatre,
12 George Street, NG1 3BE £8.95 - £10.95

"A fantastical, fanatical historic voyage that still bears relevance to contemporary issues.." – 3AM MAGAZINE

Join Caribbean-British poet, John Agard on a quirky re-visioning of the notorious New World Enterprise of Christopher Columbus. One of Britain’s foremost cross-cultural voices and winner of the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, Agard is well-known for his enthralling performances. Here, he takes on the voices of Columbus, The Atlantic, and a chorus of politically-conscious mosquitoes in an entertaining voyage in verse. Directed by Mark C. Hewitt, musical backing by Thomas Arnold, and produced by Crosspath Theatre in association with Tilt, this is a one-person show that mixes the tides of cabaret and calypso with mischievous satirical wit. BOOK YOUR TICKET NOW (and take advantage of our subscriber Special Offer).

Brave, bitchy, sexy, horrifying, heartbreaking and surprisingly modern!

Ovid’s Heroines With Clare Pollard
10th Nov, 6:30 pm - 8 pm. Old Chemistry Theatre – Nottingham Conference Centre, NG1 4BU. £8.95 - £10.95

Ovid’s Heroines, written around 20BC, is a series of letter-poems in the voices of women from Greek and Roman myth. Women – including Medea, Penelope and Ariadne – address the men they love. Poet Clare Pollard’s new free verse translation rediscovers Ovid’s Heroines, bringing to life a cast of women who are brave, bitchy, sexy, horrifying, heartbreaking and surprisingly modern. Jaybird Live Literature brings the Heroines to the stage in a new live literature production. Clare reads, recites and performs her astonishing poems against a backdrop of Mediterranean music. Love letters fly back and forth between the ancient world and modern Britain – the messages of longing, suffering and beauty they bear are universal and timeless. BOOK YOUR PLACE NOW.

More Workshops and Events to inspire you!

Writing Workshops

After Dark Writing Workshop: Giving Up Your Ghost
With Megan Taylor
8th Nov, 6:30 - 8:30 pm at Galleries of Justice Museum
High Pavement, NG1. £24.95 - £28.95
Join us at the gloriously ghoulish Galleries of Justice for an evening of eerie writing, where we’ll unearth your spine-tingling stories through fun and practical exercises – exploring settings, atmosphere and shivering suspense.
Megan Taylor is the author of three novels, How We Were Lost, The Dawning, and The Lives of Ghosts. She is a tutor for Writing School East Midlands.
BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE.

Writing Across The Meridian Line
With Wayne Burrows
8th Nov, 2 - 4 pm at Bromley House Library, Angel Row, NG1 6HL
£24.95 - £28.95
Bromley House Library houses one of very few surviving brass Meridian Lines, created to establish precise time-keeping for the city. Participants will explore time as a subject in poetry, from linear measurements, to endless cosmic nights of creation mythology and the seasonal cycles of English folk songs.
Wayne Burrows is a poet and tutor for Writing School East Midlands. His most recent book is Eastern Bloc Songs: A Sampler.
BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE.

Where The Bodies Are Buried
With Stephen Booth
10th Nov, 2 - 4 pm at Bromley House Library, Angel Row, NG1 6HL
£24.95 - £28.95
City or country, home or abroad… location is very important to crime fiction readers. This workshop considers the role a sense of place can play in a crime novel, how to choose the right location, and some of the techniques for bringing your setting to life.
Stephen Booth is a best-selling crime writer, four times CWA Dagger shortlisted and Dagger in the Library winner. He is a tutor for Writing School East Midlands.
BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE.

Events

Michael Symmons Roberts & Alison Moore
8th Nov, 8 - 9:15 pm at Lakeside Arts
University of Nottingham, NG7 2RD
£8 - £10
Michael Symmons Roberts’ Selected Poems brings together the best work from six remarkable collections. He has won the Forward Prize, the Costa Poetry Prize and the Whitbread Poetry Award.
Alison Moore’s first novel, The Lighthouse, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Both The Lighthouse and her second novel, He Wants, were Observer Books of the Year.
BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

Kerry Young and Hannah Lowe: In Conversation
8th Nov, 6 - 7:30 pm at Crowne Plaza, Wollaton Street, NG1 5RH
£6.95 - £8.95
Kerry Young and Hannah Lowe read fiction and poems on memory, migration and the lives of the Caribbean-British diaspora. Kerry Young’s new novel Show Me A Mountain is part of a trilogy including Gloria and Costa Prize-shortlisted Pao. Hannah Lowe reads from her new poetry collection Chan, following her Forward Prize-shortlisted debut Chick.
BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

Jack Monroe: Queer, Austere & Here
13^th Nov 4 - 5:30 pm at
Nottingham Playhouse
Wellington Circus. NG1 5AF. £8.95 - £10.95
Jack Monroe is one of our most fearless and powerful voices. Coming to our attention for conquering austerity through inventive budget-cooking and blogging, Jack Monroe has become so much more to us than a food writer. Recently coming out as transgender and non-binary, Jack has broken moulds.
BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

This is only a very small selection of the fantastic events and workshops taking place. To find out what else is happening, visit the website or download a PDF of the programme.

Download a PDF programme

The Culture of Welcome: Writers Working with Refugees

13th Nov 4:30pm - 6pm at Nottingham Writers’ Studio, 25 Hockley, NG1 1FP.

It is difficult to turn on the news without seeing images of desperate people taking desperate measures to reach safe shores. Nottingham has a long history of welcoming newly arrived people, adapting itself to them while changing them to be more like it.

Writing East Midlands’ project Write Here!: Sanctuary is an attempt to extend this culture of welcome through literature, listening to people whose voices have been lost somewhere between the immigration debate and Brexit.

Join writers Rich Goodson, Victoria Mponde, Henderson Mullin and others to hear how sharing stories can change minds.

FREE EVENT. BOOK YOUR PLACE HERE

Omar Hazek: Virtual Writer in Residence. Crowdfunding Campaign.

The Festival is running a crowdfunding campaign to help and secure writer and campaigner for freedom of expression Omar Hazek as their Virtual Writer in Residence.

Omar has published two novels and poetry in English and Arabic. After being imprisoned for peacefully protesting in solidarity with the family of a man killed in police custody, Omar was awarded the PEN International and Oxfam Novib Award for Freedom of Expression but was refused permission to travel to the Netherlands to accept the award.

In association with English PEN, Nottingham Festival of Literature wants to welcome Omar as the festival’s Virtual Writer in Residence; to welcome him to the city even though he cannot travel here.

Support the crowdfunding campaign HERE.

Only a few places left!

The Writer's Den, Writing East Midland's flagship creative writing retreat for young writers between the ages of 9-14 years old, will be visiting the Nottingham Festival of Literature for one day only on Sunday 13th November. Young writers will take part in exciting fiction and poetry writing workshops led by professional writers and enjoy performances and readings by featured artists. Confirmed authors include bestselling children’s writer Andy Cope, and fiction and screenwriter Niki Valentine.

We have only a few places left for 12-14 year olds. The 9-11 yr olds places are now sold out. The Writer's Den costs £15.00 . Register your young writer today. http://www.writingeastmidlands.co.uk/young-writers/writers-den/

Competition Time!

NottsFol is running 3 competitions to win Festival Passes.

With access to all of events (excluding the Festival Workshops, the Libraries' 13th Annual Readers' Day & The Writer's Den), this is a fantastic opportunity to fill up your festival diaries for free!

To enter for a chance to win these great prizes all you need to do is choose your platform (Facebook, Instagram or NottsFol Website) then follow the instrustions.

On Facebook:
1. LOG IN
2. LIKE the post on www.facebook.com/NottinghamFestivalOfLiterature
3. SHARE it on your wall.
4. REGISTER for the Festival newsletter via the Email Signup tab, or on NottFol's website.
5. COMMENT & TAG the name of a friend for the second pass.
Winners will be announced Friday 28th October, so good luck!

On Instagram:
If Instagram's more to your taste then get snapping because the Festival's giving away x2 Festival Passes for the best two photos of someone reading a book (written by an author appearing at the Festival) in a strange place! You must include the hashtag #NFOL2016 and tag NottsFol in the photograph. https://www.instagram.com/nottsfol/ The winners will be chosen Friday 4th of November, happy snapping.

Online:
But if you're not a social media fan, NottsFol is running a third competition - yes, a third one! - on their website at https://nottsfol.co.uk/win-x2-festival-passes Winners for this prize will also be announced on 4th November so make sure to check your inbox – good luck!

Download a PDF programme

FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT WRITING EAST MIDLANDS PARTNERSHIPS, VISIT OUR WEBSITE AT www.writingeastmidlands.co.uk

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